Reading the world’s first modern mystery story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” I wonder if Poe made up the telling name of the street, or if there actually is a Rue Morgue in Paris. There are certainly morgues in the city, but I don’t think too many people in this neighborhood would be happy about the name.
Apparently yes, there is.
:smack: I could have had the idea of using Google Maps as well.
Thanks!
On Street View you can see an orangatan.
I’m confused. That placemark, though labelled Rue Morgue, is on Rue Des Pyramides if you view it on Street View. I don’t see a Rue Morgue anywhere near that placemark…
Well, you want to live in a city with history, you have to take the bad with the good. My neighborhood is on an old execution grounds, so the surrounding locations have names like “Bone Street” and “Bridge of Tears”.
The place mark appears to be fictitious, based on Poe’s story. The note attached to it has a quote from the story: “This is one of those miserable thoroughfares which intervene between the Rue Richelieu and the Rue St. Roch.” Rue Richelieu and Rue St. Roch both are real, and the place mark is located between them, but I can’t see a true Rue Morgue on the Google Maps either.
I don’t have an annotated Poe handy, but I’ve always believed that the place name was made up by Poe to lend atmosphere to the story.
Many street names have changed over the years. Maybe it was Rue Morgue in Poe’s day but has since been renamed? I imagine the residents would have been unhappy with living in the “Rue Morgue”, and might have petitioned the authorities to change it.
Well from wiki .
So I think it’s safe to assume that if there is a Rue Morgue (which there does not appear to be) it has nothing to do with Poe or his story.
I dunno - the address has a certain cachet.
Or it would have if morgue didn’t also translate as ‘arrogance’.
Valid point. I do happen to have an 1870s map of Paris at home that I will check tonight and post my findings.
I also have a book about Poe that deals with his life concentrating on the context of his later story ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogêt’. The book is The Beautiful Cigar Girl by Dan Stashower. I’ll check that as well and see if he mentions anything about how Poe chose the setting for ‘Rue Morgue’. The book is a mini-biography of Poe and is quite a good read.
(By the way, Dan Stashower did sign up as a member or guest several years ago to make a comment on Dex’s report on Sherlock Holmes. Stashower wrote a new annotated Sherlock Holmes collection that met with critical acclaim. Right now he has finished an annotated Dracula that will be released on October 31st.)
Awesome! I’ll be buying that! I, too, have* The Beautiful Cigar Girl * at home. There should be quite a flurry of interest in Poe this year, what with his 200th birthday forthcoming.
True that. I used to live in Martyrs’ Field Road in Canterbury in England, named for the Protestants burned there in the 16th century by Bloody Mary (Mary I).
So what’s the story with “Charring Cross”?
It’s Charing (with one r). The cross was erected by King Edward I as a memorial to his wife, Eleanor of Castile ( Charing Cross - Wikipedia ), though the cross is no longer there. I don’t know where the place name Charing comes from, but I don’t think it’s from anything having been burnt there.
Don’t you mean “ourang-outang”? 
It was explained to me that Charing Cross came from when King Edward’s wife died. He had her carried home and every where she was set down he erected a cross. Chere Reine Cross, meaning dear or loved ruler (or queen).
I bought that story as a youth, but cannot verify it.
Well, the story makes sense, but there’s a Charring Cross Drive near me.
I wonder if that is why Bob Dylan said “Don’t put on any airs when you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue”?
And wouldn’t that mean “Morgue Street Avenue”?
My ignorance, it burns.
There are those who like to think Poe chose the name ‘Morgue’ because of this ambiguity. Perhaps Mycroft H. can confirm or deny.
Speaking of Mycroft, both his illustrious brother and C. Auguste Dupin featured on Nicaraguan stamps in the early 1970s.