T E A C H E R ’ S M AT E R I A L

Burlington

The Murders in
International
Readers

B1+
the Rue Morgue
and other stories
Edgar Allan Poe

B u rlin g ton I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E A D E R

CONTENTS

To the Teacher 2

Before Reading 4

After Reading: Extra Challenges 5

Final Test 6

Answers to Final Test 8

Book Report 9

Answers to Activities in the Reader 10

Before using the following teacher’s material, we recommend that

you visit the Teacher’s Zone at www.burlingtonbooks.es
and consult the Burlington International Reader Series
general information leaflet. The Final Test in this teacher’s
material is also available in editable Word format from the website.
The Student’s Zone on the site offers audio MP3 recordings and
a printable book report form.
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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue
to the teacher
List of Main Characters

The Masque of the Red Death The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Prince Prospero: a ruler with many castles, August Dupin: a man with an
unconcerned about his people. analytical mind who helps the police
The Red death: a stranger at the Prince’s masked solve murders.
ball. The narrator: a friend of August Dupin.

The Pit and the Pendulum

The narrator: a prisoner sentenced to death by the
Spanish Inquisition.

Plot Summaries

The Masque of the Red Death

The Red Death has devastated the country and killed more than half the population, but Prince Prospero is
not concerned. To escape the dangers of the plague, the Prince takes a 1000 of his healthy friends to one of
his distant castles and has the gates sealed, so nobody can enter or leave. The Prince provides everything
that his guests need, including entertainment.
One night, the Prince arranges a masked ball. Everyone wears strange costumes and people dance from
room to room. Then, a stranger appears dressed as the Red Death. The Prince is furious and attacks the
stranger, but as he approaches the masked figure, the Prince falls down dead. Some of the Prince’s friends
grab the stranger and pull off his mask, but there is nothing inside. The stranger is the Red Death and has
brought the plague to the castle. Soon, everybody is dead.
The Pit and the Pendulum
After the narrator of this story is condemned to death by the judges of the Spanish Inquisition, he is put into
a terrifying, pitch-black cell. He doesn’t know how, or when, he will die. While trying to feel his way
around the cell, he discovers a deep pit in the middle which he just manages to avoid falling into. The
narrator falls asleep and when he awakes, there is light in the room and he is now on a wooden bed and is
tied to it by a long leather strap. Above him, a sharp blade on a pendulum is swinging slowly and
descending so that it will eventually cut him across his heart. Then, rats come out of the pit and start to eat
the meat that has been left for him. He has the idea of rubbing the meat juices on the strap to attract the
rats. They chew through the strap and he escapes from the blade. After this, the walls of the cell start to get
hot and move in towards the pit. Just when it seems that nothing can save the narrator from death, a French
general comes and he is saved.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
August Dupin and the narrator read in the newspaper about the gruesome murders of Madame L’Espanaye
and her daughter, Camille, in the Rue Morgue in Paris. Madame L’Espanaye’s throat was cut and her
daughter was strangled. The newspaper reports that Camille’s body was found pushed up the chimney of
their house, while her mother’s body was found behind the building. Strangely, the door and the windows
of the house were locked on the inside. Several witnesses heard two voices, one deep and the other high,
arguing when they entered the building.
The police are baffled by the case, so Dupin decides to investigate. Dupin and the narrator go to the scene
of the murders, where Dupin examines everything. On their return home, Dupin tells the surprised narrator
that he has already solved the crime and that the police have missed several clues. He reveals that he
noticed that the bolt of one window at the back of the house was broken and it only looked like it was
locked from the inside. He also noticed a lightning-rod on the building and concluded that an agile person
could jump from the open shutter of the window to the lightning-rod and escape. Dupin tells the narrator
that in addition, he found some animal fur in Madame L’Espanaye’s hand, and he believes the murders
were committed by an orang-utang. In order to prove his theory, he has already placed an advertisement in

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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue
to the teacher (continued)
the newspaper offering to return the orang-utang to its owner. A French sailor answers the advertisement
and confirms Dupin’s theory that the animal killed the two women. He explains how the orang-utang
escaped from his house with the sailor’s razor, ran into the street behind the Rue Morgue, climbed up the
lightning-rod and into the house. The sailor followed the animal, but he couldn’t get into the house. All he
could do was watch the horrific events. As the orang-utang approached the window, the sailor ran away.
Eventually, the sailor catches the orang-utang and sells it. Dupin explains to the police the mistakes that
they made, which embarrasses the head of police.

