I have a question about the meaning of the phrase that Dupin write in “the purloined letter”: " —— Un dessein si funeste, S'il n'est digne d'Atrée, est digne de Thyeste." They are to be found in Crébillon's "Atrée." I have never read this book (“Atree”) but I know a little bit of Greek Mythology and if I’m right I think Atree take revenge of Thyeste giving his sons to eat. But I can’t understand the real meaning of the message(s) that Dupin wants to give D______. Is it shows just that one is more intelligent than the other? Or is something more complex. Thanks for your commentaries. ---Sorry for my grammar---

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2003

Answers

That Thyestes IS more clever on turning the ttables and having the last say, that he is more justified than the cursed, unjustified attack of Atreus. Yet that both have exacted cruel, surprising revenge. And that Dupin's foe had been thwarted in his latest plot by a victim from the past. And yes, Poe prefers the suggestive more than the exact, making his closers often more moody than conventionally clean. I am sure his contemporaries had the same problems as his modern readers except educated people of his age were more familiar with classical and European culture.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2003