Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe A creator of detective stories. Psychological aspects of investigation in his stories By Ilya Ershov Arkhangelsk 2001 PLAN 1. Introduction 2. Brief biography 3. His works 4. Gold Bug, The murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter 5. Conclusion Edgar Allan Poe, outstanding romantic poet, critic, romancer and short story writer, was one of the first

professional writers of the United States. He had a rare talent and in France and Russia of his days he was considered to be the only American poet of significance. Edgar Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts in the poor family of second-rate actors. Both his parents died when the boy was two and he was brought up by

John Allan, a very rich tradesman from Richmond Virginia. Poe spent a year at Virginia University, a brief period in the US Army and as a cadet at the West Point Military Academy. A quarrel with Allan led him to a separation from his foster father and Poe had to provide for himself. He started writing and at firs published his works in periodicals.

Later they came out in separate editions. Poe s literary activities were various he worked as a journalist, critic, poet, short-story writer, co-editor and editor of different magazines in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere. In 1836 Poe had married very young girl, Virginia Clemm. Their home was very happy, but soon his wife became ill. Edgar grew desperate because she had no money to cure her.

Virginia died in January 1847, when she was only 24. At that time he was working on Eureka. His last poems were The Bells and Annabel Tree. Poe s life ended in strange circumstances it was suspected that he had been given opium and robbed of money. He died in October 7, 1849. Edgar Allan Poe is generally known as a brilliant poet romanticist.

In his lifetime three volumes of his verse were published Tamerlane 1827, Al Aaraaf 1829 and Poems 1831. He is also the author of short stories which first appeared in magazines and were later collected into two volumes Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque and Tales. Crime and mystery had early caught Poe s attention and as a result a new type of tale came into being detective story.

He wrote four detective stories The Gold Bug, The Murders on the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter. These stories are mathematical at their foundation. The author gives at the outset a proposition that has to be proved. Having invented a combination of events he logically follows step by step their development and the

consequence comes with the precision of the solution of mathematical problem. The Gold Bug. The story takes place on the Sullivan s Island. The main heroes of this story are the author and Mr. Legrand who had once been wealthy but a number of circumstances made him poor. Legrand finds a piece of parchment on which it was written about the place where the treasure is hidden.

But it was a ciphered and Legrand analyzing the psychology of pirate easily reads it and finds the hidden treasure. Another detective story Murders in the Rue Morgue the first detective story takes place in Paris in the 19th century. Here the author gets acquainted with Auguste Dupin who came from an excellent family, but a series of sad events made him poor.

A strange murder happens in Paris and Dupin becomes interested in it. He investigates it paying attention to every detail. If the police can do nothing, he achieves a success here and learns that the murderer is a big Ourang-outang. It has run away from its master and has taken a razor with itself. This animal just wanted to shave somebody. The Purloined

Letter is the last best and most interesting tale, and Dupin s explanation is a true manual of detective logic. This story also takes place in Paris and for this time the Prefect of the Parisian police asks Auguste Dupin to help him in the investigation of an interesting crime. One man steals the important letter, which can injure the reputation of a society lady to whom

the letter belongs. The police know who is the thief, but they can t find it at his home using their usual methods. Dupin understands that these methods were done for ordinary people and the thief isn t ordinary one. So he analyses his psychology and makes a conclusion that the letter isn t hidden at all. That is why the police couldn t find it looking for secret places in his house. He goes to him and finds it in a box for visiting cards the letter was given such an appearance that

one might think that it is very old and unimportant. Thus we can see that psychological aspects of investigation are very important in the detective logic. These aspects were the main things on which Dupin has based his conclusions. That s why he is very attractive character for us. We delight in his common sense, wit and optimism.

Dupin was the forerunner of Conan Doyle s Sherlock Holmes. Poe s detective stories gained their author the reputation of the founder of detective fiction, and nowadays he is universally recognized as the creator of detective genre in world literature. He formulated the rules of the short story, in which he sought for the ancient writers the short story should relate a complete action and take place within one day in one place.

Edgar Allan Poe is also remembered as the poet who established a new symbolic poetry. In science fiction he made man to look beyond the conventional world and appreciate the power of his intellect. As a literary critic Poe is the founder of scientific criticism. References 1. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2. E.A.Poe. The Gold Bug M. Firm Reecha, 1996. 99 p. 3.

Гутерман Н.Г Полонская Н.К. Я буду ждать. Книга для чтения на англ. яз. Л Просвещение, 1980. 175 с. 4. Гекер М.Ю и др. Американская литература. М Просвещение, 1978. 255 с.