Background

• The Masque of the Red Death was published in 1842 and the idea for it may well have come from
the Black Death, or Great Plague, which swept over Europe in the 14th century.
• The Pit and the Pendulum was published in 1843. It is set at the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
The theme of the story is man’s inhumanity to man.
• The Murders in the the Rue Morgue was published in 1841 and is regarded as the first modern
detective story. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle didn’t start to publish the Sherlock Holmes stories until 1887.

About the Author

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, USA, in 1809. His parents died when he was three years old
and he was put into foster care. From 1815 to 1820, Poe and his foster family lived in England, where
he was educated.
Back in the USA, Poe studied for a year at the University of Virginia, where he did well in Latin and
French, but had to leave when he got into debt and started gambling to try to pay it off. Drinking and
gambling were problems that followed Poe all his life.
After leaving university, Poe went into the army and then got a job in journalism. His first volume of
poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems, was published anonymously in 1827. In 1835, Poe got a job
as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. He increased the circulation of the newspaper from 500 to
3,500 copies. Poe left the newspaper in 1836, complaining of the salary. Poe lived in his aunt’s house in
Baltimore and in 1836, he married her daughter, Virginia. He then began to publish his stories in magazines.
In 1840, he joined Graham’s Magazine as an editor. It was during this time that one of his best-known
stories, The Fall of the House of Usher, was published. Poe’s poem The Raven was published in New York
in 1845, and became one of the most famous supernatural poems in American literature. It brought him
immediate fame but not financial security, and he and his family continued to suffer great poverty. His wife
died of tuberculosis in 1847, after which he did not write very much. His drinking problem worsened and
he also suffered from nervous disorders.
In 1849, Poe was found unconscious and died in hospital five days later, without ever regaining
consciousness. The cause of his death was never definitely established.

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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Before reading
Suggestions for Lead-in Activities

Ask the questions and elicit the answers from the whole class. Some possible answers are provided in
italics. If you prefer, students can work in pairs or small groups.
1. What is a castle like? (It’s a large high stone building with thick walls. There are slits for soldiers to
shoot arrows to the outside. Inside, there are big rooms, often with a fireplace.) What was the purpose
of a castle in the past? (Powerful rulers often built castles to defend themselves and their people against
invaders.)
2. How do people protect themselves from illness and disease? (Stay away from people who are ill; wear
protective masks / gloves; swash their hands; get immunisations.)
3. Do you think a ruler or government is responsible for the health of its citizens? (Yes, the government
must provide healthcare for the people. / No, everyone is responsible for their own health.)
4. What do you know about the Inquisition? (The most notorious time during the Inquistion in the 15th
and 16th century. People who were suspected of being heretics were tried and, if found guilty, sentenced
to death or tortured.)
5. Do you enjoy detective stories? Why / Why not? Do you know any famous detectives in literature?
(Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple)
6. What do you think makes a good detective story? (suspense, an unexpected ending, solving what seems
to be an impossible mystery)

