The members of the secret police appearing in these stories have all a
vague likeness to Vidocq, whose alleged memoirs were published in 1828,
a few years before the author of the 'Human Comedy' began to deal with
the scheming of the underworld. Balzac's spies and his detectives are
not convincing, despite his utmost effort; and we do not believe in
their preternatural acuteness. Even in the conduct of their intrigues
we are lost in a murky mistiness. Balzac is at his best when he is
arousing the emotions of recognition; and he is at his worst when he
sinks to evoking the emotions of surprize.


III

In the true detective-story as Poe conceived it in the 'Murders of the
Rue Morgue,' it is not in the mystery itself that the author seeks to
interest the reader, but rather in the successive steps whereby his
analytic observer is enabled to solve a problem that might well be
dismist as beyond human elucidation. Attention is centered on the
unraveling of the tangled skein rather than on the knot itself. The
emotion aroused is not mere surprize, it is recognition of the
unsuspected capabilities of the human brain; it is not a wondering
curiosity as to an airless mechanism, but a heightening admiration for
the analytic acumen capable of working out an acceptable answer to the
puzzle propounded. In other words, Poe, while he availed himself of the
obvious advantages of keeping a secret from his readers and of leaving
them guessing as long as he pleased, shifted the point of attack and
succeeded in giving a human interest to his tale of wonder.

And by this shift Poe transported the detective-story from the group of