Poe The Wretched

Poe: The Wretched – Unraveling the Darkness in Edgar Allan Poe's Life and Works

Introduction:

Edgar Allan Poe. The name conjures images of shadowy figures, macabre tales, and a lingering sense of unease. But beyond the gothic masterpieces and chilling narratives lies a complex, troubled life that profoundly shaped his artistic vision. This in-depth exploration delves into the "wretched" aspects of Poe's existence – his poverty, addiction, loss, and mental health struggles – and examines how these experiences fueled the dark brilliance that cemented his legacy as the "father of detective fiction" and a master of the macabre. We'll explore not only the biographical realities but also the literary manifestations of his wretchedness, revealing how his personal demons became the very engine of his creative genius. Prepare to delve into the shadowed corners of Poe's life and uncover the intricate connection between his suffering and his unparalleled literary achievements.


1. The Crushing Weight of Loss: A Foundation of Sorrow

Poe's life was tragically marked by repeated losses. The death of his mother at a young age, followed by the loss of his beloved foster mother, Frances Allan, left him emotionally scarred. These early traumas instilled a deep-seated sense of abandonment and insecurity that permeated his adult life and found expression in his works. His turbulent relationship with his foster father, John Allan, further contributed to his feelings of rejection and instability. This constant instability laid the groundwork for the melancholic and often morbid themes that characterize his writing. We see echoes of these losses in the pervasive themes of bereavement, premature death, and the fragility of life that haunt his poems and stories. The premature death of his young wife, Virginia, was arguably the most devastating blow, leaving an indelible mark on his psyche and profoundly impacting his later works. This section will analyze specific poems and short stories, demonstrating the direct link between these personal tragedies and his literary output.

2. The Grip of Poverty and Addiction: A Cycle of Despair

Poe's life was a constant struggle against poverty. He battled financial insecurity throughout his adulthood, a situation exacerbated by his struggles with alcohol and potential substance abuse. This precarious financial situation created immense stress and further destabilized his already fragile mental state. The cycle of poverty and addiction became a self-perpetuating trap, hindering his professional advancement and contributing to his overall sense of despair. His inability to secure stable employment and his reliance on erratic patronage exacerbated his financial woes. This section will examine how this persistent economic hardship is reflected in the bleakness and desperation found in many of his narratives, as well as how it possibly contributed to his erratic behavior and eventual demise.

3. Mental Illness and the Shadowy Depths of Genius:

The nature of Poe's mental health remains a topic of debate among scholars. While a definitive diagnosis is impossible from a historical perspective, evidence suggests he may have suffered from depression, anxiety, and possibly bipolar disorder. His erratic behavior, periods of intense creativity followed by periods of deep despair, and documented instances of self-destructive tendencies all point towards a complex and potentially debilitating mental illness. This section explores the potential influence of mental illness on his creative process, examining whether his struggles with his mental health acted as a catalyst for his unique literary style or whether they were instead a hindrance to his ability to achieve greater stability and success. The interplay between genius and suffering is a central theme explored here.

4. The Literary Manifestations of Wretchedness: Exploring Poe's Dark Masterpieces

Poe's "wretchedness" is not merely a biographical detail; it is the very lifeblood of his artistic genius. His works are infused with a palpable sense of despair, morbidity, and psychological torment. This section will analyze specific works, such as "The Raven," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "Ligeia," demonstrating how the themes of death, decay, madness, and psychological trauma are woven into the very fabric of his narratives. We will explore the symbolism, imagery, and narrative techniques he employed to convey these dark emotions, demonstrating how his personal struggles became the foundation of his literary mastery.


5. The Legacy of Poe: A Continuing Resonance

Despite his tumultuous life and tragic end, Edgar Allan Poe left behind a literary legacy that continues to resonate with readers and artists today. His influence can be seen across various genres, from horror and detective fiction to gothic literature and even modern psychological thrillers. This concluding section examines Poe's lasting impact on literature and popular culture, highlighting his enduring appeal and exploring why his works continue to captivate audiences centuries after his death. We will also consider the ongoing fascination with his life story and the continuing attempts to understand the enigmatic figure who gave voice to the darkness within.


