The Investigation

"I know not," continued Dupin, "what impression I may have made, so far, upon your own understanding; but I do not hesitate to say that legitimate deductions even from this portion of the testimony—the portion respecting the gruff and shrill voices—are in themselves sufficient to engender a suspicion which should give direction to all farther progress in the investigation of the mystery. I said 'legitimate deductions;' but my meaning is not thus fully expressed. I designed to imply that the deductions are the sole proper ones, and that the suspicion arises inevitably from them as the single result. What the suspicion is, however, I will not say just yet. I merely wish you to bear in mind that, with myself, it was sufficiently forcible to give a definite form—a certain tendency—to my inquiries in the chamber.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

The Murders in the Rue Morgue es un cuento de Edgar Allan Poe publicado en 1841. Ha sido descripto como la primera historia moderna de detectives. Dupin resuelve el misterio del brutal asesinato de dos mujeres.

Todos los testigos escucharon diferentes idiomas: podría haber sido en castellano, inglés, francés o ruso. No coinciden entre ellos. Era una voz gruesa. Más abajo unos párrafos de la historia en inglés.

En vocabulario encontramos outré, gruff, y denizens.

 

Los Crímenes de la Calle Morgue

Los Crímenes de la Calle Morgue (The Murders in the Rue Morgue) es un cuento de Edgar Allan Poe, publicado en 1841. Dupin investiga un crimen que parecía imposible para la policía.

Más abajo ponemos sobre la historia y algunos párrafos en inglés, y encontramos una foto del Rue Montmartre, donde vivía el detective Dupin.

Playing Soldier

'Hand me your key,' I said, 'and I'll take a look at the corpse. Excuse my caution, but I have to verify a bit if I can.'

He shook his head mournfully. 'I reckoned you'd ask for that, but I haven't got it. It's on my chain on the dressing-table. I had to leave it behind, for I couldn't leave any clues to start suspicions. The people who are after me are very smart. You'll have to take me on trust for the night, and tomorrow you'll get proof of the corpse business right enough.'

I thought for an instant or two. 'Right. I'll trust you for the night. I'll lock you into this room and keep the key. Just one word, Mr Scudder. I believe you're straight, but if so be you are not I should warn you that I'm a handy man with a gun.'

Dead

I was getting to like the little chap. His jaw had shut like a rat-trap, and there was the fire of battle in his gimlety eyes. If he was spinning me a yarn he could act up to it.

'Where did you find out this story?' I asked.

'I got the first hint in an inn on the Achensee in Tyrol. That set me inquiring, and I collected my other clues in a fur-shop in the Galician quarter of Buda, in a Strangers' Club in Vienna, and in a little bookshop off the Racknitzstrasse in Leipsic. I completed my evidence ten days ago in Paris. I can't tell you the details now, for it's something of a history. When I was quite sure in my own mind I judged it my business to disappear, and I reached this city by a mighty queer circuit. I left Paris a dandified young French-American, and I sailed from Hamburg a Jew diamond merchant. In Norway I was an English student of Ibsen collecting materials for lectures, but when I left Bergen I was a cinema-man with special ski films. And I came here from Leith with a lot of pulp-wood propositions in my pocket to put before the London newspapers. Till yesterday I thought I had muddied my trail some, and was feeling pretty happy.

The Conspiracy

'Do you wonder?' he cried. 'For three hundred years they have been persecuted, and this is the return match for the pogroms. The Jew is everywhere, but you have to go far down the backstairs to find him. Take any big Teutonic business concern. If you have dealings with it the first man you meet is Prince von und Zu Something, an elegant young man who talks Eton-and-Harrow English. But he cuts no ice. If your business is big, you get behind him and find a prognathous Westphalian with a retreating brow and the manners of a hog. He is the German business man that gives your English papers the shakes. But if you're on the biggest kind of job and are bound to get to the real boss, ten to one you are brought up against a little white-faced Jew in a bath-chair with an eye like a rattlesnake. Yes, Sir, he is the man who is ruling the world just now, and he has his knife in the Empire of the Tzar, because his aunt was outraged and his father flogged in some one-horse location on the Volga.'

A Strange Man

'Can I speak to you?' he said. 'May I come in for a minute?' He was steadying his voice with an effort, and his hand was pawing my arm.

