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'''"The Purloined [[Letter]]"''' is one of [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s [[detective story|detective stories]]. It is the [[third ]] of the [[three ]] stories featuring the detective [[Auguste Dupin]]; these stories are considered to be important early forefunners of the modern detective story. It first appeared in ''The [[Gift ]] for 1845'' (1844) and was soon reprinted in numerous journals and newspapers.

An unnamed [[narrator]] is meeting with A letter, the famous [[Paris|Parisian]] amateur [[detective]contents] [[Auguste Dupin]], and discussing some of his most celebrated cases, when they are joined by the Prefect of the Police, a man known only as G-. The Prefect has a case he would like to discuss with M. Dupin. A letter, the contents of which - if revealed - would be highly compromising, has been stolen from the private sitting room of the Queen. The culprit is the unscrupulous Minister D-. He was in the Queen’s room, saw the letter, and switched it for a letter of no importance. He has been arrogantly blackmailing the Queen for several months over its [[return]].

The Prefect says that he and his police detectives have made a most thorough [[search ]] of the Ministerial hotel where D- stays and have found [[nothing]]. They have checked behind the wallpaper and under the carpets. The Prefect explains that the letter could be rolled up very small and hidden in a [[chair ]] leg. Without destroying all the furniture, his men have examined the tables and chairs with microscopes but have found no [[sign ]] of interference.

Dupin asks the Prefect if he [[knows ]] what he is [[looking ]] for and the Prefect reads off a minute description of the letter, which Dupin memorises. The Prefect then bids [[them ]] [[good ]] day.

A month later, the Prefect returns, still bewildered in his search for the [[missing ]] letter. He is motivated to continue his fruitless search by the promise of a large reward, recently doubled, upon the letter’s safe return. He will pay 50, 000 francs to anyone who can [[help ]] him. Dupin asks him to write that check now and he will give him the letter. The Prefect is astonished but knows that Dupin is not joking. He writes the check and Dupin produces the letter. The Prefect quickly determines that it is genuine and races off to deliver it to the Queen.

Alone together again, the narrator asks Dupin how he managed to find the letter. Dupin explains how the [[Paris ]] police are very competent within their limitations, but have underestimated who they are dealing with. The Prefect mistakes the Minister D- for a [[fool ]] because he is a poet. For example, Dupin explains how an eight-year old boy made a small fortune from his friends at a [[game ]] called “Odds and Evens”. The boy was able to determine the intelligence of his opponents and play upon that to [[interpret ]] their next move.

D- knew the police detectives were highly intelligent and would have assumed that the blackmailer would have concealed the letter in an elaborate hiding [[place]]. Realising this, D- then hid the letter in plain [[sight]], but disguised.

Dupin visits the minister at his hotel. Complaining of ‘weak eyes’ Dupin is wearing pair of green spectacles, the [[true ]] [[purpose ]] of which is to disguise his eyes as he searches for the letter. In a cheap card rack hanging from a dirty ribbon, he sees a half-torn letter and knows he has found what he came for. Striking up a conversation with D- [[about ]] a [[subject ]] he knows the minister is interested in, Dupin examines the letter more closely. It does not look like the letter the Prefect described so minutely; the [[writing ]] is different and it is sealed not with the ‘ducal arms of the S- [[family]], but with D’s monogram. Dupin notices that the paper is chafed as if the stiff paper was first rolled one way and then [[another]]. Dupin concludes that D- wrote a new address on the reverse of the stolen one, re-folded it the opposite way and sealed it with his own seal.

The narrator asks Dupin why he bothered to leave a duplicate. Dupin replies that, if he did not, he probably wouldn’t have [[left ]] the hotel alive! As a [[political ]] supporter of the Queen, he hopes that when D- produces the unopened letter it will mean the minister’s downfall. For the letter he left contains an insulting note: “Un dessein si funeste, S'il n'est digne d'Atrée, est digne de Thyeste.” Literally translated this means ''“If such a sinister [[design ]] isn't worthy of [[Atreus]], it is worthy of [[Thyestes]].”'' A more figurative [[translation ]] would be ''“What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”''

The story was used by the [[French ]] [[psychologist ]] [[Jacques Lacan]] and the [[philosopher ]] [[Jacques Derrida]] to [[present ]] opposing [[structuralism | structuralist]] [[interpretations]]. The two exchanged a series of letters concerning on the [[nature ]] of [[desire]].[http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/structuralism/purloined.html]

While a seemingly simple story, "The Purloined Letter" can open discussions regarding the taking of power, the [[Constitutional monarchy | position of the monarch]] and of [[Women in the Victorian era | women in 19th century society]], the nature of [[deductive reasoning]], and the [[literary ]] convention of the [[Gothic double]].

* [http://poestories.com/text.php?file=purloined Full text on PoeStories.com] with hyperlinked [[vocabulary ]] [[words]].*[http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/structuralism/purloined.html Dept. of English, fju.edu] analyzes the story with the help of [[diagrams]]!