Book Outline: Poe: The Shadow of Genius

Introduction: A brief overview of Poe's life and the connection between his personal struggles and his literary achievements.
Chapter 1: The Weight of Loss: A detailed examination of Poe's early losses and their impact on his psyche and writing.
Chapter 2: Poverty, Addiction, and Despair: An analysis of Poe's financial struggles, his potential substance abuse, and the impact of these factors on his life and work.
Chapter 3: Mental Health and Creative Genius: An exploration of Poe's possible mental illnesses and their potential role in shaping his creative process.
Chapter 4: Literary Manifestations of Wretchedness: A close reading of selected poems and short stories, highlighting the dark themes and techniques used to express his personal struggles.
Chapter 5: A Lasting Legacy: An examination of Poe's enduring influence on literature and popular culture.
Conclusion: A summary of Poe's complex life and the lasting power of his literary creations.



(Detailed explanation of each point in the book outline would require expanding each section above into much more detailed chapters. The above provides a solid framework. Each chapter would delve deeper into specific examples from Poe's work and incorporate relevant scholarship.)


FAQs:

1. Was Edgar Allan Poe truly mentally ill? While a definitive diagnosis is impossible, evidence suggests potential struggles with depression, anxiety, and possibly bipolar disorder.

2. How did Poe's poverty affect his writing? His financial instability led to stress, impacting his creativity and potentially contributing to the bleakness of his work.

3. What is the significance of loss in Poe's life and works? Repeated losses shaped his worldview, contributing to recurring themes of death, bereavement, and the fragility of life.

4. How did Poe's addiction influence his literary output? Its influence is a subject of ongoing debate, but it likely contributed to his instability and potentially affected his writing process.

5. What makes Poe's writing so enduringly popular? His mastery of atmosphere, suspense, and psychological exploration continues to resonate with readers.

6. What are some of Poe's most famous works? "The Raven," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" are among his most renowned pieces.

7. How did Poe's life influence the development of the detective fiction genre? His innovative use of deduction and rational analysis in stories like "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" established key elements of detective fiction.

8. What is the mystery surrounding Poe's death? The circumstances surrounding his death remain somewhat unclear, with various theories proposed.

9. Where can I learn more about Edgar Allan Poe's life and works? Numerous biographies, critical studies, and academic articles explore his life and literary contributions.


Related Articles:

1. The Raven: A Deconstruction of Poe's Masterpiece: A detailed analysis of Poe's iconic poem, exploring its symbolism and literary techniques.
2. The Tell-Tale Heart: Exploring the Psychology of Guilt: An examination of the psychological elements within this chilling tale.
3. The Fall of the House of Usher: A Study in Gothic Horror: A deep dive into the gothic elements of this classic story.
4. Poe's Influence on Modern Horror Literature: Tracing Poe's impact on contemporary horror writers and filmmakers.
5. The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe: A Biographical Overview: A comprehensive overview of his life and career.
6. Poe's Addiction and its Reflection in his Writings: An in-depth look at the potential influence of his substance abuse.
7. The Mystery of Poe's Death: Unveiling the Facts and Theories: Exploring the various theories surrounding the circumstances of his demise.
8. Poe's Literary Techniques: A Masterclass in Atmosphere and Suspense: A study of the techniques that make his work so effective.
9. Comparing Poe's Works to those of his contemporaries: A comparative analysis of Poe's work in relation to other writers of his time.


