The Purloined Letter

E37991

detective fiction work mystery story short story

"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.

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 →
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: 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)

Subject (surface form when different)	Predicate
Edgar Allan Poe → Edgar Allan Poe →	notableWork
The Murders in the Rue Morgue →	followedBy