The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a short story published by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841.
Two women, mother and daughter, are murdered in Paris. When the police fail to solve the case, the amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin conducts his own investigation.
Dupin is rational and analytical. Many later fictional detectives are modeled on his character. Through close observation and analytical reasoning, he notices evidence the police overlooked and reconstructs the crime. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human...
It is widely regarded as a foundational work of modern detective fiction, establishing features later associated with the genre.
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Public domain (US)·No sign-up·DRM-free·Real text, not scans
Copyright note. The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading The Murders in the Rue Morgue in PDF or EPUB.
- Pages
- 37
- Reading time
- 1 hour 9 minutes
- Pace
- Intermediate
- First published
- 1844
- Language
- English
- Downloads
- 4,200
182 years later, still timely
Why Read The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 2026?
The prototype of detective fiction: an impossible crime, a city’s chatter, and an analyst who makes chaos yield. Swift, cerebral, and sly.
Today's connection
Poe invents the locked-room puzzle and the pleasure of inference. Dupin models attention—pattern over panic, evidence over rumor. Great for readers who enjoy solving along and for classes introducing the genre’s DNA.
Analysis as art
Observation, analogy, and patience beat noise.
Paris as lab
Streets, papers, and parlors supply data.
Birth of a form
Clues, reveals, and fair play start here.
These collections include The Murders in the Rue Morgue
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About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
Precision of mood and method that invents detective logic and the claustrophobia of obsession.
If this one stays with you…
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The Sign of FourArthur Conan Doyle
From The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Books, indeed, were his sole luxuries.
By undue profundity we perplex and enfeeble thought; and it is possible to make even Venus herself vanish from the firmanent by a scrutiny too sustained, too concentrated, or too direct.
In investigations such as we are now pursuing, it should not be so much asked ‘what has occurred,’ as ‘what has occurred that has never occurred before.’
...and into this bizarrerie, as into all his others, I quietly fell; giving myself up to his wild whims with a perfect abandon.
I was deeply interested in the little family history which he detailed to me with all that candor which a Frenchman indulges whenever mere self is the theme.