  poe the wretched: Edgar Allan Poe Jeffrey Meyers, 2000-09-05 This biography of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), a giant of American literature who invented both the horror and detective genres, is a portrait of extremes: a disinherited heir, a brilliant but exploited author and editor, a man who veered radically from temperance to rampant debauchery, and an agnostic who sought a return to religion at the end of his life. Acclaimed biographer Jeffrey Meyers explores the writer's turbulent life and career, including his marriage and multiple, simultaneous romances, his literary feuds, and his death at an early age under bizarre and troubling circumstances.
  poe the wretched: The Poe Shadow Matthew Pearl, 2006-05-23 “I present to you . . . the truth about this man’s death and my life.” Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, and even Poe’s own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. Everyone, in fact, seems to believe this except a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who puts his own career and reputation at risk in a passionate crusade to salvage Poe’s. As Quentin explores the puzzling circumstances of Poe’s demise, he discovers that the writer’s last days are riddled with unanswered questions the police are possibly willfully ignoring. Just when Poe’s death seems destined to remain a mystery, and forever sealing his ignominy, inspiration strikes Quentin–in the form of Poe’s own stories. The young attorney realizes that he must find the one person who can solve the strange case of Poe’s death: the real-life model for Poe’s brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection. In short order, Quentin finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade, and the lost secrets of Poe’s final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, Quentin Clark must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe’s. Following his phenomenal debut novel, The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl has once again crossed pitch-perfect literary history with innovative mystery to create a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense. Pearl’s groundbreaking research–featuring documented material never published before–opens a new window on the truth behind Poe’s demise, literary history’s most persistent enigma. The resulting novel is a publishing event that, through sublime craftsmanship, subtle wit, and devious twists, does honor to Poe himself
  poe the wretched: Study Guide to the Major Works by Edgar Allan Poe Intelligent Education, 2020-06-28 A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Edgar Allen Poe, a key figure in Romanticism. Titles in this study guide include The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Cask of Amontillado. As an author of the nineteenth-century, he is credited with creating detective fiction. Moreover, he was well known for his dark and haunting imagery throughout his works. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Edgar Allen Poe’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.
  poe the wretched: 50+ Masterpieces of Detective Fiction You Have to Read Before You Die. Illustrated Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle, 2021-10-11 50+ Masterpieces of Detective Fiction You Have to Read Before You Die: Hunted Down by Charles Dickens, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe, The Blue Cross by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (illustrated) 1. The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe; 2. Hunted Down by Charles Dickens; 3. The Blue Cross by Gilbert Keith Chesterton; 4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.
  poe the wretched: 75+ Anthology of Detective. Premium Collection. Illustrated Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, 2021-11-01 This collection carefully selects some of the greatest detective stories written by each of them. This e-book contains: Agatha Christie Collection Hercule Poirot. Poirot Investigates The Adventure of the Western Star The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor The Adventure of the Cheap Flat The Mystery of the Hunters Lodge The Million Dollar Bond Robbery The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan The Kidnapped Prime Minister The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman The Case of the Missing Will Hercule Poirot. Poirot's Early Cases The Affair at the Victory Ball The Adventure of the Clapham Cook The Cornish Mystery The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly The Double Clue The King of Clubs The LeMesurier Inheritance The Lost Mine The Plymouth Express The Chocolate Box The Submarine Plans The The Veiled Lady Market Basing Mystery Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories Novels A Study in Scarlet The Hound of the Baskervilles The Sign of Four The Valley Of Fear The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes A Scandal in Bohemia The Red-Headed League A Case of Identity The Boscombe Valley Mystery The Five Orange Pips The Man with the Twisted Lip The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle The Adventure of the Speckled Band The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet The Adventure of the Copper Beeches The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Silver Blaze The Yellow Face The Stockbroker's Clerk The Gloria Scott The Musgrave Ritual The Reigate Puzzle The Crooked Man The Resident Patient The Greek Interpreter The Naval Treaty The Final Problem The Return of Sherlock Holmes The Adventure of the Empty House The Adventure of the Norwood Builder The Adventure of the Dancing Men The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist The Adventure of the Priory School The Adventure of Black Peter The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton The Adventure of the Six Napoleons The Adventure of the Three Students The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter The Adventure of the Abbey Grange The Adventure of the Second Stain His Last Bow The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge The Adventure of the Cardboard Box The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans The Adventure of the Devil's Foot The Adventure of the Red Circle The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax The Adventure of the Dying Detective His Last Bow. An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes G.K. Chesterton. Father Brown The Blue Cross Edgar Allan Poe. The Gold-Bug The Murders in the Rue Morgue Charles Dickens Hunted Down
