The Mystery of Marie Rogêt

infobox Book |
name = The Mystery of Marie Rogêt


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author = Edgar Allan Poe
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country = United States
language = English
series =
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publisher = "Snowden's Ladies' Companion"
release_date = 1842
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pages =
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followed_by = "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", often subtitled A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe written in 1842. This is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. [Sova, 164] It first appeared in "Snowden's Ladies' Companion" in three installments, November and December 1842 and February 1843.

Plot summary

Poe's detective character C. Auguste Dupin and his sidekick the unnamed narrator undertake the unsolved murder of Marie Rogêt in Paris. The body of Rogêt, a perfume shop employee, is found in the Seine River and the media take a keen interest in the mystery. Dupin remarks that the newspapers "create a sensation... [rather] than to further the cause of truth." Even so, he uses the newspaper reports to get into the mind of the murderer.

Dupin uses his skills of ratiocination to determine that a single murderer was involved who dragged her by the cloth belt around her waist before dumping her body off a boat into the river. Finding the boat, Dupin suggests, will lead the police to the murderer.

Origins

The narrative is based upon the actual murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers. [Silverman, 205] Rogers was presumably born in Lyme, Connecticut in 1820, though her birth records have not survived. [Stashower, 20] She disappeared on October 4, 1838, in New York City and became known as the "Beautiful Cigar Girl". Only a few days later the newspapers announced her return. It was said she had eloped with a naval officer. Three years later, on July 25, 1841, she disappeared again. Her body was found floating in the Hudson River on July 28 in Hoboken, New Jersey. [Thomas & Jackson, 336–337] The details surrounding the case suggested she was murdered. The death of this well-known girl received national attention for weeks. Months later, the inquest still ongoing, her fiancee was found dead, an act of suicide. By his side, a remorseful note and an empty bottle of poison were found.

Writing about Rogers as a sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", Poe tried to solve the aforementioned enigma by creating a murder mystery. As Poe wrote in a letter: "under the pretense of showing how Dupin... unravelled the mystery of Marie's assassination, I, in fact, enter into a very rigorous analysis of the real tragedy in New York". [Rosenheim, 68–69] He situated the narrative in Paris using the details of the original tragedy. Although there was intense media interest and immortalizing of a sort by Poe, the crime remains one of the most puzzling unsolved murders of New York City.

Fictionalizing actual events, especially murder, was common in this period in American literature. Poe had previously fictionalized the so-called Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy in his only play, "Politian", which was left uncompleted in 1835. [Sova, 197] The sensational murder story was also fictionalized by several other writers including William Gilmore Simms and Thomas Holley Chivers. [cite book |last=Whited |first=Stephen R. |title=The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People |editor=Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan |others=Associate Editor: Todd W. Taylor |publisher=LSU Press |year=2002 |isbn=0807126926 |chapter=Kentucky Tragedy |pages=p. 404–405 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=rl5_5u3tiRkC |accessdate=2008-01-24] "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", however, was likely the first real-life crime turned into a detective story. [Edgar Allan Poe, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination", (Introduction and notes by John S. Wiley), Wordsworth Editions, 1993: 90]

Critical response

Of Poe's three tales of ratiocination, "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" is generally considered the least successful. A modern critic wrote:

It might better be called an essay than a story. As an essay, it is an able if tedious exercise in reasoning. As a story, it scarcely exists. It has no life-blood. The characters neither move nor speak... Only a professional student of analytics or an inveterate devotee of criminology can read it with any degree of unfeigned interest." [Haycraft, Howard. "Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story". New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941: 16–17.]

Publication history

Poe presented "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" by telling editors he had solved the Mary Rogers murder at a time when most readers would know the details of that event. [Leverenz, David. "Spanking the Master: Mind-Body Crossings in Poe's Sensationalism," as collected in "A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe", edited by J. Gerald Kennedy. Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 109. ISBN 0195121593] The first part of the serialized story appeared in "Snowden's Ladies' Companion" in November of 1842, followed by the second part in December. An article published in the November 26, 1842, issue of the New York "Tribune" caused Poe to delay publication of the third installment. The newspaper reported new evidence that suggested that Rogers, the real-life victim, may have died from a botched abortion attempt, referred to as a "premature delivery." [Sova, 165] He made minor changes in his story to make a similar suggestion. A full reprint of the story in 1845 included 15 small changes to suggest he had known this true cause from the start. [Walsh, John Evangelist. "Poe the Detective: The Curious Circumstances behind "The Mystery of Marie Roget". Rutgers University Press, 1968. p. 69]

=See also=
*C. Auguste Dupin
*"The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
*"The Purloined Letter"

References

ources

*cite book |title=Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy |last=Meyers |first=Jeffrey |authorlink= |publisher=Cooper Square Press |location=New York |edition=Paperback ed. |date=1992 |pages= |isbn=0815410387
*cite book |title=Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography |last=Quinn |first=Arthur Hobson |authorlink= |publisher=Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. |location=New York |edition= |date=1941 |pages= |isbn=0801857309
*cite book |title="The Cryptographic Imagination: Secret Writing from Edgar Poe to the Internet" |last=Rosenheim |first=Shawn James |authorlink= |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |edition= |date=1997 |pages = |isbn=9780801853326
*cite book |title=Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance |last=Silverman|first=Kenneth |authorlink=Kenneth Silverman |publisher=Harper Perennial |location=New York |edition=Paperback ed. |date=1991 |pages= |isbn=0060923318
*cite book |title=Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z |last=Sova |first=Dawn B. |authorlink= |publisher=Checkmark Books |location=New York |edition=Paperback ed. |date=2001 |pages= |isbn=081604161X
*cite book |title=The Beautiful Cigar Girl |last=Stashower |first=Daniel |authorlink= |publisher=PenguinBooks |location=New York |date=2006 |pages= |isbn=052594981X
*cite book |title=The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849 |last=Thomas |first=Dwight & David K. Jackson |authorlink= |publisher=G. K. Hall & Co |location=New York |date=1987 |pages= |isbn=0783814011

External links

* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/mary_rogers/"All about Mary Rogers' Mysterious Murder"] from The Crime Library.
* [http://www.eapoe.org/works/info/pt040.htm Publication history] at the [http://www.eapoe.org Edgar Allan Poe Society]