An Edgar Allan Poe Companion: A guide to the short stories, romances and essays

213 Pages·1981·19.28 MB·English

by  J. R. Hammond (auth.)

AN EDGAR ALLAN POE
COMPANION
Other books by]. R. Hammond
H. G. WELLS: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HIS WORKS
AN H. G. WELLS COMPANION
H. G. WELLS: INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS (editor)
Frontispiece Edgar Allan Poe, circa 1840, from a contemporary portrait by
Matthew Brady
AN EDGAR ALLAN POE
COMPANION
A guide to the short stories,
romances and essays
J.
R. HAMMOND
©J. R. Hammond 1981
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1981 978-0-333-27571-9
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1981 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-05027-7 ISBN 978-1-349-05025-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05025-3
Transferred to digital printing 1999
Poe's tales, imperfect as they are, provide a
case-study in the development of the West
ern literary imagination
KENNETH GRAHAM
My life has been whim- impulse
passion - a longing for solitude - a scorn of
all things present, in an earnest desire for the
future
EDGAR ALLAN POE
It is remarkable that, whatever the tribu
lations of his private life, Poe never lost his
vision of his artistic destiny or his essential
seriousness
GEOFFREY RANS
The story of Edgar Allan Poe is one of the
great tragedies of literature
DAVID SINCLAIR
Contents
List of Plates and Map ix
Preface xt
UUI 1
The Life of Edgar Allan Poe 3
Poe's Literary Reputation 25
PART II AN EDGAR ALLAN POE DICTIONARY 35
PART III THE SHORT STORIES 59
PART IV THE ROMANCES 113
PART V ESSAYS AND CRITICISM 133
PART VI THE POETRY 149
PART VII CHARACTERS AND LOCATIONS IN
POE'S FICTION 167
Appendix -Film Versions 189
References 193
Select Bibliography 196
Index 202
List of Plates and Map
Frontispiece
Edgar Allan Poe, circa 1840
1 Manor House School, Stoke Newington
2 Rear view of Manor House School
3 The mother of Edgar Allan Poe
4 The house in which 'The Raven' was finished
5 Title page of Tamcrlane
6 Virginia Poe, nee Clemm
7 Facsimile of verses by Poe
8 Poe's cottage at Fordham
9 Poe in the closing years of his life
Map Stoke Newington, London, circa 1820 8
For the provision of illustrations, and permission to repro
duce them, grateful acknowledgements are made to: Hackney
Library Services, London Borough of Hackney (frontispiece,
1, 2, and map); BBC Hulton Picture Library (3 and 4).
Preface
The present work stems from an interest in Edgar Allan Poe
extending over thirty years. Ever since, as a schoolboy, I first
acquired a copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination and came
under the spell of those unforgettable short stories I have
been deeply impressed with Poe as a literary artist and have
felt a sense of debt to him which I hope this Companion can in
some measure repay.
The Companion is intended to serve as a guide to the whole
range of his work- including the short stories, the poetry and
the criticism -and to enable the reader to read and enjoy Poe
with a keener appreciation. I have found that as work on the
book proceeded my own fascination with Poe as a man and as a
writer has intensified, and I found myself being drawn more
and more towards a closer scrutiny of this most intriguing of
literary figures. I trust that I have succeeded in conveying to
the reader something of my own enthusiasm for his writings.
I have found it extraordinarily difficult in practice to present
a balanced and detached view of Poe as an individual. So much
has been written about him since his death - some of it
adulatory, some of it hypercritical- that anyone seeking to
present a dispassionate appraisal has to steer his way through
a labyrinth of critical and biographical works in an attempt to
arrive at a balanced assessment. The reader must judge the
extent to which I have succeeded in the pages which follow.
But I start from the conviction that he was a literary craftsman
of very considerable importance and that his significance to
the twentieth century is only now beginning to be ap
preciated.
I am indebted in particular to the following critical works:
Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe by Hervey Allen,