Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Purloined Letter” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Purloined Letter

(C. Auguste Dupin #3)

Edgar Allan Poe

3.72 · Rating details · 9,347 ratings · 365 reviews

Dans cette nouvelle, le détective Auguste Dupin est informé par G..., le préfet de police de Paris, qu'une lettre de la plus haute importance a été volée dans le boudoir royal. Le moment précis du vol et le voleur, D..., sont connus du policier, mais celui-ci est dans l'incapacité d'accabler le coupable. Malgré des fouilles extrêmement minutieuses effectuées au domicile du Dans cette nouvelle, le détective Auguste Dupin est informé par G..., le préfet de police de Paris, qu'une lettre de la plus haute importance a été volée dans le boudoir royal. Le moment précis du vol et le voleur, D..., sont connus du policier, mais celui-ci est dans l'incapacité d'accabler le coupable. Malgré des fouilles extrêmement minutieuses effectuées au domicile du voleur, G... n'a en effet pas pu retrouver la lettre. Mettre la main sur cette dernière est pourtant d'une grande importance, car son possesseur se retrouve en mesure d'exercer des pressions sur le membre de la famille royale à qui il l'a dérobée. G... en vient donc à demander l'aide de Dupin. Quelques semaines plus tard, Dupin restitue la lettre au préfet. Il explique alors au narrateur comment certains principes simples lui ont permis de retrouver la lettre.

Comme dans Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue, La Lettre volée met en scène Dupin et ses célèbres facultés d'analyse. La réflexion logique est au centre de la nouvelle, et toute une part de l'intrigue s'appuie sur les difficultés à trouver une solution rationnelle à la disparition de la lettre. Lors de sa visite à Dupin, G... explique les raisonnements qui lui ont permis de découvrir l'identité du voleur, D..., et ceux qui lui ont permis de déduire que la lettre était toujours en sa possession, cachée quelque part dans son domicile. En dépit de ses certitudes, G... ne parvient pourtant pas à récupérer l'objet : le mystère se partage donc entre d'une part la possession certaine d'éléments, et de l'autre l'incapacité à obtenir des résultats.

Si Dupin réussit, lui, à résoudre cette apparente contradiction, c'est parce qu'il a su raisonner autrement que le policier, dont les déductions, pour justes qu'elles fussent, n'ont pas suffi à résoudre l'affaire. G... a en vain cherché la lettre en la supposant cachée : il a sondé tous les espaces pouvant abriter une lettre qu'on aurait voulu dissimuler. Dupin comprend lui que si G.. a échoué, c'est que la lettre volée a volontairement été mise en évidence par le criminel. Loin d'être rangé dans un endroit secret, le billet est en évidence dans le bureau du coupable : la lettre a été froissée, maquillée d'un autre sceau et d'une autre écriture après avoir été pliée à l'envers. Si elle n'attire pas l'attention c'est qu'elle semble sans valeur, ordinaire. ...more

Get A Copy

Library Binding, 48 pages

Published May 1st 1986 by Creative Education (first published 1844)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Purloined Letter, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

Thieves

611 books — 1,269 voters

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

1,326 books — 5,396 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.72 ·

Rating details

· 9,347 ratings · 365 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The Purloined Letter

Sep 05, 2016 James rated it liked it

Shelves: 1-fiction, 4-written-pre-20th-century

Book Review
3+ of 5 stars to The Purloined Letter, a short story written in 1844, by Edgar Allan Poe. One of the most interesting facts about this story is that it involves Poe's detective Dupin, who also appears in The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Unlike the Rue Morgue, this mystery contains no gore or horror; it's pure mystery without the overall Gothic depths Poe usually goes to in his literary works. At its core, the story is about a letter that's gone missing, possibly stolen, having ...more

flag 76 likes · Like · see review

Aug 15, 2015 Sanjay Gautam rated it really liked it

"Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault."

My first Dupin-tale by Poe; and it was impressive! I enjoyed every bit of it. Very Engrossing. Explanations given by Dupin at the end of the story are epic and quenches all the thirst inside you. I can guess now why Sherlock Holmes despised Dupin. Conan Doyle, I'm sure, was inspired from these Dupin-tales that he created, on almost similar lines, Dr. Watson as the sidekick of Sherlock Holmes, and Lestrade as Mr. G-.

A very ...more

flag 73 likes · Like · see review

Jul 31, 2019 Peter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Here we have the third appearance of master investigator C. Auguste Dupin. This time a royal letter was stolen by a minister. Can Dupin find the whereabouts of the letter? Prefect G is desperate since his men thoroughly searched the premises of the minister with no avail. Following Dupin's brilliant logic and sharp mind everything seems to be so easy to solve the case. Another well plotted and interesting story. In my opinion it was a bit weaker though than both its precursors. But nevertheless ...more

flag 52 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2019 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, classics, the-shorts, france

Starting off October with an Edgar Allen Poe detective mystery! "The Purloined Letter" is one of Poe's more memorable stories, featuring his amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin, who could give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money.

