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Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin is a brilliant French detective. He uses his incredible intellect, combined with an ability to put him self into the criminal's mind to solve cases. Dupin referred to this process of deduction as "ratiocination."

Little is known about Dupin prior to his most famous case, the Murders in the Rue Morgue. He's known to have come from a wealthy family, although that wealth has seems to have run out for him. He also bears the title of Chevalier meaning that he is a knight.

Dupin's adventures are catalogued by an unnamed man and published in the newspaper (similarly to Sherlock Holme's companion, Dr. Watson). They happened to meet when they accidentally tried to buy the same book. Dupin and the man subsequently moved into an old mansion where they spend their days indoors reading and nights out on the town. Soon after moving in together, they start their first case together: the Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Successfully solving the case, Dupin and the unnamed man consult the French police on more cases. These cases are known as the Mystery of Marie Rogêt and the Purloined Letter.

At some point after these mysteries, Dupin retired. It is not known what became of the unnamed man. At the end of the 1800s, Dupin is brought out of retirement when it seems the Rue Morgue case has opened again once more.

Biography[]

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Dupin (1841)

History[]

C. Auguste Dupin, was born to an illustrious family. It's never mentioned how, but a series of events caused Dupin to lose family fortune. However, he is still given an allowance which he mostly spends on books. At some point, Dupin was given the rank of Chevalier.

During one summer, Dupin runs into a man (whose name we never learn) that is searching for the same book as him. The two quickly hit it off and decide to live together. They soon rent a dilapidated mansion in poor section of the Faubourg St. Germain. Auguste Dupin and the unnamed man spend all of their days reading books and having long discussions while going out on the town at night. They kept no other contact with anyone but each other.

One night, Dupin shows off his extraordinary analytical abilities to his unnamed friend. While walking through the streets in almost total silence for fifteen minutes, Dupin was able to show he could deduce what his companion had been thinking. This establishes Dupin as a master of a form of deduction called "ratiocination."

The Murders in the Rue Morgue[]

In 1841, Dupin investigated the murder of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter Camille L'Espanaye. The bodies had been brutally savaged. Madame L'Espanaye was left with multiple broken bones and her head cut nearly clean off. Camille was found strangled to death with her body stuffed up a chimney. Despite having no real evidence against him, the police arrested Adolphe Le Bon. This was due to the fact that he had delivered gold to them the day before.

After taking one look at the crime scene, Dupin was able to deduce that the criminal was an orangutan (or Ourang-Outang as the story calls it). Dupin then puts an ad in the newspaper for a missing orangutan. A sailor answers the call and is reunited with his pet orangutan. Le Bon is then released from prison.

Retirement[]

Later in life, Dupin retired from detective work. Not much is known about his life during this period. It's assumed he spent a great deal of his time reading, as he claims to read a lot.

The Return of the Rue Morgue[]

In April of 1898, a prostitute named Anna Coupeau was murdered in the Rue Morgue. Shortly after, other murders followed. They all contained the same supernatural strength as the Murders in the Rue Morgue did. Dupin partly decided to re-open his old case because of his history. However, he mostly resumed it due to having known Coupeau personally. He knew how hard her life was before the murder and promptly came out of retirement.

Notably, Dupin's companion, the unnamed man, doesn't aid in this new investigation. It is unknown what happened to him once Dupin retired from detective work.

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Dupin meets Allan and Mina

Auguste Dupin corresponds with Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain in late June to help them find a missing English doctor. He believes their case may coincide with his own. Dupin walks them through Paris while explaining what happened in the Rue Morgue more than fifty years prior. He then links that case to the string of prostitutes that had been recently murdered. Mina says how the recent murders sounds familiar to London's Whitechapel murders from ten years prior. She wonders if the missing doctor from that case might be the doctor they are looking for and the murderer. Dupin refutes this as he explains an ape-like figure was spotted fleeing the crime scenes.

