Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin Mysteries

273 Pages·2008·7.75 MB·English

by  Richard Kopley

Edgar Allan Poe and the
Dupin Mysteries
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Edgar Allan Poe and the
Dupin Mysteries
Richard Kopley
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EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE DUPIN MYSTERIES
Copyright © Richard Kopley, 2008.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2008 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN-13: 978–0–230–60470–4
ISBN-10: 0–230–60470–6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: November 2008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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For Richard Wilbur
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C
ONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
I Formal Considerations of the Dupin Tales 7
II “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and
The Philadelphia Saturday News 27
III “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” and
“Various Newspaper Files” 45
IV “The Purloined Letter” and
Death-Bed Confessions 65
V Autobiographical Considerations
of the Dupin Tales 77
Conclusion 87
Notes 91
Works Cited 119
The Murders in the Rue Morgue 141
The Mystery of Marie Roget 183
The Purloined Letter 235
Index 255
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A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ia m happy to thank the Penn State administrators who have
directly and indirectly supported this project: John J. Romano,
Vice President of Penn State Commonwealth Campuses;
Sandra E. Gleason, Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, Penn
State University College; Raymond E. Lombra, Associate Dean for
Administration and Research, College of the Liberal Arts, Penn State;
Robin Schulze, Head, Department of English, Penn State; Robert L.
Caserio Jr., former Head, Department of English, Penn State; Anita
D. McDonald, Chancellor, Penn State DuBois; Mary-Beth Krogh-
Jespersen, Chancellor, Penn State Worthington Scranton; Maureen
Horan and Mary Mino, Co-Interim Directors of Academic Affairs,
Penn State DuBois; and Robert E. Loeb, former Director of Academic
Affairs, Penn State DuBois. Important support was provided also by
James L. West III, Director of Penn State’s Center for the History
of the Book, and Hester Blum, Director of Penn State’s Center for
American Literary Studies.
I am pleased to express my appreciation, as well, to the libraries
where I conducted research for this book, including the New York
Public Library (and its Rare Books Division and its Science, Industry,
and Business Library); the New-York Historical Society library; the
New York Society Library; the Library of Congress; the American
Antiquarian Society library; Butler Library of Columbia University;
the library of the Historical Society of Moorestown (NJ); the library
of Christ Church, Riverton (NJ); the Pattee/Paterno Library of Penn
State; the Holland/New Library of Washington State University; and
the Colindale Branch of the British Public Library. I am also grateful to
Whitlock Farm Booksellers, where I found Death-Bed Confessions.
For permission to publish “Edgar Allan Poe and The Philadelphia
Saturday News” (1991), now lightly revised, as chapter II of this book,
I am pleased to thank Jeffrey A. Savoye, Secretary/Treasurer of the
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