The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Edgar Allan Poe is considered “one of the foremost progenitors of modern literature” (“Edgar Allan Poe.” Poetry Foundation, 2022). While many notable authors specialize in a particular genre, Poe’s work blankets many and with each title shows variance in literary schools of thought. During his 22-year-career, Poe published prose and poetry that elevates the values seen in the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Naturalism, and Realism. For example, his well-loved poem “The Raven” and Gothic horror short stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart” showcase his inclination toward Romanticism. His visionary works of science fiction, e.g., “Mellonta Tauta,” show an alignment with Naturalism. Yet, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” his first of three detective fiction short stories, is unmistakably realist. Poe’s artistic arc typifies the nature of 19th-century progressive society in an industrial age; he was inventive, versatile, and expansive. His international influence on the literary canon is significant, and he laid the foundation for psychological realism. Without his groundbreaking vision, characters such as Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Rodion Raskolnikov in