Poe’s Perfect Crimes: Deceptive Narration in the Dupin Stories and Others

＂The genius of Edgar Allan Poe extends far beyond his groundbreaking creation of Auguste Dupin, which laid the foundation for detective fiction. What remains little known is that Poe envisioned an even more sophisticated form of the genre. Works in this form take an innovative approach, allowing the reader, rather than a fictional detective, to uncover and solve hidden murders. In 1844, as the Dupin stories concluded, Poe published two lesser-known works, ＂Thou Art the Man＂ and ＂A Tale of the Ragged Mountains.＂ These stories reflect his ambition to engage readers in a game of wits with himself. This study endeavors to rise to his challenge and unravel the perfect crimes--hidden for nearly two centuries--within these tales. As we delve deeper, another mystery arises: ＂What is analysis?＂ By examining Dupin’s secrets to successful analysis and contrasting them with the failures of the narrators in stories like ＂The Black Cat＂ and ＂The Fall of the House of Usher,＂ this book seeks to unlock Poe’s fundamental mystery of analysis＂--

Yasuhiro Takeuchi is a professor at Hokkaido University in Japan and lives in Sapporo. He was the winner of the Kobayashi Award, one of the prominent literary awards in Japan, as well as an Edgar Award.