  poe the wretched: Jack the Ripper Victor Stapleton, 2014-10-20 The first highly-illustrated work to explain the full story of Jack the Ripper, including the history, the conspiracy theory, and his enduring popularity as a character in the mass media. Over a century ago terror stalked the streets of Whitechapel. Jack the Ripper's brutal campaign of murder panicked Victorian London at the time, but his legacy reaches out to the present day. If anything the story of Jack is now more confusing, obscure and mysterious than ever. With each passing generation, new theories and suspects spring up, adding a new page to a legend that has turned Jack from a historical figure into a mythical character who has become a star of folklore, literature and cinema. Within these pages Victor Stapleton embarks on a quest , retracing the serial killer's bloody tracks through the foggy alleys of London to finally reveal the true story of Jack the Ripper.
  poe the wretched: The Lafayette Monthly , 1871
  poe the wretched: 10 Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die. Vol. 3 Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Robert Louis Stevenson, H. P. Lovecraft, Jack London, Mary W. Shelley, Osamu Dazai, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 2021-09-20 This book contains the following works: 1. Edgar Allan Poe: The Pit and the Pendulum 2. William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream 3. Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden 4. Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man 5. Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island 6. H. P. Lovecraft: At the Mountains of Madness 7. Jack London: The Call of the Wild 8. Mary W. Shelley: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus 9. Osamu Dazai: No Longer Human (Confessions of a Faulty Man) 10. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
  poe the wretched: One Soul We Divided Michael Field, 2024-01-09 The first book-length selection from the extraordinary unpublished diary of the late-Victorian writer “Michael Field”—the pen name of two female coauthors and romantic partners Michael Field was known to late-Victorian readers as a superb poet and playwright—until Robert Browning let slip Field’s secret identity: in fact, “Michael Field” was a pseudonym for Katharine Bradley (1846–1914) and Edith Cooper (1862–1913), who were lovers, a devoted couple, and aunt and niece. For thirty years, they kept a joint diary titled Works and Days that eventually reached almost 10,000 pages. One Soul We Divided is the first critical edition of selections from this remarkable unpublished work. A fascinating personal and literary experiment, the diary tells the extraordinary story of the love, art, ambitions, and domestic life of a queer couple in fin de siècle London. It also tells vivid firsthand stories of the literary and artistic worlds Bradley and Cooper inhabited and of their encounters with such celebrities as Browning, Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, Aubrey Beardsley, and Bernard Berenson. Carolyn Dever provides essential context, including explanatory notes, a cast of characters, a family tree, and a timeline. An unforgettable portrait of two writers and their unexpected romantic, literary, and artistic marriage, One Soul We Divided rewrites what we think we know about Victorian women, intimacy, and sexuality.
  poe the wretched: Textual Conspiracies James Martel, 2011-07-20 Engaging political and literary luminaries in an alternative narrative about power
  poe the wretched: Origins of Poe's Critical Theory Margaret Alterton, 2011 Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was one of the most diverse writers of the 19th century. While his poems and short stories first gained popularity in Europe, his fellow Americans appreciated his sharp essays and merciless literary criticism. His legacy continues until the present day and transcends the borders of literature, influencing writers of both fiction and non-fiction as well as artists and even scientists. Poe himself and many others have often described the literary theory which underlies all of his work, yet less light has been shed upon how that theory was formed. Analysing the writer's works in conjunction with the various scientific, philosophic and literary material that he is known to have read, Margaret Alterton reconstructs the genesis of the very fundament of Poe's genius.
  poe the wretched: The American Face of Edgar Allan Poe Shawn James Rosenheim, Stephen Rachman, 1995-08-28 Renza, Shawn Rosenheim, and Laura Saltz.--Kenneth Dauber, State University of New York, Buffalo
  poe the wretched: The Oxford Handbook of Edgar Allan Poe J. Gerald Kennedy, Scott Peeples, Caleb Doan, 2019 This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online.
  poe the wretched: The Gentleman's and London Magazine , 1789