Before Reading Activities

The Before Reading Tasks in the Burlington International Readers general information leaflet, pages 9-13
can be applied to The Murders in the Rue Morgue and other stories.
1. Look at the picture on page 8 and read the caption. Why do you think the woman is running away?
(Because the man is ill and she is scared of catching the disease.)
2. Read the third paragraph on page 10. What is the atmosphere like? (The atmosphere seems party-like,
but then seems sinister when the clock strikes and everybody stops dancing and laughing.)
3. Read the first paragraph on page 18. What is happening to the narrator? (He is on trial and is sentenced
to death.)
4. Look at the picture on page 23. What is strange about the dungeon? (It has got strange scary images on
the walls.) Why do you think they are there? (To scare the prisoner.)
5. Look at the picture on page 26 and read the caption. What is happening to the prisoner now? (He is
lying under a swinging pendulum and can’t move away from it.)
6. Read the first paragraph on page 36 and look at the picture. Describe August Dupin. (He is an
interesting man with a brilliant mind. He likes to solve mysteries. He has got blond curly hair. The top
of his head is bald. He has got a moustache and a small beard. He is wearing a monocle.)
7. Look at the picture on pages 40-41. What can you see? (The furniture has been thrown around and
there is blood on the furniture and walls.) What do you think happened? (It looks like there was a
violent attack. At least one person has been killed.)
8. Read the paragraph on page 47 that starts, “Let’s go back to the room itself”. Why is Dupin convinced
that there was no motive for the crime? (Because the killer didn’t take any of the gold in the room.)

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After reading: Extra challenges
Make Your Students Think

Here are some suggestions that more advanced students can be asked to consider after reading the stories.
1. Imagine the Red Death has spread to your area. What would you do? What do you think the government
should do?
2. Why was Prince Prospero a bad ruler?
3. What is Poe trying to tell us in the story The Masque of the Red Death?
4. How does Poe create an atmosphere of tension in The Pit and the Pendulum? Choose two paragraphs
that you think are particularly effective.
5. How do you think the instigators of the Inquisition justified their actions?
6. The Murders in the Rue Morgue took place in 1840. If the same crime had been committed today, how
do you think the police would have investigated it differently?

DRAMA ACTIVITIES AND PROJECT SUGGESTIONS

1. 
Imagine you are living in Prince Prospero’s country. Write a letter to the Prince asking for help for your
family.
2. Work in pairs. One of you is a guest of Prince Prospero and the other is a reporter. Write the interview
about what it is like in the palace. Act out the conversation for the class.
3. Design Prince Prospero’s invitation to the ball. Remind the guests that they must wear the costume
Prince Prospero has designed for them.
4. Imagine you are a reporter watching the trial of the narrator from The Pit and the Pendulum. Write
an article for the newspaper describing the trial.
5. Work in pairs. One of you is the narrator from The Pit and the Pendulum and the other is the
interviewer. Write the interview with the narrator. Ask him about his experiences and how he felt.
Act out the the conversation for the class.
6. Draw a diagram of the dungeon from The Pit and the Pendulum. Label all the items in the room.
7. Work in pairs. One of you is a policeman working on the investigation of the murders in the Rue
Morgue and the other is a friend. Write your conversation after Dupin solves the crime. Tell your friend
how you feel.
8. Imagine you are Dupin. Write your report to the police. Explain your conclusions and where the police
have gone wrong in their investigations.
9. Choose one of the characters from the book. The rest of the class must ask you 10 questions to find out
who you are. You can only answer, Yes, I am / No, I’m not, Yes, I do / No, I don’t, Yes, I have / No,
I haven’t.
10. Search the Internet for information about Toledo or Paris. Write a paragraph about one of these places
and present it to the class.

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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue
FINAL TEST
A Read each sentence below. Then explain what it tells us about the characters
in bold.
1. Prince Prospero went to one of his castles and wasn’t troubled by the death of so many people.
.
2. The narrator of The Pit and the Pendulum measured the dimensions of his dungeon.
.
3. The members of the Inquisition watched as the prisoner suffered in his cell.
.
4. The police often asked Dupin to help them solve unusual cases.
.
5. The sailor was prepared to tell Dupin his story even though he didn’t expect Dupin to believe him.
.
15 points (3 points each)

B Write T (true) or F (false) next to each sentence. Then give evidence based on the
story to support your answer.
1. The guests at Prince Prospero’s ball were impatient to enter the black room.

