[THE MYSTERY OF THE STEEL DISK] By Broughton Brandenburg
[THE CHRONICLES OF ADDINGTON PEACE] By B. Fletcher Robinson
[The Vanished Millionaire]
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
This and the two stories that follow it constitute a trilogy of stories with related methods of construction. They were the first detective stories, and are still considered the most famous models of their kind. Written by a poor struggling, underpaid hack journalist at a time when literary inspiration was derived principally from abroad, they were first published 1841-5. Soon afterward "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" was translated into French and appeared in several French journals, notably the "Charivari." This constituted Poe's introduction to a French audience, and it won for him a warmer and a more general recognition than he has ever had in this country. Judged by the extent of his influence on writers of short stories, both here and abroad, Poe is the most important figure in American literature.
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
By EDGAR ALLAN POE
What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, although puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture.—Sir Thomas Browne
The mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We know of them, among other things, that they are always to their possessor, when inordinately possessed, a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension preternatural. His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition.