ellauri083.html on line 159: The "first chapter summons up the days when the world was first settled, in 874 AD—for that is the year when the Norsemen arrived in Iceland, and one of the book's wry conceits is that no other world but Iceland exists. ... The book is set in the early decades of the twentieth century but ... Independent People is a pointedly timeless tale. It reminds us that life on an Icelandic croft had scarcely altered over a millennium". As the story begins, Bjartur ("bright" or "fair") has recently managed to put down the first payment on his own farm, after eighteen years working as a shepherd at Útirauðsmýri, the home of the well-to-do local bailiff, a man he detests. The land that he buys is said to be cursed by Saint Columba, referred to as "the fiend Kolumkilli", and haunted by an evil woman named Gunnvör, who made a pact with Kólumkilli.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 613: A letter from the queen's lover has been stolen from her boudoir by the unscrupulous Minister D—. D— was in the room, saw the letter, and switched it for a letter of no importance. He has been blackmailing the queen.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 617: The contents of the letter have not been revealed, as this would have led to certain circumstances that have not arisen. Therefore, Minister D— still has the letter in his possession.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 625: Alone together, the narrator asks Dupin how he found the letter. Dupin explains the Paris police are competent within their limitations, but have underestimated with whom they are dealing. The prefect mistakes the Minister D— for a fool because he is a poet. (Siis kumpi on? Perfekti vai ministeri Dee? No Poe on ainakin, senhän sanoo nimikin, Poe-t. Ja hölmökin se on.) For example, Dupin explains how an eight-year-old boy made a small fortune from his friends at a game called Odds and Evens. The boy had determined the intelligence of his opponents and played upon that to interpret their next move. Tästä aiheesta on valtava amer. kirjallisuus, koskien vangin dilemman toistoja. He explains that D— knew the police detectives would have assumed that the blackmailer would have concealed the letter in an elaborate hiding place, and thus hid it in plain sight.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 630: Dupin says he had visited the minister at his hotel. Complaining of weak eyes he wore a pair of green spectacles, the true purpose of which was to disguise his eyes as he searched for the letter. In a cheap card rack hanging from a dirty ribbon, he saw a half-torn letter and recognized it as the letter of the story's title. Striking up a conversation with D— about a subject in which the minister is interested, Dupin examined the letter more closely. It did not resemble the letter the prefect described so minutely; the writing was different, and it was sealed not with the "ducal arms" of the S— family, but with D—'s monogram. Dupin noticed that the paper was chafed as if the stiff paper was first rolled one way and then another. Dupin concluded that D— wrote a new address on the reverse of the stolen one, re-folded it the opposite way and sealed it with his own seal.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 632: Dupin left a snuff box behind as an excuse to return the next day. Resuming the same conversation they had begun the previous day, D— was startled by a gunshot in the street. While he went to investigate, Dupin switched D—'s letter for a duplicate.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 634: Dupin explains that the gunshot distraction was arranged by him and that he left a duplicate letter to ensure his ability to leave the hotel without D— suspecting his actions. If he had tried to seize it openly, Dupin surmises D— might have had him killed. As both a political supporter of the queen and old enemy of the minister [who had done an evil deed to Dupin in Vienna in the past], Dupin also hopes that D— will try to use the power he no longer has, to his political downfall, and at the end be presented with a quotation from Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon's play Atrée et Thyeste that implies Dupin was the thief: Un dessein si funeste, S'il n'est digne d'Atrée, est digne de Thyeste (If such a sinister design isn't worthy of Atreus, it is worthy of Thyestes).
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