I've been looking everywhere for literary criticism on this story but I haven't been able to find anything. If you know of where I can find some please email me your responses. Thank you.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2003

Answers

In this story Poe uses a real life crime mystery that he himself(like his successors AC Doyle etc.) offered his two cents in solving. Mary Rogers is discussed in Poe's own articles at www.eapoe.org.

Since it was a real event Poe did not have total fictional control and his excitement at his own cleverness does not seem to have transferred to the story. What is important is that this is part of his detective story foundation, the creation of a culture and genre in which each story pioneers important elements forever to be repeated. No two stories are the exact same structural formula except for the intuitively deductive detective.Here the boundary between writer and detective, reality and fiction is crossed. In his hoax stories Poe had complete control over the false information. Here he tries to translate his accomplishment into his typical tale. Melville did that that, Stephen Crane in "The Open Boat" ficitionalizing personal events.

Why not do your own literary criticism? Otherwise a library search or Poe Studies journal might give you some of the negative(weak story) or positive(significant innovation) critiques.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2003