Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/260

240 'Tales of Pseudo-Science,' Poe sought the verisimilitude of Defoe and Swift. Perhaps his greatest successes are The MS. Found in a Bottle and A Descent into the Maelström. In these and many other similar tales Poe furnished the inspiration for Jules Verne's probable impossibilities. In the 'Tales of Ratiocination' Poe laid the foundation for the modern school of 'detective stories.' In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Rogȇt, The Gold Bug, and The Purloined Letter, Poe solved mysteries by the; detective's process of analysis."

These divisions are also those made in the scholarly edition of Stedman and Woodberry, though Nettleton omits the "Tales of Illusion," such as The Premature Burial, and the "Tales of Extravaganza and Caprice," beginning with The Due de L' Omelette and ending with Mellonta Tauta. He also omits, as not belonging to the short story, "Tales of Adventure and Exploration," which contain Poe's two longest narrative efforts. The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym and The Journal of Julius Rodman. But a simpler classification is that of Leon Kellner. "Three species of stories," he says, "are to be distinguished: 'Psychological Problems for Their Own Sake,' (Ligeia), 'Pseudo-Scientific Phantasies' (A Descent into the Maelström), and 'Ingenious Disentanglements' (The Purloined Letter). An unparalleled boldness of invention, a masterly structure, and a compelling logic are common to all."

What, then, is the nature of the masterly structure, the compelling logic, common to the three spe-