The Beautiful Cigar Girl Audiobook By Daniel Stashower cover art

The Beautiful Cigar Girl

Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder

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The Beautiful Cigar Girl

By: Daniel Stashower
Narrated by: Matt Weisgerber
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On July 28, 1841, the body of Mary Rogers, a twenty-year-old cigar girl, was found floating in the Hudson-and New York's unregulated police force proved incapable of solving the crime. One year later, a struggling writer named Edgar Allan Poe decided to take on the case-and sent his fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to solve the baffling murder of Mary Rogers in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt."

©2006 Daniel Stashower (P)2023 Tantor Americas Crime Literary History & Criticism Organized Crime True Crime United States World Literature New York Murder

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The Hour of Peril Audiobook By Daniel Stashower cover art
The Hour of Peril By: Daniel Stashower
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At first I thought it was just the whiny, petulant tone of the reader’s voice, but as I continued, I realized that the callowness of a narrator who changes the pronunciation of significant proper names matched well with writing, which presented hyperbolic quotes from the time without cultural context.

Poe’s marriage to his 13 year old cousin is just mentioned and accepted. The complete lack of autonomy of most women at the time is completely elided except to portray the few women who do take an active hand in controlling their own lives as scoundrels and villains. (While Poe was off on his binges m, no real consideration is given to his ailing child-wife or his aunt, who seem to be keeping things functioning at home. Or maybe not. They scarcely exist as individuals and more as loving pets.)

There are lengthy passages railing against the abortionists of the era with no context to the role they played in the society. It’s seems clear that the entire abortion issue was a distraction from the original case, but it’s easy to lose track of that given the extent of the quotes included.

TL;DR
A few interesting facts are strung together with a great deal of contradictory research to create a book which offers no perspective or real humanity.

It’s too long
Don’t read

Indulgent and Shallow

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Please don't ever let this dude read any more audiobooks until he learns words and how to say them.

To whom it may concern

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