The Mystery of Marie Roget

Synopsis

"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", often subtitled A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe written in 1842. This is the first murder mystery based on the details of a real crime. It first appeared in Snowden's Ladies' Companion in three installments, November and December 1842 and February 1843. Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination". Poe's detective character C. Auguste Dupin and his assistant, the unnamed narrator, undertake the unsolved murder of Marie Rogêt in Paris. The body of Rogêt, a perfume shop employee, is found in the Seine, and the press takes a keen interest in the mystery. In the story, Dupin explains that "it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation—to make a point—than to further the cause of truth",[2] and proceeds by exposing the contradictions in their theories. Even so, he uses the newspaper reports to get into the mind of the murderer.