  poe the wretched: The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe Kevin J. Hayes, 2002-04-25 This collection of specially-commissioned essays by experts in the field explores key dimensions of Edgar Allan Poe's work and life. Contributions provide a series of alternative perspectives on one of the most enigmatic and controversial American writers. The essays, specially tailored to the needs of undergraduates, examine all of Poe's major writings, his poetry, short stories and criticism, and place his work in a variety of literary, cultural and political contexts. They situate his imaginative writings in relation to different modes of writing: humor, Gothicism, anti-slavery tracts, science fiction, the detective story, and sentimental fiction. Three chapters examine specific works: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, 'The Fall of the House of Usher', 'The Raven', and 'Ulalume'. The volume features a detailed chronology and a comprehensive guide to further reading, and will be of interest to students and scholars alike.
  poe the wretched: Intersections of Harm Laura Halperin, 2015-07-13 In this innovative new study, Laura Halperin examines literary representations of harm inflicted on Latinas’ minds and bodies, and on the places Latinas inhabit, but she also explores how hope can be found amid so much harm. Analyzing contemporary memoirs and novels by Irene Vilar, Loida Maritza Pérez, Ana Castillo, Cristina García, and Julia Alvarez, she argues that the individual harm experienced by Latinas needs to be understood in relation to the collective histories of aggression against their communities. Intersections of Harm is more than just a nuanced examination of the intersections among race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. It also explores the intersections of deviance and defiance, individual and collective, and mind, body, and place. Halperin proposes that, ironically, the harmful ascriptions of Latina deviance are tied to the hopeful expressions of Latina defiance. While the Latina protagonists’ defiance feeds into the labels of deviance imposed on them, it also fuels the protagonists’ ability to resist such harmful treatment. In this analysis, Halperin broadens the parameters of literary studies of female madness, as she compels us to shift our understanding of where madness lies. She insists that the madness readily attributed to individual Latinas is entwined with the madness of institutional structures of oppression, and she maintains that psychological harm is bound together with physical and geopolitical harm. In her pan-Latina study, Halperin shows how each writer’s work emerges from a unique set of locales and histories, but she also traces a network of connections among them. Bringing together concepts from feminism, postcolonialism, illness studies, and ecocriticism, Intersections of Harm opens up exciting new avenues for Latina/o studies.
  poe the wretched: Cruising the Dead River Fiona Anderson, 2019-10-14 In the 1970s, Manhattan’s west side waterfront was a forgotten zone of abandoned warehouses and piers. Though many saw only blight, the derelict neighborhood was alive with queer people forging new intimacies through cruising. Alongside the piers’ sexual and social worlds, artists produced work attesting to the radical transformations taking place in New York. Artist and writer David Wojnarowicz was right in the heart of it, documenting his experiences in journal entries, poems, photographs, films, and large-scale, site-specific projects. In Cruising the Dead River, Fiona Anderson draws on Wojnarowicz’s work to explore the key role the abandoned landscape played in this explosion of queer culture. Anderson examines how the riverfront’s ruined buildings assumed a powerful erotic role and gave the area a distinct identity. By telling the story of the piers as gentrification swept New York and before the AIDS crisis, Anderson unearths the buried histories of violence, regeneration, and LGBTQ activism that developed in and around the cruising scene.
  poe the wretched: The Life of Mary Russell Mitford ... Mary Russell Mitford, 1870
  poe the wretched: With a Book in Their Hands Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez, 2014-06-30 First Place Winner of the 2015 International Latino Book Award for Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book Literary history is a history of reading. What happens during the act of reading is the subject of the branch of literary scholarship known as reader-response theory. Does the text guide the reader? Does the reader operate independently of the text? Questions like these shape the approach of the essays in this book, edited by a scholar known for his groundbreaking work in using reader-response theory as a window into Chicana and Chicano literature. Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez has overseen several research projects aimed at documenting Chicana and Chicano reading practices and experiences. Here he gathers diverse and passionate accounts of reading drawn from that research. For many, books served as refuges from the sorrows of a childhood marked by violence or parental abandonment. Several of the contributors here salute the roles of teachers in introducing poetry and stories into their lives.
  poe the wretched: The Christ Brotherhood Louis Albert Banks, 1897
  poe the wretched: The Mirror and the Word Eric Williams, 1993-01-01 Williams has found an ingeniously indirect method for dealing with powerful and conservative voices in Trakl criticism, a method that unburdens the debate of its weighty pomposity and elicits delight from readers familiar with the critical context._Francis Michael Sharp, author of The Poet's Madness: A Reading of Georg Trakl 1993. x, 350 pages.
  poe the wretched: The Victorian Parlour Thad Logan, 2001-07-05 The parlour was the centre of the Victorian home and, as Thad Logan shows, the place where contemporary conflicts about domesticity and gender relations were frequently played out. In The Victorian Parlour: A Cultural Study, Logan uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines the perspectives of art history, social history and literary theory to describe and analyse the parlour as a cultural artefact. She offers a detailed investigation of specific objects in the parlour, and argues that these things articulated social meaning and could present symbolic resolutions to disturbances in the social field. The book concludes with a discussion of how representations of the parlour in literature and art reveal the pleasures and anxieties associated with Victorian domestic life.
