Dupin announces that he will hand over the letter to the prefect if the policeman gives him the 50,000 francs. The prefect says he would hand over a cheque for 50,000 francs to the person who could return the purloined letter to him. Dupin asks what reward is being offered for the return of the letter. Dupin advises making another thorough search of the premises, but the police prefect says it would do no good.Ībout a month later, the prefect returns to Dupin’s rooms, and reports to the detective and the narrator that he did undertaken another search of the minister’s rooms, but still didn’t manage to locate the purloined letter. Yet the police, despite searching everywhere in the minister’s rooms – behind the mirrors, under the carpets, in the cellars, within his books – have been unable to find the purloined letter. They are sure that he would not be carrying it around on his person (in case he’s mugged or accosted while out and about) but, equally, they know he would need to be able to access the letter at short notice, so wouldn’t have stored it somewhere else. The police have searched the minister’s rooms from top to bottom, while he’s out, in the hope of locating the letter he stole. The lady saw him do this, but obviously couldn’t draw attention to the act in front of her husband, because then the letter’s contents would become known to him. Producing his own letter from his pocket, he placed it down on the table next to the incriminating letter while he was talking to the lady and her husband, and then discreetly picked up the other letter (the scandalous one) in full view of the couple. A minister, identified only as ‘D-’, then entered the room as a guest, and spotted the letter, recognised the handwriting, and guessed the lady’s scandalous secret. He has come to share the details of a case the police have been working on – one that is simple, yet odd, in its details.Ī letter containing delicate information has been stolen, or ‘purloined’: an important woman was in her boudoir when the letter arrived (presumably written by a man with whom she was having an affair) but as she was reading it, her husband came into the room. Auguste Dupin (later to provide the model for Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes respectively) are smoking together one autumn evening in Paris, when the door to Dupin’s room opens and a French policeman enters. But how should we analyse this pioneering detective story? First, a quick summary of the story, which makes Poe’s influence on Conan Doyle apparent. You can read ‘The Purloined Letter’ here.
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