Edgar Poe was born the son of itinerant actors on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusets. Abandoned by his father and the later death of his mother, he was taken into the foster care of John Allan, a Virginia tobacco farmer. Now styled as Edgar Allan Poe, he distinguished himself at the University of Virginia but was equally adept at collecting debts from his assiduous gambling. His stepfather's disapproval shattered their fragile relationship and Poe left home to seek his fortune.

In 1836 he married his cousin Virginia but despite his prolific activities - journalism, poetry, lecturing, short stories, publishing, criticism and experimentation with fictional genres, including the detective novel which he virtually invented with the publication of 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' (1841) - he received scant recognition for his efforts until the publication of 'The Raven' in 1845. The poem's instant popularity gave him a new visibility in literary circles, but his personal situation remained desperate: poverty, illness, drink, and the physical decline and ultimate death of Virginia in 1847 led to his untimely and premature decline. In 1849 he was found sick, injured and semi-conscious in a Baltimore tavern. Taken to hospital, he lingered on for four days, but never recovered and on October 7th Edgar Allan Poe died at the age of 40.

He was one of the most original writers in the history of American letters - a genius who, thanks to his dire reputation, was tragically misunderstood during his lifetime. It was not until Baudelaire enthusiastically translated his work that he found a wider audience in Europe, and became not only an enormous influence on modern French literature but also on the acclaimed work of writers such as Dostoevsky, Conan Doyle and Jules Verne.

Nie ma jeszcze żadnych recenzji.

PART ONE

I. Tales of Mystery and Horror

The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Black Cat
The Gold-Bug
Ligeia
A Descent into the Maelström
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Purloined Letter
The Assignation
M.S. Found in a Bottle
William Wilson
Berenice
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Cask of Amontillado
The Pit and the Pendulum
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
The Man of the Crowd
Morella
"Thou Art the Man"
The Oblong Box
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
Metzengerstein
The Masque of the Red Death
The Premature Burial
The Imp of the Perverse
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Hop-Frog

II. Humor and Satire

The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.
How to Write a Blackwood Article
A Predicament
Mystification
Loss of Breath
The Man that Was Used Up
Diddling
The Angel of the Odd
Mellonta Tauta
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
X-ing a Paragrab
The Business Man
A Tale of Jerusalem
The Sphinx
Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling
Bon-Bob
The Duc De L'Omelette
Three Sundays in a Week
The Devil in the Belfry
Lionizing
Some Words with a Mummy
The Spectacles
Four Beasts in One
Never Bet the Devil Your Head

III. Flights and Fantasies

The Balloon-Hoax
Mesmeric Revelation
Eleonora
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
King Pest
The Island of the Fay
the Oval Portrait
The Domain of Arnheim
Landor's Cottage
The Power of Words
The Colloquy of Monos and Una
Shadow - a Parable
Silence - a Fable
Von Kempelen and His Discovery

IV. The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket

PART TWO

The Poems

Preface to the Poems

Miscellaneous Poems

The Raven
Serenade
Lenore
Elizabeth
A Valentine
Hymn
The Coliseum
To - -
Ulalume
Epigram for Wall Street
To Helen
An Enigma
The Happiest Day, The Happiest Hour
Annabel Lee
To One in Paradise
The Bells
To My Mother
Imitation
The Haunted Palace
The Conqueror Worm
To F - DD. O - D
The Valley of Unrest
The City in the Sea The Sleeper
A Dream Within a Dream
Sonnet - Silence
Dreamland
Eulalie
Sonnet - To Zante
Bridal Ballad
To F -
Eldorado
Israfel
For Annie
Sonnet - To Science
Al Aaraaf
To the River
Tamerlane
To -
A Dream
The Lake to -
Song
to M -
To M.L.S. -
Spirits of the Dead
To Helen -
Dreams
Evening Star
Alone
A Paean
Fairy-Land
Romance

In Youth I Have Known
Stanzas