Story: 7 / 10
Characters: 8
Setting: 7
Prose: 8 ( )

Crítica | A Carta Roubada, de Edgar Allan Poe: https://www.planocritico.com/critica-a-carta-roubada-de-edgar-allan-poe/ ( )

The Purloined Letter was originally published in 1845, and is one of three stories featuring the famous Parisian amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin. These three stories are considered early forerunners of the modern detective story.

This case involves the blackmail of the queen. A letter from the queen’s lover has been taken. The police know who took the letter and are trying to retrieve it but all their efforts to locate it’s hiding place have failed. On being handed a cheque in the amount of 50,000 francs, Dupin was able to produce the letter. Using his method of identifying with the criminal, Dupin was able to put his mind to work and discover where the letter had been hidden.

A simple story with the answer relying on the deductions made by Dupin who worked out that the letter’s appearance had been altered and that it was in plain sight if one cared to look. Having the detective simply use his brain to solve the mystery allowed this genre to become both based on action as in The Murders of Rue Morgue and on analytical thinking by allowing the detective to ponder the case and track down the clues through his own deductions as in this story. ( )

With this the third of the stories about the detective C. Auguste Dupin, he is approached by Monsieur G-, the Perfect of the Parisian police. A letter has been purloined from the Royal apartments, and although the thief is known, a Minister D-, the letter has not been found even after a very thorough search. Dupin postulates that sometimes events are simplier then they seem.
This was an enjoyable mystery story ( )

A very short read. Long paragraphs and more of how people stereotype or generalise others, regardless of their peculiar intellectual capacity. ( )