La scimmia ladra e la scimmia assassina (da Scott a Poe)

Abstract

This essay compares the famous story of Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, published for the first time in 1841, to Walter Scott’s “Wandering Willie’s Tale”, which appeared in Redgauntlet (1824). In Scott’s fantastic story a monkey plays an important role, especially in pointing towards a rational solution of the story: namely that of being guilty of the theft of some items (a receipt, a bag of money), which are believed to have mysteriously disappeared. Poe, who must have known Scott’s writings well, uses a monkey killer that has important features in common with the monkey thief in the story by Scott.