Category Archives: Poe

Dear Edgar 62 ~ Mellonta Tauta

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Mark Hayes

In Mellonta Tauta, our Dear Edgar imagines the world a thousand years in his future and writes a letter from it. All be it a letter not address to us, but sealed in a bottle and thrown into the ocean by its writer just before the balloon, on which they will be traveling, collapses into the sea Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 61 ~ The Domain of Arnheim

Posted on July 1, 2026 by Mark Hayes

the question before us is not if the landscape Garden is a story, but if The Domain of Arnheim takes that original non-narrative piece and turn it into a story…? Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 60 ~ The Cask of Amontillado

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Mark Hayes

In this grim tale of revenge by our Dear Edgar, the promise of sampling a cask of Amontillado is used by the protagonist Montresor to lure his intended victim Fortunato to his grotesque doom. Fortunato considers himself to be a connoisseur of fine wine, though just how true this may be is debateable. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 58 ~ The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

Posted on April 13, 2026 by Mark Hayes

In these, the enlightened days of modernity, hypnotism is a casino act and the other aspects of mesmerism is consigned to long debunked and forgotten corners of pseudoscience. In Edgar’s time however, there was some basis of belief that gave credence to this story. By presenting it in such an arid perfunctory way it seemed like a genuine scientific account. People wanted to believe, and the story offered ‘proof…’ Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 57 ~ The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Mark Hayes

Once upon a dark time of tribulation and despair, whence an ancient nation state lay beneath the uncaring heel of a feared tyrants regime*. Grim dark clouds that circled those that once sang of ghost towns and a race of rats left the safety of there fellows and that which was special ceased to be, and thence they became fun boys a three…
Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 56 ~ The Imp of the Perverse

Posted on March 13, 2026 by Mark Hayes

The two pictures above are of Virginia and Frances, the two women shared a remarkable resemblance, so much so that they are occasionally mistaken for each other even now. With Frances portrait occasionally mistakenly used for Virginia Clem and vice versa on the internet. They shared other taints as well, a certain child like qualities, raven dark hair, fair skin and tuberculosis… Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 55 ~ The Power of Words

Posted on March 12, 2026 by Mark Hayes

It is at this point a reader may feel a driving urge to slap Agathos, or our dear Edgar, preferably repeatedly with a large wet haddock. Though maybe that is just my irrational response to this the third, and thankfully final, of Poe’s dialogues between spirits in heaven that pontificate on the meaning of existence, the divine, and eternity… Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 54 ~ Some Words With a Mummy

Posted on February 3, 2026 by Mark Hayes

What could be more Victorian than desecrating bodily remains and destroying another cultures heritage for the purposes of entertainment… Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 53 ~ The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade

Posted on January 29, 2026 by Mark Hayes

Truth, as the old saying goes, is stranger than fiction. It is also on occasion harder to believe. Fiction has the advantage of the internal logic of the story. Truth has to actually be true, even if that truth is … Continue reading →