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1 Walt Whitman, Specimen Days (1882); repr. in Eric W. Carlson (ed.), The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Criticism Since 1892 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970), 75.
2 Richard Wilbur, Responses: Prose Pieces 1953–1976 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), 50–1.
3 Walter Benjamin, ‘On Some Motifs in Baudelaire’, in Illuminations (New York: Schocken, 1969), 155–200.
1 For as Jove, during the winter season, gives twiee seven days of warmth, men have called this clement and temperate time the nurse of the beautiful Halcyon—Simonides.
1 Watson, Dr Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of Landaff.—See ‘Chemical Essays’, vol. v.*
1 The ‘Hortulus Aniœ cum Oratiunculis Aliquibus Superadditis’ of Grüninger.*
1 Rousseau,Nmivelle Héloise*
1 On the original publication of ‘Mane Rogêt,’ the foot-notes now appended were considered unnecessary; but the lapse of several years since the tragedy upon which the tale is based, renders it expedient to give them, and also to say a few words in explanation of the general design. A young girl, Mary Cecilia Rogers, was murdered in the vicinity of New York; and, although her death occasioned an intense and long-enduring excitement, the mystery attending it had remained unsolved at the period when the present paper was written and published (November, 1842). Herein, under pretence of relating the fate of a Parisian grisette* the author has followed, in minute detail, the essential, while merely paralleling the inessential facts of the real murder of Mary Rogers. Thus all argument founded upon the fiction is applicable to the truth: and the investigation of the truth was the object.
The ‘Mystery of Marie Rogêt’ was composed at a distance from the scene of the atrocity, and with no other means of investigation than the newspapers afforded. Thus much escaped the writer of which he could have availed himself had he been on the spot, and visited the localities. It may not be improper to record, nevertheless, that the confessions of two persons, (one of them the Madame Deluc of the narrative) made, at different periods, long subsequent to the publication, confirmed, in full, not only the general conclusion, but absolutely all the chief hypothetical details by which that conclusion was attained.
1 Nassau Street.*
2 Anderson.
1 The Hudson.
2 Weehawken.
1Payne.
2 Crommelin.
1 The ‘N. Y. Mercury.’
1 The ‘N. Y. Brother Jonathan,’ edited by H. Hastings Weld, Esq.
1 N. Y. ‘Journal of Commerce.’
1 Phil. ‘Sat. Evening Post,’ edited by C. J. Peterson, Esq.
1 Adam.
1 See ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue.’
1 The ‘N. Y. Commercial Advertiser,’ edited by Col. Stone.
1 ‘A theory based on the qualities of an object, will prevent its being unfolded according to its objects; and he who arranges topics in reference to their causes, will cease to value them according to their results. Thus the jurisprudence of every nation will show that, when law becomes a science and a system, it ceases to be justice. The errors into which a blind devotion to principles of classification has led the common law, will be seen by observing how often the legislature has been obliged to come forward to restore the equity its scheme had lost.’—Landor.*
1 ‘N. Y. Express.’
2 ‘N. Y. Herald.’
3‘N. Y. Courier and Inquirer.’
4 Mennais was one of the parties originally suspected and arrested, but discharged through total lack of evidence.
5 ‘N. Y. Courier and Inquirer.’
1 ‘N. Y. Evening Post.’
2 ‘N. Y. Standard.’
1 Of the Magazine in which the article was originally published.
1 An incident, similar in outline to the one here imagined, occurred, not very long ago, in England. The name of the fortunate heir was Thelluson. I first saw an account of this matter in the ‘Tour’ of Prince Pückler-Muskau, who makes the sum inherited ninety millions of pounds, and justly observes that ‘in the contemplation of so vast a sum, and of the services to which it might be applied, there is something even of the sublime.’ To suit the views of this article I have followed the Prince’s statement, although a grossly exaggerated one. The germ, and, in fact, the commencement of the present paper was published many years ago—previous to the issue of the first number of Sue’s admirable ‘Juif Errant.’ which may possibly have been suggested to him by Muskau’s account.*
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Contents
Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Edgar Allan Poe
SELECTED TALES
MS. Found in a Bottle
Berenicë
Morella
Ligeia
The Man that was Used Up
The Fall of the House of Usher
William Wilson
The Man of the Crowd
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Eleonora
The Masque of the Red Death
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Gold-Bug
The Black Cat
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
The Purloined Letter
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
The Imp of the Perverse
The Cask of Amontillado
The Domain of Arnheim
Hop-Frog
Von Kempelen and his Discovery
Explanatory Notes
Footnotes