Category Archives: Dear Edgar

Dear Edgar~15: Mystification

Posted on November 7, 2023 by Mark Hayes

The editorship of the Richmond Examiner in the 19th century was something of a dangerous occupation. When someone took exception to an editorial they often expressed there views in pointed fashion. Thomas Ritchie, who founded the paper in 1804 witnessed … Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar ~14: Four Beasts in One

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Mark Hayes

‘Glory of the East,’ thou art in danger of mastication! This is clearly either on of the finest sentences ever written, or a really odd typo to find in the middle of an Edgar Allen Poe story. So lets go … Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #13 Shadow – A Parable

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Mark Hayes

YE who read are still among the living; but I who write shall have long since gone my way into the region of shadows. For indeed strange things shall happen, and secret things be known, and many centuries shall pass away, ere these memorials be seen of men. And, when seen, there will be some to disbelieve, and some to doubt, and yet a few who will find much to ponder upon in the characters here graven with a stylus of iron. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #12 King Pest

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Mark Hayes

King Pest is also a bit of an odd ball, even amongst other Poe stories. It reveals in description and the grotesque to a far greater extent than even Poe’s usual work. While the story is something akin to a nightmarish romp through a plague ridden London. Think of it as the literary equivalent of a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #11 The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall

Posted on July 24, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Edgar Allen Poe remains one to the most influential writers of the western cannon. His Horror stories inspired many writers, not least those of HP Lovecraft’s generation a hundred years later and by extension Steven King generation were inspired by both Poe and the previous generations he had inspired. Without Poe there may never have been a Cthulhu or a Pennywise the clown. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #10 Lionizing

Posted on July 11, 2023 by Mark Hayes

We are eight billion lost souls, seeking to be celebrated for our celebrity, rather than our achievements. All seeking to be lionised, to become the in thing, that which is, rather than that which never will be or never was… Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #9 Morella

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Our own Dear Edgar is, as you are probably aware, much beloved by those who favour clothing themselves in black, wearing dark eye-shadow and catching moon moths while they dance to ‘This Corrosion’. Some might say this is because he and his story’s have a reputation for more than a fleeting obsession with tragedy, love and death. That and his poetry, obsessed with tragedy, love and death…

This is of course an unfair summing up of Poe’s body of work, in some stories no one comes to a tragic appalling end… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Dear Edgar, Goth, horror, humour, Poe, reads | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, horror, Poe, reading, reads, writing | 4 Comments

Dear Edgar #7 The Assignation

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Mark Hayes

This is not so much horror, as it is often coined to be despite note having any traditional elements of horror within it, but a romance for bored housewives. There is an odd, and somewhat convoluted line but there is a line all the same, between this story and 50 shades of gre Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #6 MS Found in a Bottle

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Poe scholars are apt to say it was this story that truly launched Poe’s career. Certainly its is the first tale to read the way you expect Poe to read, with an ominous intensity wrapped in poetic language, creeping with ever more intensity towards a dark grim conclusion. In this tale then, you can see all that is to come late in Poe’s career. Continue reading →