Category Archives: Poe

Dear Edgar ~ 24 The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion

In 1831, some 8 years before dear Edgar put pen to paper to scribe this tale, Reverend William Miller predicted the world would end with the second coming of Christ within thirteen years, and thus founded his own religious movement Millerism. As the date of what he termed ‘The Second Advent’ approached his movement grew from a small obscure movement in the early 1830’s to becomes a large national movement of up to half a million people. While Miller himself refused to nail down the actual date most became convinced its would be mid April 1844. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar ~23 William Wilson

“In me didst thou exist—and in my death, see … how utterly thou hast murdered thyself.” William Wilson is a tale with more than one interpretation, which possibly accounts for the remarkable number of adaptions of a story which is … Continue reading

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Dear Edgar #22 The Fall of the House of Usher

The themes of three earlier stories in particular are each echoed in this story, those being Morella, Berenice and Ligeia. Which is not to say that Edgar was obsessed with putting female characters into soporific states that seem death like, decaying, and wasting away, but it is a theme that comes up time and time again in the early tales. What is odd is that these themes were so prevalent before the wasting disease that would take his wife from him not many years later was diagnosed. Equally the male characters in all these stories react to these tragedies with obsession and madness that echoes how the death of Victoria was to plunge him into a deep alcohol fuelled depression and began his own downward spiral to an early grave.

Occasionally life imitates art in dreadful ways. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar #21 The Man That Was Used Up

All of which is no way as humorous in these latter days than it was intended to be when Poe wrote it and as much as Poe needs to be read with him being ‘of his time’ in mind, sometimes that excusing of the writer doesn’t make the reading of their tales any easier. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar #20 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

As authors go you would be hard pressed to find many with a legacy as influential as that of our own dear Edgar. Poe’s works have inspired directly or indirectly much of what we now perceive as the western cannon. … Continue reading

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Dear Edgar #18 Blackwood

‘How to Write a Blackwood Article’ and ‘A Predicament’ are two parody’s written by Poe and published in the same edition of the magazine, American Museum. One serves as an introductory piece for the other and in effect they form … Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 16: Silence, a fable

“It was night, and the rain fell; and falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was blood.” It is not unreasonable to say that a good half of our Dear Edgar’s out put over the years was poetry. As … Continue reading

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Dear Edgar~15: Mystification

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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Monomania et le gothique

If a Gothic tale needs one thing to make it a truly Gothic tale, it needs an antagonist in the grip of a profound monomania. Obsessions and obsessional manias are among of the principle building blocks of gothic literature. Be … Continue reading

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Dear Edgar ~14: Four Beasts in One

‘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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