2. Prince Prospero was glad to see the stranger.

3. The narrator of The Pit and the Pendulum knew he wasn’t in a condemned cell.

4. The narrator in The Pit and the Pendulum was given drugs to make him sleep.

5. Dupin was especially interested in the high voice the neighbours heard.

6. The sailor captured the orang-utang to commit the murders.

18 points (3 points each)

C Write the correct character/s to complete each sentence.

1. was amazed by his friend’s way of thinking.
2. cared more about his pleasure than other people’s suffering.
3. saved the prisoner from falling.
4. was a friend of the chief of police.
5. took 4,000 francs in gold out of the bank.
6. answered an advertisement in the newspaper.
7. came to the ball with clothes dripping with blood.
14 points (2 points each)

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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue
FINAL TEST (continued)
D Complete the sentences according to the story.
1. Every hour, when the huge black clock struck, making a strange sound, the dancers
.
2. The narrator rubbed the oily meat juice on the strap that tied him to the bed and
.
3. Dupin’s friend looked closely at the hair in Madame L’Espanaye’s hand and noticed
.
6 points (3 points each)

E Which story do each of the sentences refer to? Write the correct letter next to
each sentence.
a. The Masque of the Red Death
b. The Pit and the Pendulum
c. The Murders in the Rue Morgue
1. The people disapproved of the uninvited guest.
2. All the windows and doors were locked from the inside.
3. He dropped his sword and fell down dead.
4. The razor blade had blood on it.
5. The woman’s body was found outside.
6. He didn’t know how he was going to die.
7. At first, there was complete darkness.
8. Music was playing and people were dancing.
9. He wondered if he was already in his tomb.
9 points (1 point each)

F Answer the following questions.

1. What did the strange masked figure do after he arrived in the blue room and how did the guests
react?
2. How did the narrator in The Pit and the Pendulum realise that there was a pit in the centre of his
prison room?
3. Why did the orang-utang first take the razor?
4. What did the sailor do after he saw the orang-utang throw Madame L’Espanaye’s body out of the
window?
8 points (2 points each)

G Write a paragraph about one of the following topics. The paragraph should be at
least 100 words long.
1. How did Poe show us that Prospero was a selfish and irresponsible ruler?
2. How did Poe introduce the idea of hope into The Pit and the Pendulum?
3. What were the important clues that helped Dupin solve the mystery of the murders in the Rue
Morgue?
30 points

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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue
answers to FINAL TEST
A 1. The Prince was only concerned with himself.
2. H
 e was curious and intelligent. Even in his terrible situation, he forced himself to use his brain.
He didn’t just accept his fate.
3. They were cruel and unfeeling.
4. Dupin was a clever and observant man. He looked beyond the obvious.
5. The sailor wanted the truth to be known even if his story caused him trouble.

B 1. F. None of the dancers dared to go into the black room.

2. F. The Prince shook with terror and grew angry.
3. T. There was no light in his cell. Condemned cells had some light.
4. T. He couldn’t keep his eyes open after he had drunk the water.
5. T. He was interested because the witnesses couldn’t agree on the language spoken.
6. F. The sailor captured the orang-utang to sell and make money.

C 1. The narrator of the Rue Morgue 5. Madame L’Espanaye

2. Prince Prospero 6. The sailor
3. General Lasalle 7. The Red Death
4. August Dupin

D 1. stopped dancing, forgot their happiness and became afraid.

2. the rats jumped on the narrator and ate through the strap which freed him.
3. that it was fur, not human hair.
E 1. a 2. c 3. a 4. c 5. c 6. b 7. b 8. a 9. b

F 1. He moved slowly through each of the seven rooms. The guests were frightened. They moved back
against the walls of the rooms and did not try to stop him.
2. He fell while trying to explore his prison cell. He felt his body and chin on the floor of the cell, but
his lips and forehead touched nothing. He put out his hand and understood that there was a pit in the
centre of the floor.
3. It wanted to try to shave as it had seen the sailor do.
4. He was terrified and returned home in a hurry.