This story is more analytical than adventurous: Dupin and his friend, the narrator of the tale, sit in a dimly lit library, enjoying their pipes and their company, when the prefect of the Parisian police comes in with a tale of woe: Reading between the lines a little, the Starting off October with an Edgar Allen Poe detective mystery! "The Purloined Letter" is one of Poe's more memorable stories, featuring his amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin, who could give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money.

This story is more analytical than adventurous: Dupin and his friend, the narrator of the tale, sit in a dimly lit library, enjoying their pipes and their company, when the prefect of the Parisian police comes in with a tale of woe: Reading between the lines a little, the Queen of France has received a love letter that would compromise and ruin her if it became public. The letter was stolen by an unscrupulous minister, who is now using it to blackmail her. The prefect (motivated in part by a huge reward for finding the letter) has secretly searched the minister's home every night for three months, using the best searching techniques, and can't find it. Everyone agrees that the letter MUST be in his home somewhere. But where? Dupin gives a hint right at the start of the story, but the prefect doesn't pick up on it (in fact, he ridicules it).

There's some delightful characterization and humor in this story. There's also a bit too much abstruse and tedious talk about logic and deduction (after trying to wade through these parts for a while, I gave up and skimmed). I have to say I'm not entirely convinced by the logical underpinnings of the story, despite all the fancy reasoning.

But (other than the tedious bits) it's a fun detective story with a really great conclusion. You can read this 1844 story online many places, including here: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/POE...

Bonus: Translations of some of the Latin and French phrases in this story:
- "Nil sapientiae odiosus acumine nimio" (Seneca): "Nothing is so hateful to wisdom as an excess of cleverness".
- Non distributio medii: the fallacy of the undistributed middle (a logical fallacy).
- "Il y a a parier que toute idee publique, toute convention recue, est un sottise, car elle a convenue a plus grand nombre": you can bet on the fact that any idea and convention that is widely accepted is wrong, for it is simply convenient to the greatest number.
- "Facilis descensus Averni": descent into hell is easy. "Averni" translates to "Hell" because Lake Avernus was believed to be the entrance to the underworld.
- "Un dessein si funeste/S'il n'est digne d'Atree, est digne de Thyeste": a scheme so hateful, if it is not worthy of Atreus, is worthy of Thyestes, or alternatively: "So grievous a plan, if not worthy of Atree, is dignified by Thyeste." (Atreus & Thyestes were feuding twin brothers in Greek mythology. Thyestes sleeps with Atreus' wife; Atreus gets revenge by killing Thyestes' children and serving them to Thyestes in a stew which Thyestes eats. Thyestes then gets revenge by consulting an oracle, which advises to have a son who would then kill Atreus.)

Credit for most of these translations goes to http://faculty.uml.edu/whitley_kaufma... ...more

flag 35 likes · Like · see review

Apr 30, 2014 Fabian rated it liked it

Making even the solitary molecules, or paired, frightened to the zenith so that they react in a chaotic demeanor, disrupting, terrible in elegance of expression and the redundancy of repression-- it's far too much for me, the mere proletariat with a reader's proclivity, to possibly endorse in the wholehearted method bestowed upon the gargantuan wave of Poe fanatics. The tale of the excessively (deceptively) obvious and bluff and double bluffs that go along with it (and the poker faces utilized ...more

flag 23 likes · Like · see review

Oct 05, 2018 Quirkyreader rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

After reading this, I could see how Poe helped inspire A.C. Doyle with his most famous character.

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Mar 24, 2012 Exina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories-novellas, detective-stories, mystery, classics

The Purloined Letter has been always one of my favorites. Without anything bloody or spooky, it is mysterious and entertaining.

Monsieur G—, the prefect of the Paris police arrives to Monsieur Dupin and asks for his help in a case he has made no progress so far. Dupin suggests him to continue to search the letter in question.

"If it is any point requiring reflection," observed Dupin, as he forebore to enkindle the wick, "we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark."
"That is another of

...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Dec 31, 2013 Kristi rated it liked it

Shelves: reading-challenge-2013, 1001-books

When you consider the fact that detective fiction didn't exist when Poe wrote this story, it's pretty amazing. Two characters are smoking together one evening when a police official shows up with an intriguing mystery--a compromising letter has been stolen from a person of importance, and although the police know the thief's identify, they can't seem to find the letter anywhere. The policeman leaves without a solution to his problem, but by the next time he stops by, the mystery has already been ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Apr 08, 2010 K.D. Absolutely rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, detective, mystery

The Purloined Letter is a clean departure from my initial expectation of Edgar Allan Poe's works. I thought that all of his works were macabre and grotesque. This one is similar to the short stories of Sherlock Holmes. I have read the whole SH canon and I thought that there were so many similarities.

