The Purloined Letter

The Purloined Letter ( original English Title The purloined letter ) is a detective story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1844.

Action

Main character is, as in The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Auguste Dupin. The story is told from the first-person perspective of one of his friends. Dupin is asked by the Paris prefect of police for help in finding a letter, which was a noble lady stolen in blackmail intent. The perpetrator is known, but he can not be arrested because a publication or destruction of the document would cause great harm. A search warrant the police remains without success. Dupin comes with a character analysis of the offender to be. Prove relevant as correctly concluded that the letter is not hiding about consuming, but is exposed in a bin and was just about see why

The method of deduction applied to the solution of the case is later also typical of the stories of Sherlock Holmes.

Literary significance

Poe himself considered it one of his best stories. She was often reprinted, for the first time in abbreviated form in the Journal Chambers's Edinburgh journal in November 1844. The first translation appeared in 1845 under the title Une lettre volée in the magazine Magasin pittoresque.

The story was the subject of an extensive exchange of letters between the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and the philosopher Jacques Derrida.

1988, the material under the direction of Stephan Bender with the title The Purloined Letter was filmed on location in France.