The Purloined Letter

E37991

"The Purloined Letter" is a classic detective short story by Edgar Allan Poe featuring C. Auguste Dupin as he unravels the clever concealment of a stolen document.

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Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf detective fiction work
mystery story
short story
adaptation radio adaptations
stage adaptations
television adaptations
alsoFollows The Murders in the Rue Morgue
antagonist Minister D——
author Edgar Allan Poe
centralObject stolen letter
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
detectiveCharacter C. Auguste Dupin
fictionalTimePeriod 19th century
follows The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
form prose
genre crime fiction
detective fiction
short story
includedIn many Poe short story collections
influenced Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes stories
keyConcept analytical reasoning
game theory-like strategic thinking
keyPlotDevice letter hidden in plain sight
language English
length short fiction
literaryCharacter C. Auguste Dupin
Minister D——
Monsieur G—— (Prefect of the Parisian police)
Narrator (unnamed friend of Dupin)
literaryMovement American Romanticism
narrativePerspective first-person
notableFor early example of the rational detective
influence on later detective fiction
originalPublicationYear 1844
originalPublisher Carey and Hart
policeCharacter Monsieur G——
positionInSeries third Dupin story
precededBy The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
publicationMedium The Gift
surface form: The Gift: A Christmas and New Year’s Present for 1845
series C. Auguste Dupin stories
settingCountry France
settingLocation Paris
structure dialogue-driven investigation
theme limits of police methods
misdirection and concealment
psychology of detection
reason versus intuition

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue followedBy The Purloined Letter
Edgar Allan Poe notableWork The Purloined Letter
Edgar notableWork The Purloined Letter
subject surface form: Edgar Allan Poe