The Purloined Letter

[Shea]

I have to lead the class discussion on this story by Poe. Aside from my own research, I'd like to get everyone's opinions about this story. I had a hard time following it because it was so wordy, but I did like the attention to detail (after all it's a detective story). What I found most interesting, was the case itself and how you knew the thief, how he did it, and why, the mystery was where. Are there any other detective stories like this (I've only read a few of Doyle's)?

[Blackadder]

There's also "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Murder of Mary Roget" that feature Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin. Supposedly, he's the first detective in literature. Holmes really does follow in his pattern (i.e. deductive detection)--though Holmes is more scientific, I think, rather than psychological.

Wilkie Collins is another nineteenth century detective mystery writer. I haven't read him, though, so I don't know how good he is. Although, I do know that he was really popular at the time.

[Shea]

Not trying to give the plot away, despite the gruesome murders, I found the Murders in the Rue Morgue to be rather comical because of the killer.

I researched the French phrase at the end of the Purloined Letter, "If such a sinister design isn't worthy of Atreus, it is worthy of Thyestes." Atreus and Thyestes were Greek brothers. Thyestes seduced Atreus' wife and during the affair, she gave him his golden lamb which was the symbol of Atreus' power. To get back at him, Atreus killed most of his brothers children, cooked them, and served them to Thyestes, :o only telling him about it after.

Aside from the affair and maybe the vengence, I can't put much from the phrase to the story. Does anyone else have any other insight?

And what is meant by "They are to be found in Crebillon's 'Atree'"? I couldn't find anything about that. :-?

[Blackadder]

A quick Google search leads me to believe the Crebillon is an eighteenth century French writer who retold Classical stories and had a rivalry with Voltaire. The book Poe may be referring to is Atree et Thieste. And the way he phrased it, it probably means that this book was his source for the story.

As for what the whole thing means, I'm going to have to go back and reread the story.

[Shea]

Hey thanks! Now I wish that I was familiar with Crebillon, but I'm sure my instructor (who amazingly knows absolutely everything) will be familiar. By any chance, can you direct me to where you got your info? I hear 'google search' all the time, but :oops: I'm not exactly sure what it means :oops: .

[Blackadder]

What I did was I went to Google.com, typed 'Crebillon Atree' and hit enter. I think it was four hits down, and the page where I got the info was titled 98.04.23. I clicked the cached link, so that Google would highlight my search terms on the page. I scrolled down 'till I saw Atree and there it was. Some of the hits returned mentioned "The Puroined Letter" but at the time I was just going for quick and dirty.

Does that help?

Oh, and just for clarification, Google.com is a huge search engine that just about everyone I know uses to find information on the Web. Here's the link: www.google.com