C. Auguste Dupin Collection (Illustrated): The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter

Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his poetry ("Quoth the raven...") and his tales of the macabre. But he has a lesser-known claim to fame -- the prototypical detective stories, predating Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Though only three stories about C. Auguste Dupin were written, the "C. Auguste Dupin Collection" compiles all three of them, with their baffling answers and armchair detection. These weren't the first detective tales, but they set the mold for the mysteries that followed -- strange, atmospheric, and crawling with elaborate clues and odd logical deductions.We're introduced to Dupin through his pal/roommate, in "Murders in the Rue Morgue." He's impoverished but of an old family, and lives in a crumbling, gothic mansion full of his books. But his mind is sharper than anyone around him, based on the logical process of "ratiocination." Simply put, deduction through rational thought.In this first mystery, Dupin learns of a bizarre mystery, where an apartment was found almost destroyed but nothing was stolen. An old lady is found outside with her head hacked off with a razor, and her daughter is found throttled and stuffed upside-down in a chimney, with locks of her hair pulled out. No motive, and no suspects. The police are baffled -- but Dupin isn't.Based on a real crime, "The Mystery of Marie Roget" opens with the death of a popular young woman, who is later found floating in the river. By reading different newspaper reports, Dupin chronicles the peculiarities of the crime, and debunks the many assumptions that were made about the crime -- how many assailants, where, when, and so on."The Purloined Letter" has a somewhat less gruesome crime. The prefect of police is meeting with Dupin, with a very important matter to discuss -- a compromising letter of the Queen's was stolen in front of her eyes, and now the Minister is blackmailing her with it. The police have searched the Minister's apartment from top to bottom, but there's no sign of the letter. Only Dupin knows where to find it.These stories are are not only the undervalued roots of modern detective fiction, but staggeringly good stories as well. Poe -- who reportedly made Dupin the sort of logical, cool person he wanted to be -- crammed a whole novel's worth of detecting into each short story, and made even the weirdest answers (the ending of the first story is likely to make you do a double-take and mumble, "What the...?") seem plausible.Unlike Poe's other works, these are made up mostly of deduction and dialogue, though Poe does get in some wonderful lines about the shared mansion ("... in a style which suited the rather fantastic gloom of our common temper, a time-eaten and grotesque mansion"). And while the dialogue seems rather dry at first, as it unfolds, the intricacies of each bizarre plot become clear.You could say that the one flaw of these stories is that they don't offer much insight into the characters. We don't know much about Dupin, except that he's an impoverished, well-educated nobleman with a vast collection of books and a brain second to none. But the stories are really about Dupin's logical deductions rather than the character himself, and how any baffling case could be solved if you just had enough clues and a clear head.This particular edition also maintains a number of illustrations, such as the unnervingly complicated, dreamlike elegance of Harry Clarke, the stark black-and-white cartoons of Harry Beardsley, the more realistic approach of David Vierge and F. S. Coburn, and a few other pictures which did not have accompanying credits.The "C. Auguste Dupin Collection," collecting all three stories together, are a remarkable work of detective fiction, and are among Poe's best -- and most underrated -- works of fiction. Definitely a must-read.

Poe is known as the father of detective fiction based on these short stories. The characters he created, Dupin and his doctor friend, are also know to be the inspiration for a more famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson Although the stories are included in other collections, it's nice to have in a separate collection for when you don't feel like searching a huge volume for just these three stories. BTW If you find the language hard to get through, I recommend reading the last story first. It's the shortest of the 3.

The "collection" is one book. That's the only reason for 3 stars. Its a paperback of awkward size. Obviously the three stories are gold but if you wanted 3 separate books you won't get that. I've included a photo with a standard paperback for comparison. Maybe I was just easily fooled by the cover photo.

A story of savage murder without motive. A story of a murder that parallels one from another country and might be its answer. A story of a letter a letter of political power.C. Augustine Dupin the model for Sherlock Holmes of 221-B Baker Street who lives in France, but was created from the tormented genius of Edgar Allen Poe long before Conan Doyle thought of "Dear Sherlock".

Poe is not my favorite author but this collection was perfect for my needs.

I had no idea that decades before Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allan Poe was writing detective novels and stories. Heck, it seems that he even created the detective story featuring his genius French criminologist, C. Auguste Dupin.This Poe collection is a wonderful find for Poe lovers everywhere, complete with original illustrations too. So glad I found it!

Dupin, the precursor to the British Sherlock Holmes, in these short stories written by brilliant American writer E. A. Poe. If only he had written more of these stories, Poe might have had more success as a writer. Too bad we lost him at such a young age!

I expect an actual book like in the picture. Would give it less stars, but the actual content is good and it was a cheap buy.

[Spoiler alert]What was that? I started reading it an was lost within the first few minutes. The author goes into a convoluted and boring intro by which he tries to distinguish analysis from intellect using chess and draughts. He then plunges into the story which starts quite nicely admittedly by a brief intro to the characters, but from then on it is all downhill. Without properly establishing his characters the author starts what should be an interesting story with a long, drawn out and boring explanation of an entire murder scene from the perspective of a newspaper article, and he assumes I didn't get bored half way through the articles or lose track of his lengthy descriptions, without barely a break in the text and plunges onwards with seemly endless pages and pages of unbroken dialogue.This story was empty of emotion, the characters were bland, the plot was predictable and pointlessly convoluted. The language used to write this is impossible to follow unless you're used to reading Shakespeare and it dragged on for far too long.Murder mysteries are supposed to be exciting and interesting and this was certainly not.All in all a big disappointment.Don't waste your time on this. It isn't worth the effort.

Wow, what a great collection. Edgar Allan Poe was one of the great authors of his time and redoubtably invented the whole genre of detective novels. He was famously quoted by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed.... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?".To find three of his Detective Dupin novels in one set is quite a find and will appeal not only to detective fans but also history buffs. Recommended.

but I struggled through it. Not as impressive as I had hoped...

It's truly wonderful to have these books together - apparent pioneers of the mystery novel. It's been packaged so well and so lovingly, with such wonderful illustrations throughout. It's always good to discover more stories from Poe. You can't argue with the writing... this is extraordinary value for money. Great job.

have not read it yet but look coole na di am sure that once I have read it I will b ever smarter!