Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849

Edgar Allan Poe（1809-1849） an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Edgar Allan Poe（1809-1849） Life Significance Works Evaluation and conclusion

Life He lived a short and tragic life. (1) His childhood was a miserable one. He lost both of his parents when he was very young and then he was adopted by a wealthy merchant, John Allan. Poe’s relation with the Allans was unhappy. (2) He entered University of Virginia and then West Point but did not finish. (3) He worked as editor and writer most of his life and he was always poor. (4) At 27 he married his thirteen-year-old cousin, whose death in 1847 left him inconsolable.

Significance father of modern short story father of detective story father of psychoanalytic criticism

Works List of his works Achievements Features of his works Conclusion Poetry Short Stories Features of his works Conclusion

List of his works Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque “MS. Found in a Bottle” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “The Fall of the House of Usher” “The Masque of the Red Death” “The Cask of Amontillado” The Raven Annabel Lee To Helen The Poetic Principle The Philosophy of Composition

Achievements He wrote all kinds of literary productions. Among all his works, his poems and short stories are more famous. (1) Poems A. Theory Poems should be short, concise and readable at one sitting; The aim of poem writing is beauty; the most beautiful thing described by a poem is the death of a beautiful woman; the desirable tone of a poem is melancholy; He opposed didactic poems; He stressed the form of poem, especially the beautiful and neat rhyme. His poetry theory is not fair at all time. For example, according to him, Paradise Lost is not a good poem. B. Famous poems: “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, “To Helen” etc. C. All his poems were written according to his poetry theory and his poems have strong dreamy color.

Achievements (2) Short Story A. Theory B. Sample: “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Features of his works a. Gothic elements b. deep analysis of human psychology (He noticed subconscious of human mind nearly one hundred year before Freud. ) (He was also the first American author who took neurotic characters as main characters in his stories.) c. precursor of detective stories (e.g. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”) and science stories

Evaluation Poe remained the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature. Emerson dismissed him in three words “the jingle man”，Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable. And Whitman was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in 1875. Today, Poe’s particular power has ensured his position among the greatest writers of the world.

Conclusion style: ordinary, traditional language: mannerism a controversial figure in American literary history (Poe was criticized by several famous American writers, such as Emerson, Henry James and Mark Twain. However, his works was welcomed in Europe, especially in France.)

The End