Although born in Boston, Poe was of Southern descent and received his early education in England and Virginia. He belonged to no school of writers. His works are _sui generis_ and bear no local color or imprint. Though a loving husband, he was throughout his life practically without friends, his caustic criticism in particular making him many enemies in the world of letters, with disastrous effect on the reception of his writings. His life was consequently one long struggle for bare necessities, in spite of which, working with unflagging energy, he left behind several volumes of poems, tales, and criticism of a high order. The wonderful technique, faultless form, and painstaking choice of detail, combined with the grotesque and morbid beauty of both his poetry and his prose have secured for Poe an abiding place in our literature. It is the perfection of literary style that has given him his great popularity abroad and especially in France. Indeed, Poe's neglect of the moral point of view and his constant achievement of artistic perfection of form are French rather than English or American characteristics. THE MAN 1. Poe was born in Boston. Would you class him with the New England school of writers? 2. Where did he receive his early education? Does this account for certain peculiarities in his writings? 3. Was Poe a man of warm sympathies? 4. What were his relations with other writers of his day? 5. Was the circle of his friendship extensive? What effect had this on his ultimate success as a writer? 6. Compare Scott and Poe as money-makers. 7. What is your opinion of Poe as a husband? 8. He was not a hard drinker as compared with men of his time. The malevolence of his literary executor is responsible in part for the belief to the contrary. On the other hand his will was not strong enough to resist the insidious craving for alcohol and opium, and his high-strung temperament was affected by a slight quantity of either poison. STYLE AND WORKS 1. What rank do you assign to Poe among American poets? Among short-story writers? 2. Wherein lay his strength? 3. What elements of weakness do you observe? 4. In "The Fall of the House of Usher" notice how the atmosphere of horror is fixed in the opening paragraph by a series of adjectives and adverbs expressive of ever increasing gloom and culminating in the word "torture." 5. Compare the nightmare dread that is attained both at the end of "The Fall of the House of Usher" and in "The Cask of Amontillado" with De Quincey's description of the dreams caused by opium and the attendant melancholia. IV, 171-181.