  poe the wretched: Imre Edward Prime-Stevenson, 2003-01-02 Winner of the 2003 Silver Medal for Gay/Lesbian Fiction, ForeWord Magazine Imre is one of the first openly gay American novels without a tragic ending. Described by the author as “a little psychological romance,” the narrative follows two men who meet by chance in a café; in Budapest, where they forge a friendship that leads to a series of mutual revelations and gradual disclosures. With its sympathetic characterizations of homosexual men, Imre’s 1906 publication marked a turning point in English literature. This edition includes material relating to the novels origins, contemporary writings on homosexuality, other writings by Prime-Stevenson, and a contemporary review.
  poe the wretched: Soldier and Scholar Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, 1998 In assembling Gildersleeve's writings-- autobiographical, Richmond Examiner newspaper editorials, and Southern essays, Briggs (classics and humanities, U. of South Carolina) brings to light the reflections of a U. of Virginia classics scholar during the Civil War. His classical rhetoric lends a novel twist to his loyalist but critical views on the South's Good Cause, in chastising the Confederate administration as well as critics of slavery and Yankee poet sinners against the English language. Includes a few bandw photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
  poe the wretched: The Lady's Magazine Or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex , 1772
  poe the wretched: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe William Fearing Gill, 1876
  poe the wretched: Edgar Allan Poe James M. Hutchisson, 2011-06-16 Most frequently regarded as a writer of the supernatural, Poe was actually among the most versatile of American authors, writing social satire, comic hoaxes, mystery stories, science fiction, prose poems, literary criticism and theory, and even a play. As a journalist and editor, Poe was closely in touch with the social, political, and cultural trends of nineteenth-century America. Recent scholarship has linked Poe's imaginative writings to the historical realities of nineteenth-century America, including to science and technology, wars and politics, the cult of death and bereavement, and, most controversially, to slavery and stereotyped attitudes toward women. Edgar Allan Poe: Beyond Gothicism presents a systematic approach to topical criticism of Poe, revealing a new portrait of Poe as an author who blended topics of intellectual and social importance and returned repeatedly to these ideas in different works and using different aesthetic strategies during his brief but highly productive career. Twelve essays point readers toward new ways of considering Poe's themes, techniques, and aesthetic preoccupations by looking at Poe in the context of landscapes, domestic interiors, slavery, prosody, Eastern cultures, optical sciences, Gothicism, and literary competitions, clubs, and reviewing.
  poe the wretched: The Short Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe, 1976 The Short Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe brings together, in one convenient edition, all of the information a reader needs to understand Poe's stories. Readable, attractive, and accessible to a general reader or student, it also provides a useful resource for the scholar and specialist. Stuart Levine and Susan Levine tracked down information that is often highly specialized and hard to come by through an extensive program of literary sleuthing--an investigation that took him through the hundreds of places where scholars make their contributions to knowledge.
  poe the wretched: The Edinburgh Review , 1858
  poe the wretched: Losing My Cool Thomas Chatterton Williams, 2010-04-29 A pitch-perfect account of how hip-hop culture drew in the author and how his father drew him out again-with love, perseverance, and fifteen thousand books. Into Williams's childhood home-a one-story ranch house-his father crammed more books than the local library could hold. Pappy used some of these volumes to run an academic prep service; the rest he used in his unending pursuit of wisdom. His son's pursuits were quite different-money, hoes, and clothes. The teenage Williams wore Medusa- faced Versace sunglasses and a hefty gold medallion, dumbed down and thugged up his speech, and did whatever else he could to fit into the intoxicating hip-hop culture that surrounded him. Like all his friends, he knew exactly where he was the day Biggie Smalls died, he could recite the lyrics to any Nas or Tupac song, and he kept his woman in line, with force if necessary. But Pappy, who grew up in the segregated South and hid in closets so he could read Aesop and Plato, had a different destiny in mind for his son. For years, Williams managed to juggle two disparate lifestyles- keeping it real in his friends' eyes and studying for the SATs under his father's strict tutelage. As college approached and the stakes of the thug lifestyle escalated, the revolving door between Williams's street life and home life threatened to spin out of control. Ultimately, Williams would have to decide between hip-hop and his future. Would he choose street dreams or a radically different dream- the one Martin Luther King spoke of or the one Pappy held out to him now? Williams is the first of his generation to measure the seductive power of hip-hop against its restrictive worldview, which ultimately leaves those who live it powerless. Losing My Cool portrays the allure and the danger of hip-hop culture like no book has before. Even more remarkably, Williams evokes the subtle salvation that literature offers and recounts with breathtaking clarity a burgeoning bond between father and son. Watch a Video
