There are readers who, for reasons I have never truly understood, consider The DeVince Code to be a work of great fiction. To which I can only say this… ‘APPLE’, I mean come on, aside from the ‘shadowy’ villain of the piece been introduced around page 100, wearing a big sign saying ‘I am the shadowy villain” ‘ only to be revealed, to no ones shock, as the shadowy villain 300 pages later… ‘APPLE’.

Robert Langdon, the protagonist is a ‘symbologist’, while his love interest Sophie Neveu is a cryptologist . Yet it is Langdon who figures out the five letter word that is the key coded to a ‘cryptx’ with only the impenetrable clues found at the tomb of Sir Issac Newton… Which much to readers surprise, and the cryptologist’s is ‘APPLE’… I have long suspected that Sophie-the cryptologist did not work this out purely because it is such a dumb obvious answer to the clues… Or it could be that Dan Brown is just a tad sexist and despite Sophie being a cryptologist, which is a real discipline, she could not possibly work any of this out without Langdon the ‘Symbologist’, which isn’t, explaining the ‘complicated’ bits…

Anyway, as I was saying ‘APPLE’

Why am I on a bit of a rant about ‘The DeVince Code’? you ask. Well for the most part because Cryptology plays a central part in our next Dear Edgars story ‘The Gold Bug’, a tale with a few issues, that is a little awkward to categorize. It could possibly be consider another of his ‘detective’ stories, though it is a very different type of story from the ones involving Dupin. It is a story however that among other things inspired Robert Louis Stevenson when he was writing treasure island and one that has influenced every tale of buried pirate treasure there after, right up to and including The Goonies…

The Gold Bug, was a story, also something of a treasure for Edgar, as he submitted it to a writing contest and won $100 for first prize. This was after he had originally sold it for $52 to Graham’s Magazine before he asked for it back to enter it in the contest and never returned the money. Instead he pocketed the original sum on the vague promise to write some reviews for the magazine. This was the most Poe ever made on a single story and it was also his most widely read stories in his life time. Only the poem ‘The Raven’ righted a larger audience.

Before we go any further however, we need to talk about the the major problem with the text, the portrayal and characterization of one of the main characters, Jupiter. Jupiter is an African American, formally a slave and now the servant of William Legrand, the narrators friend and acquaintance. In fairness to Poe he wrote this story in 1843, 18 years before the civil war and 23 before the slavery was finally ended in the United States. Jupiter as emancipated slave was something of a rarity in southern states. One who chose to stay with his master, as a paid servant, loyal to the last member of the family.

This may seem unlikely, but it was not as rare as one might think. Slavery was generational, a slave emancipated by his master at an advanced age oft knew no other life. So Jupiter choosing to stay and be a servant to the son of his former owner does not stretch credulity as much as we may think. It is also not the issue I have with the character of Jupiter. The issue is everything else about the former slaves portrayal. His dialogue is all written in unsophisticated Pidgeon English, showing him to struggle with complex concepts and with expressing himself. Showing him intellectually to be much the lesser of his white former master. Even to the extent of him not knowing his right from his left. Or for that matter even the concept of right and left. For which he is constantly belittled by his ‘beloved’ former master Legrand.

Now I do not for a moment think that every character should be portrayed as having the same intellectual gifts. But this was not the first time Poe portrayed a black servant as very much the ‘lesser’ to their white master, be they a slave or emancipated. This is also the most blatant such portrayal in his stories.

Then there is the matter of the words used to describe Jupiter that would not be used in such context today. Readers should be warned in this regard. The portrayal of Jupiter is very much ‘of its time’ and its time is pre-emancipation 1843. It grates on me as a modern reader, and I am not an African American. In much the same was a Sophie Neveu’s portrayal in The DeVince Code grates on me and I am not a woman…

Putting the issues with Jupiter aside the bulk of The Gold Bug is a treasure hunt. The hunt for Captain Kidd, reputedly buried treasure somewhere on Sullivans island, South Carolina. Legrand has quite by chance come across a mysterious parchment, written upon with invisible ink in a substitution cipher. A cipher that holds the key to the location of the notorious pirates buried treasure. Without explaining any of this to our narrator or Jupiter, Legrand takes them off on a mysterious hike into the woods at night. At the culmination of this hike Legrand sends Jupiter up a particular tree that the trio have been looking for. ( because southern gentlemen do not climb but old negro’s do). In the tree on a particular branch Jupiter finds a skull, nailed to the tree.

Legrand issues instructions telling Jupiter to drop a small object through the right eye socket of the skull. Which he does, after the whole left and right eye socket ‘hilarity of the black man not knowing his right from his left. And off the trio go with Legrand pacing out a number of steps and then taking a shovel, handing it to Jupiter so the servant could dig… (because southern gentlemen do not dig holes) and doing so they unearth a treasure… Eventually.

Its at this point Poe through Legrand explains what they are doing out in the woods dropping things through the eye sockets of old skulls nailed to trees. Legrand explaining how cleverly, through the use of logic, he managed to decipher Captain Kidds cryptograph. A feat somewhat more complicated that figuring out the five letter word to unlock The Device Code cyptex was APPLE, thankfully. Mostly this involves following rules as one might apply to solve any letter substitution code. The most common letter used in English is almost always E therefore the most common symbol in the cypher phrase is probably E, and so on.

Despite the issues with the story getting to the point of Legrand’s showboating as he explains just how to crack a cypher there is a lot to be said for it. It is interesting, compelling even, and it has had an impact far beyond it self. It an odd mystery story with an odder explanation. Imperfect but fascinating all the same. And like much of Poe’s work.

FOUR RAVENS, LOOKING AT ONE RAVEN REMOVED FOR REASONS…

Should you read it: Well yes, but with a wary eye, read it in full knowledge of its flaws

Bluffers fact: Leo Marks and William Friedman, and Englishman and an American who probably never met, were both inspired as children reading The Gold Bug to pursue an interest in cryptology. In the second world war they both served as code brakers for their respective governments, one working with SOE (the predecessor of MI5) the other cracking the Japanese Purple Code.

To an extent then, this Poe story shorted the second world war and saved the lives of many allied soldiers… Which is almost enough to forgive its flaws… And certainly more than the DeVince code ever managed to do…

APPLE…