Category Archives: retro book reviews

Dear Edgar 65 ~ X-ing a Paragrab

Posted on August 7, 2026 by Mark Hayes

As it is well known that the ‘wise men’ came ‘from the East,’ and as Mr. Touch-and-go Bullet-head came from the East, it follows that Mr. Bullet-head was a wise man. If that short exert doesn’t tell you all you … Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 64 ~ Von Kempelen and His Discovery

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Mark Hayes

By April 1849 our dear Edgar was a widower finding his comfort once more in the bottle. Privately he had started becoming increasingly unstable after Viginia’s death in January 1847. Yet publicly he had never been so successful. The initial … Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 63 ~ Hop Frog

Posted on July 28, 2026 by Mark Hayes

“I now see distinctly… what manner of people these maskers are. They are a great king and his seven privy-councillors—a king who does not scruple to strike a defenceless girl, and his seven councillors who abet him in the outrage. As for myself, I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester—and this is my last jest.” 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 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 →

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Dear Edgar 52 ~ The Purloined letter

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Mark Hayes

Perhaps it needed a good murder… Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 42 ~ The Black Cat

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Mark Hayes

Pluto the cat was not named for Pluto the planet. Pluto the planet was not discovered until 1930 (though one suspects it was always there…) which was almost ninety years after this story was written. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 41 ~ The Gold Bug

Posted on August 25, 2025 by Mark Hayes

To an extent then, this Poe story shorted the second world war and saved the lives of many allied soldiers… Which is almost enough to forgive its flaws… And certainly more than the DeVince code ever managed to do. Continue reading →

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Dear Edgar 37 ~ The Landscape Garden

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Mark Hayes

the Landscape garden, a story by Dear Edgar that is not exactly worth your time… with an explanation of why that is the case. and an expose on 1840’s women’s magazines Continue reading →

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