Edgar Allan Poe

[AE35Unit]

Yes Poe's works have a certain irony about them. Its like in certain horror tales the narrator is sniggering at the victim in the tale. As if to say,well you're in trouble now,should have stayed at home shouldn't you but no you got curious.

[j. d. worthington]

I wasn't particularly thinking about his horror tales in this instance -- which are actually only a small portion of his output -- but his genuine humorous tales, such as "Some Words with a Mummy", "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade", "How to Write a Blackwood Article" and "A Predicament", or (one of my personal favorites because of its very perverse sense of humor) "Bon-Bon"....

However, yes, he did include such ironies as you mention in several of his horror tales; "Metzengerstein" itself being as much a parody as a straight example of the horror tale; while "Berenice" relies almost entirely on the grotesque humor of the central idea for its horrific impact....

[Lobolover]

I meant things like "the man who was used up"-where he piles up unknown names by half a dozen in a paragraph,numerous times,etc.

I mean,what was so funny about the story where they guy is famous for his NOSE?

[j. d. worthington]

Many such stories -- such as the two you name here -- would have been much more humorous, and the points of their satire much more obvious, to Poe's contemporaries. For the first, he was satirizing much of the idealized image of the War of 1812, as well as a particular figure of that war -- one to whom Poe was somewhat related:

The Man That Was Used Up - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On "Lionizing"... again, Poe is satirizing several different things, most especially, it would seem, the fickleness of public acclaim and the ridiculously misproportioned things upon which it based.

[Lobolover]

I know but-does the second story deserve to be in a horror anthology with "MS. found in a bottle" ,as it happened here?

[j. d. worthington]

This was included in a horror anthology? Or a collection of Poe's tales? What were the other contents? I can't see it as being a horror tale, no... but this is entirely new information; a completely different context than I had gathered from your original question....

[Lobolover]

The other stories were Malestorm,and-some other horror,"Imp of the perverse",besides "Angel of the odd",It was mostly horror,it has only 2 of those lighter storis and boy were they misplaced.

I mean,they put Irving's "the dead bridegroom" in a colection with Hawthorne.

[j. d. worthington]

Sounds more like a general collection of his tales rather than a horror anthology or collection as such. If this were an older book (even one with a recent reprint), this would be by no means uncommon, as it was long felt that a balance between different aspects of a writer's output was better than concentrating on a single facet....

[Lobolover]

Actualy,there were only two such-but youll find this kinda stuff even in serious horror anthologies-though there arent any REAL serious ones around, considering every one I ever read was labeled "for children".

[Heteronym]

Poe had me in thrall during my childhood: he was one of the first writers I discovered. Recently I've acquired the Wordsworth edition and I've been rereading his short-stories, and not without a certain disappointment. He seemed more interesting in the past

Jorge Luis Borges argued that Poe's grandeur comes not from a single short-story, but from the cumulative effect of his complete work. Now I'm reading all the stories I missed in my youth and they're not having any effect over me.

Poe influenced everyone that came after him: Baudelaire; some late 19th-century fantasy/horror writers like Villiers and Schwob; Kipling; Lovecraft; Borges, writers I enjoy a lot nowadays. But somehow I can't connect with him anymore.

[Connavar]

Its not unheard of that an author you enjoyed for many years being not to your taste anymore.


For me i have discovered him only months ago and i pull out my wordsworth edition of Tales of Mystery and Terror when i read too many bland authors,book and i feal for quality prose,writing and stories i can slowly enjoy the pleasure of reading them. Only author i have read from centuries ago that are still timeless in his writing.

Only minus with Poe is that i wish he wrote much more of his delicious horror stories compared to his other type of stories.

If Poe was a must read in lit class in school when you were a kid instead of Austen and co, the class would have been much more fun

[j. d. worthington]

It is also not unusual for a taste for writers such as Poe to come and go in one's life. I've known plenty of people (and read accounts of others) who vacillated where he was concerned. At one period they adored his work; at another couldn't stand it; then went to a more moderate form of enjoyment, or back to relishing it again; and so on.... The same happens with many of the most distinctive writers, I think.....

[Lobolover]

It may be a certain restlesness one feels,as a horror an,after reading his humour which he doesnt find funny at all.Sets you "thinking" .

[Connavar]

I read The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart for the first time a couple of nights ago.

Similar stories but both was twisted fun reads ! Specially the Black Cat had a real fine ending.