Mesmerizing Poe is an imaginary solution to the authentic secrets within the Edgar Allan Poe story The Mystery of Marie Roget, revealed through overtly and explicitly retelling the old story in a new version (to generate understanding and add depth through intertextuality). The tale of mystery and suspense shows how Poe was hired by a dark horse political candidate running for mayor of New York to solve the homicide of the beautiful young girl Mary Rogers who had once worked for the office seeker. Through the candidate's subterfuge, the alleged killer was publicized as a sailor, and the contender was cleared of all suspicion. Ultimately, the candidate confessed to murdering Mary Rogers. Poe had written in his Philosophy of Composition, "The death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world." With this aim, Poe staged his saga by writing in the voice of his double and alter ego, Le Chevalier Cesar Auguste Dupin, a knight in the French Legion d'honneur, to capture the key to the crime. While arousing the fascination of the public, Poe's psychological persona masked his own darker Gothic depths or bipolar disorder."