Category Archives: Dear Edgar

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 →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, Dear Edgar, goodreads, horror, Poe, reads | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, horror, Poe, reads, writerslife, writing | 5 Comments

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 →

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Dear Edgar #5 Bon-Bon

Posted on May 3, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Look too long in to the abyss and the abyss will make you an offer on your immortal aspect… Apparently. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar #4 Loss of Breath

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Mark Hayes

I shall not explain how he proposed to treated women in whom he diagnosed as afflicted with similar afflictions, including ‘nymphomania’ which is to say any woman who enjoyed any kind of sexual agency in her own right outside of the marriage bed, because frankly you don’t want to know. Just let me state it was horrendous. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, Dear Edgar, fiction, goodreads, horror, Lovecraft, Poe, quotes, reads, retro book reviews | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, Poe, reads, writer, writerslife, writing | 6 Comments

Dear Edgar #2 The Duc de L’Omelette

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Mark Hayes

I find it hard to sympathise with anyone who puts a towel on their head to eat a bird that’s been force feed and drown in brandy. Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, Dear Edgar, fiction, humour, opinion, reads, retro book reviews | Tagged amreading, bookblog, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, goodreads, horror, Poe, read, reads | 5 Comments

Dear Edgar

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Mark Hayes

About a year ago I published a book that started out as a series of blogs in which I read the complete works of HP Lovecraft. A project I started as ‘filler’ posts for the blog. I’d expected the project … Continue reading →