How come in Poe's stories, he does, "D--" "Rue---"?

Question

I was recently reading his short stories and noticed this. If anyone knows why, I'd like to know.

Answer 1

This is a literary device to tell the reader, "I could tell you if I would..." It's meant to lend "believability" to the story. "The names have been changed to protect the innocent."

In 19th century Russian short stories and novels, it's "N." "Once upon a time in the city of N,..." The Russian revolutiopnary Vladimir Ilyich Ulianov was exiled to Siberia. There was a river flowing nearby called the Lena. He took the revolutionary nom de guerre Lenin and the first initial N. People think that N stands for Nikolai. But his revolutionary name was always only N. Lenin.

Other such literary devices are that the author "finds" a manuscript someplace and tells the reader the story that was in the manuscript. "Hey! I found this! You can believe it or not." There is an 19th century collection of stories, "Manuscript Found at Saragossa," by Potocki. Also Charles Dickens has a funny episode of a man in a hotel room finding a manuscript in his end-table drawer in "The Pickwick Papers."

In his John Carter of Mars stories, Edgar Rice Burroughs begins a story, "I had this story from a man who had no right to tell it..." and we know we're off to the races.