WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MATTHEW PEARLEdgar Allan Poe invented detective fiction with these three mesmerising stories of a young eccentric named C. Auguste Dupin: ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’ and ‘The Purloined Letter’. Dorothy L. Sayers would later describe these tales as ‘almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice’. Indeed, Poe’s short mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes. Today the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners.This edition includes the definitive text of these stories and an introduction and appendix on ‘The Earliest Detectives’ by Matthew Pearl.

Poe’s three classic tales of mystery and detectionAbout the AuthorEdgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, USA, in 1809. Poe, short story writer, editor and critic, he is best known for his macabre tales and as the progenitor of the detective story. He died in 1849, in mysterious circumstances, at the age of forty.ReviewsThe best detective in fiction…Dupin is unrivalled — Arthur Conan DoylePoe’s blackly ingenious tale of brutal murder in 19th-century Paris establishes C. Auguste Dupin, a man of ‘peculiar analytic ability’, as the model for pretty much every intellectual detective to come — The Ultimate Reading List * Sunday Telegraph *For their supernatural grotesquerie and graveyard doom,[Poe’s stories] foreshadow Stephen King and the “southern gothic” of Truman Capote… his work continues to enthral. His greatest tales radiate a dark humour and mockery that strike an oddly modern note. * Sunday Times *If genius is an exceptional capacity for imaginative creation, Poe had it in spades. With Dupin in The Murders In The Rue Morgue, he created the first detective story before the word ‘detective’ existed * Daily Mail *The modern horror novel owes an enormous debt to Poe, and the novel of psychological horror owes him almost everything * Spectator *Book InformationISBN 9780099529583Author Edgar Allan PoeFormat PaperbackPage Count 160Imprint Vintage ClassicsPublisher Vintage PublishingWeight(grams) 117gDimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 9mm