Did you think that I actually walked into a bookstore yesterday and left with only one book? That was my intention, of course, but it didn't work out that way in the end. I took a slightly circuitous route--looked at the Thomas Hardy books (as I want to find The Woodlanders and Under the Greenwood Tree--will have to find used copies, I guess), but no luck. I also checked to see if they had this book on Guinevere (no!), as I won't be happy until I get to an Arthurian book (have several by my bed...)! That done, it was off to grab my copy of The Thirteenth Tale, and head straight for the cash register. And past the new fiction table....So, yes, I had to stop and look, and look some more. And I came away with The Thief Taker by Janet Gleeson (an 18th century mystery investigated by a "below the stairs" servant--sounds good!), and Passion by Jude Morgan (fictional tale of Byron, Keats, and Shelley's amours--sounds even better though I hope it is more literary than tawdry...the cover design and title lead you to think "romance novel"). I could have walked away with a couple more books, so all in all I thought I showed a little restraint anyway. Wagon? What wagon? I don't see any wagon, and I was never on one anyway...
And a little Poe update. Though I was struggling with him a tad bit, I hated to set down a book that has only 100 pages (and I was halfway through it). Once I allowed myself to read a small chunk, it wasn't hard to get back into it. For me this is slow reading. He writes well, but it is all solid paragraphs with very little dialog (at least with the second story). Though these are short stories, they really are not very typical. They seem much more like analytical writing--for lack of a better way to describe them. A while back when Dorothy posted about character vs. plot driven books, and I started paying more attention to this in my own reading. I am not sure where these stories fall. They are mysteries, but nothing much really happens. By the time we read about the events, the murder has been accomplished and M. Dupin is simply working out what really happened using only the newspaper clippings and his own deductive methodology. The unnamed narrator might ask him some questions along the way, but he is there only to tell the story. They really don't seem to do much more than smoke in darkened rooms and discuss murders! We never really get to know Dupin or the narrator, though, either. I have heard these Dupin stories are quite different than his other works, and I have to agree (based on my very limited knowledge--having only ever read his "The Cask of Amontillado" up until now). When Dorothy sayers said "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" reads "as almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice", she was certainly correct! I think this is particularly so with the second story, "The Murder of Marie Roget". So this leaves only the fairly short "The Purloined Letter", which I hope to finish up tonight, then I can move on to the Setterfield book with less guilt (I know....I shouldn't be guilty...but it still makes me feel better...!).