Evermore
Edgar Allan Poe and the Mystery of the Universe
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- $39.99
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- $39.99
Publisher Description
The popular Poe-- The Raven, Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat--has inspired a generation of readers long disenchanted with the normative tradition of American literature. But is the popular Poe--incessantly drinking, drug-addicted, and entranced by the terror of death--the real Poe? Harry Lee Poe contends that, for more than two centuries, the great myth of Edgar Allan Poe has damaged both the popular reader's understanding of Poe's corpus and the historian's depiction of Poe's life. Through reviewing his poems and short stories, literary criticism and science fiction, Evermore reveals a Poe who is deeply confounded by the existence of evil, the truth of justice, and even the problems of love, beauty, and God. Here Poe aficionados and casual appreciators of literature alike are invited into a greater understanding of Poe's most persistent questions and offered a novel approach to reading the American literary icon.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Part biography and part polemic, this brief, passionate look at the life of Edgar Allan Poe (written by the descendant of one of Poe's cousins) offers yet another perspective on one of America's most beloved and controversial authors. The author is at his best when he's tackling Poe's life story and the ways in which it has been distorted. His case against Rufus Griswold's (largely successful) attempt to hijack Poe's reputation after his death is especially compelling, as are his efforts to cut through the mystique and legend to reveal an individual of good manners and strong principles. The portrait that emerges is of a multi-dimensional man who was capable of both experiencing and writing about a full range of emotions and wasn't merely enthralled with the horrific or grotesque themes for which he's so well remembered. Where the book flounders, however, is when the author tries to defend (and in some cases, divine) Poe's religious and scientific beliefs as outlined in Eureka! With few biographical records beyond the text to rely on, the writer is left to gropingly speculate and interpret a text that has confounded many a critic before him. Readers looking to better understand the Gothic/Romantic master will find this book enlightening, though folks looking to understand his views on the universe would do better to consult Eureka! themselves.
