I have not forgotten my old plan to read at least one classic per month. Sure, I get distracted from time to time, but here I am, adding another classic to my collection. The inspiration for this came completely accidentally, because I was listening a podcast “Unsolved murders: True Crime Stories” and they had a two-part series about the death of Edgar Allan Poe who might very possibly have been a victim of kidnapping and murder. This was so interesting that it stayed somewhere at the back of my mind, until I decided to read this short story, later immortalised in wonderful 1932. black & white movie with Bela Lugosi.
Today we remember Edgar Allan Poe mostly as a ghost of forgotten 19th century America and his reputation is based exclusively on posthumous myth that somehow makes him a dark, sinister and supposedly alcoholic literary predecessor of later horror writers. According to this podcast that I have been listening, it is probably just a stupid story that people made after his death and poor guy was possibly just unfortunate soul who struggled to make any money at all and lived his 40 years in hunger & poverty, before he disappeared and was found unconscious on the street (very probably kidnapped and forced to vote, as it all happened during early electoral fraud). There is a very interesting book written about this, that I might even check out in the future. I would not be surprised if the whole myth about a sinister and mysterious writer is just a legend.
Well, I was familiar with Bela Lugosi movie but this was actually better - it precedes Sherlock Holmes so its very important as a one of the very first detective stories and Auguste Dupin clearly works very much like Holmes will do in the future, by paying attention to the smallest details and connecting the dots that lead him to the final conclusion. Its all very clever and enjoyable, I might read more about Dupin (there are apparently three finalised stories).
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