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Title: The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Contributor: James Russell Lowell
Nathaniel Parker Willis
Release date: April 1, 2000 [eBook #2147]
Most recently updated: September 13, 2025
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2147
Credits: David Widger and Carlo Traverso
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE - VOLUME 1 ***
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe
by Edgar Allan Poe
The Raven Edition
Contents
PREFACE
LIFE OF POE
DEATH OF POE
THE UNPARALLELED ADVENTURES OF ONE HANS PFAALL
THE GOLD-BUG
FOUR BEASTS IN ONE-THE HOMO-CAMELEOPARD
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET.(*1)
THE BALLOON-HOAX
MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE
THE OVAL PORTRAIT
EDGAR ALLAN POE
AN APPRECIATION
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "never-never more!"
This stanza from "The Raven" was recommended by James Russell
Lowell as an inscription upon the Baltimore monument which marks
the resting place of Edgar Allan Poe, the most interesting and
original figure in American letters. And, to signify that
peculiar musical quality of Poe's genius which inthralls every
reader, Mr. Lowell suggested this additional verse, from the
"Haunted Palace":
And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling ever more,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.
Born in poverty at Boston, January 19, 1809, dying under painful
circumstances at Baltimore, October 7, 1849, his whole literary
career of scarcely fifteen years a pitiful struggle for mere
subsistence, his memory malignantly misrepresented by his
earliest biographer, Griswold, how completely has truth at last
routed falsehood and how magnificently has Poe come into his own.
For "The Raven," first published in 1845, and, within a few
months, read, recited and parodied wherever the English language
was spoken, the half-starved poet received $10! Less than a year
later his brother poet, N. P. Willis, issued this touching appeal
to the admirers of genius on behalf of the neglected author, his
dying wife and her devoted mother, then living under very
straitened circumstances in a little cottage at Fordham, N. Y.:
"Here is one of the finest scholars, one of the most original men
of genius, and one of the most industrious of the literary
profession of our country, whose temporary suspension of labor,
from bodily illness, drops him immediately to a level with the
common objects of public charity. There is no intermediate
stopping-place, no respectful shelter, where, with the delicacy
due to genius and culture, he might secure aid, till, with
returning health, he would resume his labors, and his unmortified
sense of independence."
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!
Edgar's father, a son of General David Poe, the American
revolutionary patriot and friend of Lafayette, had married Mrs.
Hopkins, an English actress, and, the match meeting with parental
disapproval, had himself taken to the stage as a profession.
Notwithstanding Mrs. Poe's beauty and talent the young couple had
a sorry struggle for existence. When Edgar, at the age of two
years, was orphaned, the family was in the utmost destitution.
Apparently the future poet was to be cast upon the world homeless
and friendless. But fate decreed that a few glimmers of sunshine
were to illumine his life, for the little fellow was adopted by
John Allan, a wealthy merchant of Richmond, Va. A brother and
sister, the remaining children, were cared for by others.
In his new home Edgar found all the luxury and advantages money
could provide. He was petted, spoiled and shown off to strangers.
In Mrs. Allan he found all the affection a childless wife could
bestow. Mr. Allan took much pride in the captivating, precocious
lad. At the age of five the boy recited, with fine effect,
passages of English poetry to the visitors at the Allan house.
From his ei Next |