photo: Mysteries Ahoy!
Major characters:
- Mlle. Marie Roget, the victim
- M. Jacques St. Eustache, her fiancée
- M. Beauvois, believed to be her formersuitor
- M. LeBlanc, perfumer
- Mme. Dulac, innkeeper
- C. Auguste Dupin, investigator
Locale: Paris
Synopsis: This story is based upon the real-life murder of Mary Cecelia Rogers in New York City. Poe has taken newspaper accounts of this crime, and transplanted the details into a fictional parallel story set in Paris. Each person and news source is carefully cited in footnotes, for example "Rue Pavée Saint Andrée" is footnoted as "Nassau Street" (in Manhattan, from the original accounts).
Mlle. Marie Roget goes missing from her job in M. LeBlanc's perfumer's shop, and after a few days her body is found floating in the Seine. Although there is some doubt as to the identity of the body, it is identified by her former suitor, M. Beauvais. Her fiancée, M. Jacques St. Eustache, is overcome by grief and takes poison. Later, a group of boys discover some of her clothing, possessions, and evidence of a struggle in a thicket near the inn of Mme. Dulac.
Dupin's unnamed narrator collects five newspaper accounts of the crime, full of assertions and guesswork, but little in the way of facts. Dupin analyzes the five accounts, and without leaving his apartment, determines how the murder was done, and narrows down the suspects.
Review: This is an intriguing short story, best read slowly and carefully. It is billed as the "sequel to The Murders in the Rue Morgue", but only in the sense that it is the second story by Poe featuring C. Auguste Dupin. There are no orangutans.
It is fascinating to observe Dupin as he carefully compares the newspaper accounts - some contradictory - and uses logic to discard false assumptions and build the true story of events. Dupin stops short of naming the murderer, but does pinpoint his occupation and whereabouts.
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