Wiki says that there are three of these detective stories starring his private detective C. Auguste Dupin. Just like Holmes, Dupin is more intelligent than the police investigators. However, Dupin's ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Oct 13, 2015 Mia (Parentheses Enthusiast) rated it liked it

Shelves: short-stories

Eh. Not my favourite of Poe's works by far, but I do respect it as a departure from his typical style and subject matter. The real reason I didn't like this is because it's almost entirely dialogue, and for a story that could have been interesting, 95% of it is spent rambling on about algebra and metaphysics.

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Oct 18, 2011 Bonnie rated it really liked it

Recommended to Bonnie by: 1001 Books to Read Before You Die

Shelves: shorties, eek-the-creepies, 1001

"Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault."

Compared to the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, this was one I knew I couldn't possibly miss. I could see some similarities, but naturally, Sherlock was sorely missed. In his place, Poe's writing was an adequate replacement. The story was not full of any action; however, it was a recollection of the search that was conducted for the 'purloined letter' and the reasoning that sometimes what you're looking for is right under your ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Dec 06, 2018 David Sarkies rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery

A Case of Blackmail
6 December 2018

There are a number of interesting factors to this story. It is the third of the Dupin stories and this one deals with a letter that has been stolen. Basically, the letter contains some compromising information and the thief is now using it as a form of black mail. Well, Dupin comes along and notices that the police have simply not been able to find the letter, despite searching every inch of the apartment. As it turns out, the thief used a trick known as hiding A Case of Blackmail
6 December 2018

There are a number of interesting factors to this story. It is the third of the Dupin stories and this one deals with a letter that has been stolen. Basically, the letter contains some compromising information and the thief is now using it as a form of black mail. Well, Dupin comes along and notices that the police have simply not been able to find the letter, despite searching every inch of the apartment. As it turns out, the thief used a trick known as hiding something in plain sight. Since the thief knew that the police would go over his apartment with a fine tooth comb, he put the letter where he knew they wouldn’t look, and that is basically in a place that the police would never believe that the thief would hide it.

It is interesting that the whole concept of the magnifying glass appears in this story, and this is another thing that has come down through detective fiction, most notably in Sherlock Holmes. The funny thing is that as far as I can tell, the magnifying glass is really only something that seems to be connected with Sherlock. Mind you, Dupin, who had worked out where it was hidden quite quickly, and then visited the place and confirmed that that was indeed where the letter was hidden, didn’t need to use a magnifying glass.

I didn’t find this story to be anywhere near as great as the other two, but I still give it credit for setting the stage of a genre that would eventually branch out on its own. In a way it doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as dark as some of his other writings, and in fact seems to be somewhat more light hearted. Well, not quite, but having already produced two previous works, it is clear that Poe is basically refining the style, even though he never followed through with any more similar stories.

I guess Dupin, as I have mentioned previously, also sets the scene for that highly intelligent detective that is not only outsmarting the police, but also outsmarting the villains. Actually, one interesting thing that I have noticed is how the Holmes stories seem to follow the same style as this one. Basically, the story is divided into two parts – the first part sets the scene, and in the middle we have the moment where Dupin tells us that he has solved the case, and once all of the police have gone, he then proceeds to explain to us how it is that he actually solved the case. This is a style that Doyle used extensively in his many Sherlock Holmes adventures, and due to the popularity of said adventures, no doubt this is a structure that not only worked, but worked well.
...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Nov 14, 2019 Bon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Brief but makes you think.

Really intriguing. I need to re-read Poe's other detective stories, as I never saw so clearly that Sherlock seems a knock-off of this guy! I jumped to some of his own conclusions, but I admit some explanation in the middle bogged me down with the complex language.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 06, 2018 Sophia rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This is another story that I had to read for uni and I am glad that it wasn't as long as the first story. There was no long prologue this time, which was good as it dived right into the story. However, after the main character Dupin announced that he had solved the case, he went into a bit of a tangent explaining how he solved it. I felt that the examples were unnecessary and veered too much from the main story. Overall, it was not a bad story but like the first, this could have been shorter and ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 19, 2010 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery, classics, short-story, detective

The best of Poe's Dupin mysteries, The Purloined Letter is both the shortest and the most clever in execution. There's not much that can be said about it without spoiling the story, but it focuses on how we tend to miss the obvious.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2018 Cphe rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, psychological, 2018, mystery, short-story, guardian-boxall-2018

Tend to steer well clear of these shorter works but this is featured on the Boxall 1000 list. Nicely atmospheric with a surprising little twist at the end.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 23, 2015 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: zt-preparation-and-followup

The purloined letter(*) is synonymous with the original, radical subject of the unconscious.

This morning I kinda got lost on Wikipedia.

