The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe | Introduction, Information, Summary, Critical Comments, and Conclusion -- englit.in

1) Introduction

"The Purloined Letter" is a short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe. It is the third of his three detective stories featuring the fictional C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt." This story first appeared in "The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1845", published in December 1844 in Philadelphia by Carey and Hart. Poe earned $12 for its first printing. It later was included in the 1845 collection Tales by Edgar A. Poe.

2) Summary

The unnamed narrator is with the famous Parisian amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin when they are joined by G—, the prefect of the Paris police. G— brings to Dupin's attention the theft from the queen's royal boudoir of a letter addressed to her. A month later, the police still have nothing to show for their efforts, and a frustrated G— declares that he would pay 50,000 francs to anyone who can help find the letter. Dupin tells G— to write him a check for that amount; once he has done so, Dupin produces the letter from a writing-desk, and an overjoyed G— races away to return it to the queen. Dupin took the letter and replaced it with a duplicate he had prepared. Dupin chose not to attempt to seize the letter openly for fear that D— would have had him killed. As he both supports the queen politically and bears an old grudge against D—, he hopes that D— will try to use the duplicate in his blackmail scheme and thus bring about his own downfall. Dupin had written a quotation from Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon's play *Atrée et Thyeste* that implies he took the original: *Un dessein si funeste, / S'il n'est digne d'Atrée, est digne de Thyeste* ("If such a sinister design is not worthy of Atreus, it is worthy of Thyestes").

3) Theme

Dupin is not a professional detective. In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Dupin takes the case for amusement and refuses a financial reward. Dupin wins because of his moral strength: the minister is "unprincipled," a blackmailer who obtains power by exploiting the weakness of others. French linguist Jean-Claude Milner suggests Dupin and D— are brothers, based on the final reference to Atreus and his twin brother Thyestes. In May 1844, just before its first publication, Poe wrote to James Russell Lowell that he considered "The Purloined Letter" "perhaps the best of my tales of ratiocination." When it was republished in "The Gift" in 1845, the editor called it "one of the aptest illustrations which could well be conceived of that curious play of two minds in one person."

4) Critical Comments

Jacques Derrida responded to Lacan's reading in "Le Facteur de la vérité" ("The Purveyor of Truth"), questioning Lacan's structuralist assumptions. Lacan's structuralist reading and Derrida's deconstructive reading provoked a response by Barbara Johnson, who mediated the debate by suggesting that the letter belongs all along to the queen as a substitute for a phallus. The debate up to the mid-1980s is collected in a helpful though incomplete volume titled "The Purloined Poe". The volume does not include, for instance, Richard Hull's reading based on the work of Michel Foucault, in which he argues that "'The Purloined Letter' is a good text for questioning the metalinguistic claim that artists can't avoid doing surveillance, because it is a discourse on poetry's superiority over surveillance." Hollis Robbins critiques Derrida for his own blindness to patriotism in prefacing his reading of "The Purloined Letter" with a reading of "The Emperor's New Clothes": "In Derrida's view, both Poe's story and Andersen's feature a king whose manhood is imperiled, who is surrounded by habit-driven and ineffectual civil servants, and who is saved by an individual who sees what is obvious. ... Both save the crown from further embarrassment. ... There is never a question that a king could or should fall from grace."

5) Textual Reference

In a small room in Paris, an unnamed narrator, who also narrates “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” sits quietly with his friend, C. Auguste Dupin. Monsieur G——, the prefect of the Paris police, arrives, having decided to consult Dupin again. Minister D——, an important government official, possesses a great deal of power over the lady. According to the prefect, a young lady possessed the letter, which contains information that could harm a powerful individual. The prefect mentions that he is willing to search long and hard because the reward offered in the case is so generous. Dupin suggests that the police search again. The prefect says that he will pay 50,000 francs to anyone who obtains the letter for him. Dupin tells him to write a check for that amount on the spot. Dupin argues that the Paris police do not use this strategy and therefore could not find the letter: the police think only to look for a letter in places where they themselves might hide it. Amateurs, says Dupin, pick the names with the smallest letters. According to Dupin’s logic, the hardest names to find are actually those that stretch broadly across the map because they are so obvious. With this game in mind, Dupin recounts the visit he made to the Minister’s apartment. Dupin remarks that the Minister once wronged him in Vienna and that he has pledged not to forget the insult. Inside the fake letter, Dupin inscribes a French poem that translates into English, “So baneful a scheme, if not worthy of Atreus, is worthy of Thyestes.” Dupin promises, after the Minister offends him in Vienna, arguably derives from their threatening similarity. In the French dramatist Crébillon’s early-eighteenth-century tragedy "Atrée et Thyeste" (or "Atreus and Thyestes"), Thyestes seduces the wife of his brother, Atreus.

6) Conclusion

"The Purloined Letter" showcases Poe's mastery in the detective genre, with C. Auguste Dupin demonstrating his analytical prowess and moral fortitude. The story's intricate plot, combined with its underlying themes and critical interpretations, make it a rich subject for analysis and reflection.