The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder [Mass Market Paperback]

Daniel Stashower (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2007

On July 28, 1841, the body of Mary Rogers, a twenty-year-old cigar girl, was found floating in the Hudson-and New York's unregulated police force proved incapable of solving the crime. One year later, a struggling writer named Edgar Allan Poe decided to take on the case-and sent his fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to solve the baffling murder of Mary Rogers in "The Mystery of Marie Rogt."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author of Edgar winner Teller of Tales now recounts the story of Manhattan tobacco store clerk Mary Rogers, a mysterious beauty whose posse of admirers made her a minor celebrity in 1841 in various newspapers' society pages. The discovery that year of her mutilated corpse fueled a public outcry and a newspaper circulation war, as well as a fictional magazine serial by Edgar Allan Poe featuring his famous detective Dupin speculating on the murder of working-class Parisian "Marie Rogêt." Poe rightly deduced that Mary wasn't a victim of the gang violence that plagued New York City in the absence of an effective police presence. But he came late to the accepted theory that Mary had died of a botched abortion and had to tweak his final installment to maintain his and Dupin's reputations. Although Stashower's account bogs down in comparisons of Poe's revisions of the Rogêt manuscript, it's a generally absorbing account of the birth of the modern detective story. The sordid details of Mary Rogers's stunted life pale in comparison with Poe's own love-starved childhood, self-destructive tidal wave of alcoholism, poverty and rants against publishers and rivals; Poe's genius and literary legacy are hauntingly drawn here. (Oct. 5)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Mystery novelist Stashower, who won a nonfiction Edgar for Teller of Tales (1999), a biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, returns to his historical roots in this examination of a celebrated murder in 1840s New York City that turned Edgar Allan Poe into an amateur sleuth. The text ably weaves the story of a young woman, celebrated for her beauty and her untimely death, with that of Poe, whose poems and stories often celebrated the deaths of young, beautiful women. Mary Rogers worked behind the counter of a cigar store in Manhattan in 1841; she was so beautiful that the store was jammed with her admirers. On July 28, 1831, three days after Rogers had gone missing, her body was found floating in the Hudson. The press seized on her murder, but the New York police force (depicted by Stashower as completely disorganized) failed to find her killer. One year later, Poe (just after the success of his detective Dupin in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue") proposed to his publisher that he investigate this famous cold case. Although Stashower works a bit hard to invest this murder with multiple levels of significance, it remains an intriguing story, one that sheds considerable light on the snares of a big city for a young woman. Expect this book to attract readers who were entranced by The Devil in the White City (2003), another account of crime in the nineteenth century. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (December 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425217825
• ISBN-13: 978-0425217825
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Reference

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Nevermore", November 6, 2006

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder (Hardcover)

Although this book holds itself out to be a review of the grisly murder of Mary Rogers in 1841 New York, it appears to, instead, turn into a biography of Edgar Allan Poe. That's not to say that this is a bad thing, but perhaps the title should have reflected that more than it does. The book is well written, with emphasis on what the newspapers of the time reported. That there is no solution to the murder mystery does dampen the enthusiasm of the reader somewhat, but that's what often happens when dealing with true crimes. I found the atmosphere presented very tangible, and I did enjoy the Poe biography (I've been to his grave in Baltimore), so the book held my interest. Perhaps others, not as interested in Poe as I am, will not find the book as enjoyable to read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One girl goes missing and transforms history, January 14, 2008

By 

C. Ebeling "ctlpareader" (PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder (Hardcover)

THE BEAUTIFUL CIGAR GIRL is attention-holding social and literary history nimbly written by Daniel Stashower. It is the story of a real crime committed in July 1841 in or about New York City that transfixed the media of the day, challenged Edgar Allan Poe to put his detective fiction theories to the test and transformed New York before eventually fading away in the public consciousness a few decades later.

If there is something to be learned by the ubiquitous episodes of the "Law and Order" and "CSI" franchises, it is that a murder is never straightforward. Just like those shows, when the lovely, alluring yet innocent seeming Manhattan store clerk who worked in a popular smoke shop frequented by men of all walks of life goes missing and her body is later found washing up near a waterfront park in Hoboken, New Jersey, Pandora's box is opened. Circumstantial evidence suggests connections to the city's gang culture and abortionists. There is a revolving door of individual suspects, too, who may or may not have been the victim's swains. The police department is largely night watchmen and process servers prone to corruption and unequal to the task of fighting and detecting crime. Then the media steps in and it is hyped beyond belief. In Philadelphia, where he has taken umbrage after burning just about every personal and professional bridge in New York, Poe reads the newspaper accounts and realizes that his ever-present money problems and professional ambitions could be resolved by inserting the fictive detecting methods he created for "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." He puts himself on the line, advertising that in his new story starring his detective Dupin, "The Mystery of Marie Roget," he will solve the puzzle.

To say more is to spoil this very real plot. I think Stashower does a fine job of balancing and interweaving the various strands of biography, social history, crime detection and the birth of detective fiction. He has a very direct but graceful way of writing and ordering his information. He evokes 19th century New York vividly. If you liked THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, then you should enjoy this. My only complaint, too small to demote the book a star, is that I wish the author were more explicit as to naming his sources when he quotes, for instance, "a writer of the day." There is a considerable bibliography at the end, but no idea which source gave up what information per se.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reads like a novel but it's a true story!, October 9, 2006

By 

Larry Kahaner "www.AK-47book.com" (Mclean, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder (Hardcover)

It's a true story, but The Beautiful Cigar Girl reads like a top-flight mystery novel. I'm a big fan of biographies, and Stashower makes this period come to life. This is a great follow-up to his "Teller of Tales" a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle for which he won the prestigous Edgar Award.
The final chapters read like something Poe himself might have written. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
It's too bad the rating system only goes to five stars!