The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1Poe, Edgar Allan
General
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American; Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849
And this was the tribute paid by the American public to the
master who had given to it such tales of conjuring charm, of
witchery and mystery as “The Fall of the House of Usher” and
“Ligeia”; such fascinating hoaxes as “The Unparalleled Adventure
of Hans Pfaall,” “MSS. Found in a Bottle,” “A Descent Into a
Maelstrom” and “The Balloon-Hoax”; such tales of conscience as
“William Wilson,” “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-tale Heart,”
wherein the retributions of remorse are portrayed with an awful
fidelity; such tales of natural beauty as “The Island of the Fay”
and “The Domain of Arnheim”; such marvellous studies in
ratiocination as the “Gold-bug,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,”
“The Purloined Letter” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” the
latter, a recital of fact, demonstrating the author’s wonderful
capability of correctly analyzing the mysteries of the human
mind; such tales of illusion and banter as “The Premature Burial”
and “The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether”; such bits of
extravaganza as “The Devil in the Belfry” and “The Angel of the
Odd”; such tales of adventure as “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon
Pym”; such papers of keen criticism and review as won for Poe the
enthusiastic admiration of Charles Dickens, although they made
him many enemies among the over-puffed minor American writers so
mercilessly exposed by him; such poems of beauty and melody as
“The Bells,” “The Haunted Palace,” “Tamerlane,” “The City in the
Sea” and “The Raven.” What delight for the jaded senses of the
reader is this enchanted domain of wonder-pieces! What an
atmosphere of beauty, music, color! What resources of
imagination, construction, analysis and absolute art! One might
almost sympathize with Sarah Helen Whitman, who, confessing to a
half faith in the old superstition of the significance of
anagrams, found, in the transposed letters of Edgar Poe’s name,
the words “a God-peer.” His mind, she says, was indeed a “Haunted
Palace,” echoing to the footfalls of angels and demons.
“No man,” Poe himself wrote, “has recorded, no man has dared to
record, the wonders of his inner life.”
In these twentieth century days—of lavish recognition—artistic,
popular and material—of genius, what rewards might not a Poe
claim!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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