The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4Poe, Edgar Allan
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American; Short stories
I remember the buzz of curiosity which his advent excited within
the college precincts on the night of the twenty-fifth of June. I
remember still more distinctly, that while he was pronounced by
all parties at first sight “the most remarkable man in the
world,” no person made any attempt at accounting for his opinion.
That he was unique appeared so undeniable, that it was deemed
impertinent to inquire wherein the uniquity consisted. But,
letting this matter pass for the present, I will merely observe
that, from the first moment of his setting foot within the limits
of the university, he began to exercise over the habits, manners,
persons, purses, and propensities of the whole community which
surrounded him, an influence the most extensive and despotic, yet
at the same time the most indefinite and altogether
unaccountable. Thus the brief period of his residence at the
university forms an era in its annals, and is characterized by
all classes of people appertaining to it or its dependencies as
“that very extraordinary epoch forming the domination of the
Baron Ritzner von Jung.”
Upon his advent to G——n, he sought me out in my apartments. He
was then of no particular age, by which I mean that it was
impossible to form a guess respecting his age by any data
personally afforded. He might have been fifteen or fifty, and was
twenty-one years and seven months. He was by no means a handsome
man—perhaps the reverse. The contour of his face was somewhat
angular and harsh. His forehead was lofty and very fair; his nose
a snub; his eyes large, heavy, glassy, and meaningless. About the
mouth there was more to be observed. The lips were gently
protruded, and rested the one upon the other, after such a
fashion that it is impossible to conceive any, even the most
complex, combination of human features, conveying so entirely,
and so singly, the idea of unmitigated gravity, solemnity and
repose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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