I got my door open and motioned him in. No sooner was he over the threshold than he made a dash for my back room, where I used to smoke and write my letters. Then he bolted back.

'Is the door locked?' he asked feverishly, and he fastened the chain with his own hand.

'I'm very sorry,' he said humbly. 'It's a mighty liberty, but you looked the kind of man who would understand. I've had you in my mind all this week when things got troublesome. Say, will you do me a good turn?'

The Thirty-nine Steps

The Thirty-nine Steps es una novela de aventuras de 1915 del autor escocés John Buchan, publicada por primera vez por William Blackwood and Sons, Edimburgo. Es la primera de cinco novelas protagonizadas por Richard Hannay, un héroe lleno de acción, de carácter impasible y con un don para salir airoso de situaciones difíciles.

En el párrafo en inglés Hannay se sintió mal en Londres: el clima lo volvía melancólico, la forma de hablar lo enfermaba, no se ejercitó lo suficiente, y las diversiones le parecieron insípidas.

Más abajo ponemos una pequeña síntesis de la historia. El hombre llega desde Rodesia, en África, una colonia británica, a Inglaterra y naturalmente no se siente cómodo.

Para los que estudian inglés fijáte que es liverish y el sentido de stiff upper lip.

Treinta y Nueve Escalones

Hay novelas que muestran todo su esplendor una vez que se ha leído un buen número de páginas. Este no es el caso de “Treinta y Nueve Escalones”. Esta novela empieza a desarrollar la intriga, la emoción, el suspenso, desde el principio. Un hombre se acerca al protagonista para describir una conspiración internacional. Su vida peligra y el protagonista Richard Hannay… El autor es el escocés John Buchan y es considerada una novela clásica. Alfred Hitchcock la llevó al cine en 1935, Orson Wells la protagonizó en una adaptación para la radio, la BBC la puso en el aire y Glenn Ford también fue protagonista en otra adaptación. Señores, “Treinta y Nueve Escalones”…

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Es una película de comedia de terror americana de 1948 dirigida por Charles Barton y protagonizada por Abbott y Costello. Es la primera de varias películas en las que el dúo de comedia reúne personajes clásicos del horror del establo de Universal Pictures. En esta película se encuentran con el conde Drácula, el monstruo de Frankenstein y el Hombre Lobo, mientras que películas posteriores se emparejan con la Momia, Dr. Jekyll y Mr. Hyde, y el hombre invisible. En un especial de televisión de la década de 1950, los dos hacen un sketch en el que interactuaron con el último monstruo original de Universal Studios, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was born in 1797 and died in 1851 in Somers Town, London. She was best known for Frankenstein. She conceived the idea for her novel in Geneva, Switzerland where she was spending a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori and Claire Clairmont, her stepsister.
She was married to the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Mary Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Her works often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society.
She wrote of her authorial ambitions: "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea."

La Carta de Elizabeth

La carta de Elizabeth a su primo, Víctor Frankenstein, revela el cariño que le tenía. Además nos anticipa el trágico final de Justine Moritz.

Queridísimo primo,

Has estado enfermo pero unas líneas de tu parte serían suficientes para tranquilizarnos. Le aconsejé al tío no viajar a Ingolstadt pero quisiera estar allí personalmente atendiéndote como una enfermera. Te imagino en manos de una vieja enfermera que no puede adivinar tus deseos ni atenderte de la forma que lo hubiera hecho tu pobre prima. Sin embargo todo eso ya pasó. Clerval me escribe que estas mejor y espero que confirmes eso de tu propia mano.

Elizabeth´s Letter

"My dearest Cousin,

"You have been ill, very ill, and even the constant letters of dear kind Henry are not sufficient to reassure me on your account. You are forbidden to write—to hold a pen; yet one word from you, dear Victor, is necessary to calm our apprehensions. For a long time I have thought that each post would bring this line, and my persuasions have restrained my uncle from undertaking a journey to Ingolstadt. I have prevented his encountering the inconveniences and perhaps dangers of so long a journey, yet how often have I regretted not being able to perform it myself! I figure to myself that the task of attending on your sickbed has devolved on some mercenary old nurse, who could never guess your wishes nor minister to them with the care and affection of your poor cousin. Yet that is over now: Clerval writes that indeed you are getting better. I eagerly hope that you will confirm this intelligence soon in your own handwriting.