The Purloined Letter

digital audio

English language

Published March 9, 1994 by HarperAudio!.

(2 reviews)

On this segment of HarperAudio!,

Actor Anthony Quayle reads Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Purloined Letter." This short story, written in 1845, features the brainy amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin. Dupin is called in by G., a prefect of police, to help locate a letter that has been stolen from a lady of the court by a D., an unscrupulous cabinet minister. Dupin uses his intellect to retrieve the letter, and while explaining his reasoning also expounds on his theories of intelligence, physiognomy, and mathematics. While the story’s central idea of a compromising letter seems quaint these days, Poe loses most modern readers entirely with his final line -- a classical allusion, in French no less. It translates as "If such a sinister design isn’t worthy of Atreus, it is worthy of Thyestes," two brothers of Greek tragedy.

HarperAudio! is a production of the Internet Multicasting Service. Support for HarperAudio! is …

On this segment of HarperAudio!,

Actor Anthony Quayle reads Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Purloined Letter." This short story, written in 1845, features the brainy amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin. Dupin is called in by G., a prefect of police, to help locate a letter that has been stolen from a lady of the court by a D., an unscrupulous cabinet minister. Dupin uses his intellect to retrieve the letter, and while explaining his reasoning also expounds on his theories of intelligence, physiognomy, and mathematics. While the story’s central idea of a compromising letter seems quaint these days, Poe loses most modern readers entirely with his final line -- a classical allusion, in French no less. It translates as "If such a sinister design isn’t worthy of Atreus, it is worthy of Thyestes," two brothers of Greek tragedy.

HarperAudio! is a production of the Internet Multicasting Service. Support for HarperAudio! is provided by Harper Collins and by O’Reilly & Associates, Interop Company, and Sun Microsystems. Network connectivity for the Internet Multicasting Service is provided by UUNET Technologies and MFS Datanet. [Photograph from the Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-62320]

11 editions

LeRoy Miller reviewed The purloined letter by Edgar Allan Poe

Good story, I see a lot of Sherlock here.

4 stars

This was easier to read then I was expecting given it's age. Thou at times I did lose track of who was speaking. I think I've heard this story before, and if not - it reminded me a lot of how Sherlock works. If I didn't know that Poe wrote this, I would have thought it was a proto-Sherlock Holmes story. I was "forced" in high school to read a couple of Poe's short stories, and I never liked them. I'm sorry to say that experience turned me off reading any thing he wrote. Truly this was an error on my part, while I still find him hard to read, This story wasn't all that hard. I had a pretty good idea of where the letter was (or was going to be) - but perhaps that is because I think I have heard the story before (mistaking it for a …

This was easier to read then I was expecting given it's age. Thou at times I did lose track of who was speaking. I think I've heard this story before, and if not - it reminded me a lot of how Sherlock works. If I didn't know that Poe wrote this, I would have thought it was a proto-Sherlock Holmes story. I was "forced" in high school to read a couple of Poe's short stories, and I never liked them. I'm sorry to say that experience turned me off reading any thing he wrote. Truly this was an error on my part, while I still find him hard to read, This story wasn't all that hard. I had a pretty good idea of where the letter was (or was going to be) - but perhaps that is because I think I have heard the story before (mistaking it for a Sherlock story), or perhaps it is because I'm a fan of Sherlock and could just puzzle it out. Either way, this is a good proto-Sherlock story. (Without being a Sherlock Holmes story)

With all that - sometimes I did lose focus as to who was speaking. But for the most part this was better then I expected (as far as readability goes). And a story that I can see had a lot of influence for a number of others that followed.

LeRoy Miller reviewed The purloined letter by Edgar Allan Poe

Good story, I see a lot of Sherlock here.

4 stars

This was easier to read then I was expecting given it's age. Thou at times I did lose track of who was speaking. I think I've heard this story before, and if not - it reminded me a lot of how Sherlock works. If I didn't know that Poe wrote this, I would have thought it was a proto-Sherlock Holmes story. I was "forced" in high school to read a couple of Poe's short stories, and I never liked them. I'm sorry to say that experience turned me off reading any thing he wrote. Truly this was an error on my part, while I still find him hard to read, This story wasn't all that hard. I had a pretty good idea of where the letter was (or was going to be) - but perhaps that is because I think I have heard the story before (mistaking it for a …

This was easier to read then I was expecting given it's age. Thou at times I did lose track of who was speaking. I think I've heard this story before, and if not - it reminded me a lot of how Sherlock works. If I didn't know that Poe wrote this, I would have thought it was a proto-Sherlock Holmes story. I was "forced" in high school to read a couple of Poe's short stories, and I never liked them. I'm sorry to say that experience turned me off reading any thing he wrote. Truly this was an error on my part, while I still find him hard to read, This story wasn't all that hard. I had a pretty good idea of where the letter was (or was going to be) - but perhaps that is because I think I have heard the story before (mistaking it for a Sherlock story), or perhaps it is because I'm a fan of Sherlock and could just puzzle it out. Either way, this is a good proto-Sherlock story. (Without being a Sherlock Holmes story)

With all that - sometimes I did lose focus as to who was speaking. But for the most part this was better then I expected (as far as readability goes). And a story that I can see had a lot of influence for a number of others that followed.