Mina then dresses up as a prostitute so they can bait the killer while Quatermain and Dupin keep watch. Quatermain, having gone off to buy some Laudanum, loses track of Mina. Dupin berates him and chats with a prostitute to find her. The prostitute says she went off with a skinny, English doctor named Henry. Quatermain deduces that Mina must've gone with Henry as she believed him to be the missing doctor. Dupin and Quatermain are then able to locate Mina as soon as the situation gets out of hand. Drawing their pistols, find Mina frightened and with a bloody nose. Dupin quickly runs to her aid. She says she thought she could handle the doctor but then something happened to him. Quatermain walks into a dark room but is immediately hit over the head with a walking stick and knocked unconscious.

Capturing Edward[]

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Edward reveals himself

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Dupin shoots Edward

Just then, a giant ape-like monster, claiming to be named Edward, bursts through the doorframe. Dupin immediately draws his pistol and shoots Edward in the face. Unfortunately, he only shoots it's ear off which enrages the beast. Quatermain then regains consciousness and jumps on the monster's back. He bites at its ear while Edward tries to get him off. Quatermain then shoves his bottle of Laudanum into Edward's mouth. Edward flings Quatermain off his back. Dupin loads his gun and goes for another shot, but Edward easily slaps his his gun away. The Laudanum proved to be useful after all as the monster then becomes unconscious and falls out of a window. Mina, Dupin, and Quatermain rush downstairs to check on the body. They notice Edward seems to have taken very little damage from his fall. Mina explains to them that Edward didn't look like that when she first met him. She isn't able to explain how but he just changed. Meaning, during their encounter alone, Henry changed into Edward. Using his contacts, Dupin arranges for a cart to take Edward's unconscious body down to the docks. At the docks, Dupin is astounded by the sight of the Nautilus, believing he would never live to see it. He reveals to Mina that he knows about her incident from the previous year. Dupin bids her farewell and watches the Nautilus sink into the ocean.

Personality[]

Auguste Dupin is known for his stern personality. He can be very curt with people when he finds them to be rude. Underneath his harder exterior, Dupin actually shows himself to be deeply empathetic, mostly toward women. His main reason for reopening his old case was due to the fact that he knew Coupeau personally and felt a great deal of sympathy towards her as she suffered a hard life. Dupin even stands up for Mina when he sees Allan scolding her.

Immensely brave, Dupin barely flinched when faced with Edward. He looked the monster right in the eyes and shot him during the struggle. Mina in her journal comments on Dupin's bravery, describing him as being "made of sterner stuff," despite his older age.

The trait Dupin is most famously known for is his incredibly shrew intelligence. His analytical problem solving abilities was so renowned, the police often went to him for advice on a case. Auguste Dupin's powers of deduction rival that of the more famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. A lot of Dupin's cases come from newspaper as he is known for being an avid reader.

Powers and Abilities[]

  • Intelligence: Dupin is know for having a deeply vast knowledge of many topics. He is assumed to have gained this knowledge from all the reading he does in his spare time.
  • Deduction: Being a detective means being able to problem solve and Dupin is one of the best. Throughout all of his cases he shows his incredibly exacting analytical abilities through a process called ratiocination. At the Rue Morgue, he was able to solve the case just by looking at the crime scene once. His abilities are so finely tuned he was able to deduce what his friend had been thinking after fifteen minutes of silence.
  • Observation: Dupin wasn't able to solve the murder that occurred at the Rue Morgue without his fantastic observational skills. He could tell just by observing that the crime had been perpetrated by any man. The culprit ended up being an orangutan. Dupin was only able to figure this out through a deeply close look at the scene.

Equipment[]

  • Walking stick
  • Hand gun

Relationships[]

Family[]

  • Unnamed Parents

Allies[]

Enemies[]

Source material[]

Dupin was the creation of Edgar Allan Poe and appeared in "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" and "The Purloined Letter" and is credited with establishing, to the greatest degree, the genre of detective fiction.

References[]

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