I wanted to get information about this book: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

But my subconscious had obviously other plans and led me to Poe's story ... (**)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractat...

[This] is the only book-length philosophical work published by the German-Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his lifetime.

...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 09, 2015 Sidharth Vardhan rated it really liked it

Shelves: list-1001, crimanal-friends, short-stories, shorts-readable-online, usa

"“As a poet and as a mathematician, he would reason well; as a mere mathematician, he could not have reasoned at all.”

Best Allan Poe I have read so far. And I thought he only wrote Gothic stories. I'm telling you this Dupin guy is grand daddy of Sherlock Holmes. You could almost see little Sherlock standing in corner silently taking notes with a admiring smile as Dupin explained to the narrator how he solved the mystery.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Sep 22, 2019 M.M. Strawberry Library & Reviews rated it really liked it

Shelves: classic, 19th-century, mystery, short-story

This is one of Poe's mysteries, and it might seem dated in today's era compared to the forensic technology and mysteries we deal with in the 21st century, this is still a very fun and classic read.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 16, 2015 Christopher added it

Scripta manent sed verba volant.

Perhaps I love this short story because of Lacan. Perhaps it's because of Derrida. My word, it might even be because of Edgar Allen Poe. It most certainly is not because of Marie Bonaparte. Barbara Johnson and Liahna Klenman Babener contributed, that's for sure.

A vaincre sans peril, on triomphe sans gloire.

This statement is unprovable.

True, the indexicality of the "this" in the last sentence invites ambiguity. "Thus it is that what the 'purloined letter,' nay, ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2018 Asha Seth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, thrillers

In a small room in Paris, the narrator sits quietly with his friend, C. Auguste Dupin. Monsieur G——, the prefect of the Paris police, arrives to consult Dupin on a case that is almost too simple: a letter has been stolen from the royal apartments. The police know who has taken it: the Minister D——, an important government official. The police attempt thorough investigations but come up with nothing. Identifying with the criminal mind, Dupin discovers evidence so obvious that it had gone ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 30, 2018 Lemar rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, classic-fiction

This is fun. Our two protagonists, sitting in a dark Parisian apartment, living on a plane of almost pure intellect, are the acknowledged forebears of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. They even have the arrogance and wit as Dupin solves crimes the hapless police Prefect can not,
“That is another of your odd notions”, said the Prefect who had a fashion of calling everything “odd” that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid
an absolute legion of “oddities.”

At another point Dupin remarks ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 19, 2011 Adam Sprague rated it it was ok

I think the Dupin stories simply may just not be for me. As other reviewers have stated, this is incredibly wordy when it does not need to be and the characters are fairly boring.

There is no interesting murder like with the ape, just a letter on a shelf.

Only for the hardcore Poe fans here. Yet more dissapointment from the highly praised Poe.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2018 Zey Ka rated it really liked it

the influence of Poe on Paul Auster is really obvious. the usage of the detective genre and the idea of doubles which can be seen in Auster's trilogy have their origin in Poe's works. Dupin and the minister are doubles, thinking in the same way and even at the end, being contrasted to two brothers.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 24, 2014 Carly Ellen Kramer rated it really liked it

I read this twice, and enjoyed it more the second time. For me, sometimes Poe needs to simmer a bit to be appreciated!

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Dec 23, 2015 Brenda rated it it was ok

Shelves: so-plain, meh

2.5 stars. Not very impressive. The characters were fairly boring.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2018 hesh rated it it was amazing

Is this a crime story? Yes it is! Is the allusion to the crime the most important parts of the story that stayed with me? Absolutely not!
Love the discussion on Mathematics that seems to give us a hint, or a passage for a door, into Poe's opinion in regards to Mathematical truths. I also absolutely adored the psychology/neuroscience behind the idea that if you can somehow act a certain way, smile for example, or eat a piece of gum, you might convince your brain that you're in a state of happiness ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 19, 2019 One-Edgy-Anti-Hero rated it liked it

Shelves: books-for-classes

Interesting.

Typically I love Poe, but this for me seemed on the weaker side of his and probably my least favorite out of all his compositions.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 13, 2018 Cláudia rated it liked it

“As a poet and as a mathematician, he would reason well; as a mere mathematician, he could not have reasoned at all.”

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 11, 2018 Eya Beldi rated it it was amazing

I'm just amazed how smart the main character is, the one who figure it out.
Short nice read.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading 1001: The Purloined Letter - Poe	2	8	Sep 20, 2019 07:45PM
The 1700-1939 Boo...: The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe	5	21	Nov 26, 2017 08:39PM
Gothic Literature: The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe	1	8	May 22, 2013 09:07AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Classics

365 users

Short Stories

245 users

Mystery

226 users

Fiction

155 users

See top shelves…

About Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

18,727 followers

The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.

The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al... ...more