G Accept any logical and grammatically correct answers. Possible points for inclusion.
1. P
 oe described the horrible conditions of the population and how the Prince was unaffected by the
misery of his people. Even though Prospero knew that thousands of people were dying, he took his
friends from court to a distant castle. Poe emphasised the Prince’s selfish behaviour again by writing
about how the Prince and his guests were happy in his castle, away from the suffering and dying. Poe
also contrasted the horror of the Red Death with Prospero’s plans for a masked ball.
2. E
 ven though the narrator in The Pit and the Pendulum faced terrifying events in his cell and he
sometimes felt total despair, he didn’t give up thinking that somehow he could save himself. Even
when he was strapped to the bed and there didn’t seem to be any escape from the swinging pendulum,
he thought of ways to free himself. For example, he thought of how the pendulum could cut the strap
and he could escape. The narrator said that “hope remains even during torture”.
3. D
 upin noticed that the witnesses didn’t agree on the language the speaker with the high voice was
speaking. He also couldn’t find a motive for the crime – the murderer didn’t take the gold in the
house. Dupin discovered the broken bolt on the window, so he could explain how the murderer
escaped. He also realised that the murderer was very agile. Finally, Dupin noticed the fur in the older
woman’s hand and the unusual fingerprints on Camille’s neck, which weren’t made by a human hand.

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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue

BURLINGTON International READER B1+/B2

Write a book report. Include in your report the following information:
1. The titles, author, genres, characters and settings.
2. A summary of the plots and description of the main characters.
3. Your opinion of the book and a recommendation.

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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue
answers to activities in the reader
The Masque of the Red Death The Pit and the Pendulum
PRE-READING ACTIVITIES (page 7) PRE-READING ACTIVITIES (page 17)

1 1. look after 4. deadly 7. court 1 1. fearless 5. coward

2. grew red 5. sealed 2. troubled 6. weakness
3. crowd 6. evil 3. strength 7. whispered
4. buried
2 1. d 2. f 3. b 4. a 5. c 6. e
2 1. courtroom 4. fate
3 Accept all logical and grammatically
2. breathe 5. struggle
correct answers.
3. despair
CHAPTERS 1-2 ACTIVITIES (pages 14-15) 3 Accept all logical and grammatically
correct answers.
1 Possible answer
 he people outside were suffering, dying from the
T
CHAPTERS 1-2 ACTIVITIES (pages 24-25)
plague and scared. The people in the castle were
carefree and happy.
1 Possible answers
2 1. ✗ 3. ✗ 4. ✗ a 
It makes it more frightening because he tells us
how he was feeling and explained his terror.
1. 
He was unaffected by the effect of the plague
on the population. b I think we would feel even more sympathy for the
narrator if we knew more about him.
3. 
He was terrified at first by the strange guest.
2 1. friends members of the Inquisition. His tormentors.
4. He ran after the stranger.
2. shirt robe
3 2. ✗ 3. ✗ 3. against the wall into the pit
2. He moved slowly among the dancers. 4. the ground a low wooden bed
3. Under his costume there was nobody.
3 1. H
 e was desperate because he was sentenced to
4 1. firelight coming through the stained glass death.
window 2. He was frightened about what he was going to see.
2. look wild 3. It was so dark that he couldn’t see anything.
3. everybody stopped and became afraid 4. W
 hen he fell, he landed on top of the cloth.
4. in the clothes of death and his clothes were Thinking he hadn’t reached the piece of cloth yet
dripping with blood he continued walking and counting his steps and
so completed two circuits of the dungeon.
5. hang him at sunrise
4 H
 e imagined the dungeon was much bigger when
5 2 and 3 he couldn’t see. It seemed that there were different
angles to the room. He also discovered that there was
6 1. B
 ecause ‘Prospero’ is like ‘prosperous’. So it
a pit in the dungeon that he could have easily fallen
shows us he was wealthy.
into. When there was light, he saw the dungeon was
2. He took them away to one of his distant castles. much smaller, the walls were made of metal and there
3. I t was wild and everybody was enjoying were small irregularitiess in the walls. There were
themselves. terrifying images on the walls and ceiling. The room
4. T
 hey grabbed the stranger and pulled off his was more frightening in the dark because he didn’t
mask and costume. know what was there. / It was more frightening when
5. They all died. he could see because he could see the horrible images
on the walls and the tortures that had been prepared
for him.