  poe the wretched: A Victorian American Herbert Sherman Gorman, 1926
  poe the wretched: Hawthorne and the Real Millicent Bell, 2005 Hawthorne was, with his own complicity, long described as a writer of unreal romances (as he preferred to call his novels) or allegories of the heart as he termed some of his short stories. The essays in this collection contribute to the turn in recent Hawthorne criticism which shows how deeply implicated in realism his writing was.--BOOK JACKET.
  poe the wretched: The Home Life of Poe Susan Archer Talley Weiss, 2022-09-15 The following work, written by Susan Archer Weiss, examines the domestic aspect of Edgar Allan Poe's life. He was married to Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, who was his first cousin. Controversially, Virginia was 13 and Poe was 27 when they married. Biographers disagree as to the nature of the couple's relationship. She contracted tuberculosis, growing worse for five years until she died of the disease at the age of 24 in the family's cottage, at that time outside New York City.
  poe the wretched: Movie Mystery & Suspense John Howard Reid, 2006-02 Famous features such as Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, Johnny Allegro, My Forbidden Past, His Kind of Woman, The Big Carnival, and After the Thin Man are examined, plus the Bulldog Drummond series, and a number of serials including The Clutching Hand, Chick Carter, Detective, Panther Girl of the Congo, Holt of the Secret Service and The Last of the Mohicans. Two bonus features are monographs on Robert Siodmak (of Cobra Woman, The Phantom Lady, The Spiral Staircase, etc.) and Otto Preminger, who made Laura, Fallen Angel, Whirlpool, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The 13th Letter and Angel Face.
  poe the wretched: The Life And Works Of Edgar Allen Poe Julian Symons, 2014-07-01 The Tell-Tale Heart strips away myths that have grown up around the life of Edgar Allen Poe, providing a fresh assessment of the man and his work. Symons reveals Poe as his contemporaries saw him – a man struggling to make a living and whose life was beset by tragedy, such that he was driven to excessive drinking and unhealthy relationships.
  poe the wretched: The Student's Handbook of British and American Literature Oliver Louis Jenkins, 1880
  poe the wretched: Beneath the American Renaissance David S. Reynolds, 2011-06-01 The award-winning Beneath the American Renaissance is a classic work on American literature. It immeasurably broadens our knowledge of our most important literary period, as first identified by F.O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance. With its combination of sharp critical insight, engaging observation, and narrative drive, it represents the kind of masterful cultural history for which David Reynolds is known. Here the major works of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson receive striking, original readings set against the rich backdrop of contemporary popular writing. Now back in print, the volume includes a new foreword by historian Sean Wilentz that reveals the book's impact and influence. A magisterial work of criticism and cultural history, Beneath the American Renaissance will fascinate anyone interested in the genesis of America's most significant literary epoch and the iconic figures who defined it.
  poe the wretched: The Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray: Vanity fair William Makepeace Thackeray, 1889
  poe the wretched: Baudelaire and the Aesthetics of Bad Faith Susan Blood, 1997-04-01 This is a study of Baudelaire's canonization in the critical debates of the twentieth century, focusing particularly on his role in the development of a modernist consciousness. Much recent work on Baudelaire assumes his modernism by emphasizing his relationship to current critical preoccupations—by sounding him out on issues of race and gender, for example, or by correcting his politics. The author begins from the premise that this updating of Baudelaire mistakenly takes him for our contemporary. Instead, she attempts to treat modernism as a historical problem by seeing Baudelaire as engaged in a more difficult dialogue with twentieth-century critics. The book concentrates on two key moments in the literary history of the twentieth century, the periods following each world war. At these junctures French intellectuals intensely reconsidered their cultural patrimony and articulated something like a modernist consciousness. Baudelaire stood at the center of this process, becoming a sacred figure of modernism, and his poetry contributed to a radical reorienting of aesthetic sensibilities. For the post-World War I period, the author focuses on Paul Valéry's essay Baudelaire's Situation; for post-World War II, on the virulent debate between Jean-Paul Sartre and Georges Bataille over the question of Baudelaire's bad faith. She argues that Sartre's resistance to the sacralization of Baudelaire and to the continuing formulation of a modernist ideology actually suggests a valuable way of rethinking Baudelaire's poetry and critiquing the modern consciousness. She attempts to show that something like an aesthetics of bad faith exists, and that it is a useful concept for understanding modernism in relationship to its own history. Throughout, Baudelaire's poetry is examined in detail, with a focus on its relationship to his writings on caricature, on the problem of the secret architecture, and on the place of allegory in a symbolist poetics. In the closing chapter, the author analyzes Baudelaire's denunciation of photography, which reveals the various tensions (or bad faith) implicit in the modernist consciousness.
  poe the wretched: The life of Edgar Allan Poe George Edward Woodberry,