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answers to Activities in the reader (continued)

CHAPTERS 3-4 ACTIVITIES (pages 32-33) 3 1. They called on Dupin to help them.
2. The police let him in to the crime scene.
1 1. b 2. f 3. d 4. a 5. c 6. e
3. He decided to make his own investigation.
2 1. nervously, desperately, demon eyes, threatened,
4 1. d 2. e 3. a 4. b 5. c
red glow of fire, smell of heated iron, red eyes
of the figure.
5 1. D upin
2. Possible answers 2. the narrator
I feel fear and despair. Hope is running out. 3. The window at the back of the house was the
How can the narrator possibly escape now? only possible way to escape, so Dupin examined
it carefully.
3 1. The narrator was saved by General Lasalle.
4. B
 ecause the window seemed to be bolted from
2. B
 ecause we don’t know how the narrator could
the inside.
be saved from death.
4 1. B
 ecause they ate through the strap and saved CHAPTERS 3-4 ACTIVITIES (pages 54-55)
him from the pendulum.
2. His feelings swung between hope and despair. 1 1. Madame L’Espanaye took the money out of the
bank just before the murder.
3. It made him horrified and nervous.
2. Dupin put an advertisement in the newspaper to
4. I t represented Time running out for him and
say he had found an orang-utang.
his feelings swinging from despair to hope.
3. The sailor admitted he was the owner of the
The Murders in the Rue Morgue orang-utang.
PRE-READING ACTIVITIES (page 35)
2 1. was in the bedroom
1 1. reported 4. relatives 7. is worth 2. was trying to shave
2. rush 5. involved 8. guilty 3. r an out of the bedroom, down the stairs and
3. clues 6. Solving jumped out of the window
4. r an to the building, climbed up the
2 1. c 2. e 3. f 4. d 5. a 6. b lightning-rod, grabbed the open shutter and
swung into the room
3 Possible answers
5. g rabbed the daughter and pushed its fingers into
1. T
 hey weren’t after money, maybe it was
her neck until she died
personal and the murderer didn’t like the
victim. 6. became afraid

2. Maybe the murderer is still inside. 7. ran around the room, breaking the furniture
8. sold it to the zoo
CHAPTERS 1-2 ACTIVITIES (pages 44-45)

1 1. b 2. e 3. c 4. d 5. f 6. a

2 1. Several neighbours rushed to the house to help.

2. T
 he key was on the inside, so they forced the
door open.
3. She had been pushed up the chimney, feet first.
4. D
 upin examined everything in the garden very
carefully, although I couldn’t see any reason
for doing this.
5. T
 he narrator said, “but they didn’t agree about
the high voice.”

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 The Murders in the Rue Morgue

answers to Activities in the reader (continued)

3 4 1. agile 5. barber
mistake in the murder room:
1.  2. animal fur 6. embarrassed
 he police didn’t see the
T
broken bolt on the window. 3. the truth
4. furious
2. wrong conclusion:
5 1. T
 o show that the marks weren’t made by a
They thought the window
human hand.
was locked.
2. H
 e wanted to put an advertisement in the
newspaper.
1. mistake outside the house: 3. He wanted to collect his orang-utang.
The police didn’t see the
4. He brought it for protection.
lightning-rod.

2. wrong conclusion: They didn’t

think anybody could escape
from the room.

In some readers, the words that should be bolded

in the exercise aren’t bolded. Please make the
students underline these words before doing the
exercise.

1. thin
2. human hair
3. a lie
4. afraid
5. butcher
6. grateful

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