1. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) RELAX – this is on the Weebly. Enjoy the story…

2. Melodramatic Life Determining the facts of Poe’s life has proved difficult, as lurid legend became entwined with fact even before he died. Some of these legends were spread by Poe himself. Two days after Poe’s death, his literary executor began a smear campaign, rewriting Poe’s correspondence to alienate many of Poe’s friends.

3. Early Life The son of actors, Poe never really knew his parents. Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, his parents’ second child. His father deserted the family a year later. In December 1811, his mother died of TB at twenty-four, and her husband disappeared completely. Poe was taken in by John Allan, a successful and stable Richmond merchant, and his wife.

4. College and West Point Poe spent most of 1826 at the University of West Virginia, doing well in his studies, but running up gambling debts and drinking. He was admitted at West Point in 1830, but got himself expelled by missing classes and roll calls. He returned home only to face another personal setback—his neighbor and fiancée Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else. Heartbroken and frustrated, Poe left the Allans.

5. Career Beginnings Poe published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827, but he also joined the army around this time. Poe wanted to go to West Point, a military academy, and won a spot there in 1830. Before going to West Point, he published a second collection Al Aaraaf, Tamberlane, and Minor Poems in 1829. Poe excelled at his studies at West Point, but he was kicked out after a year for his poor handling of his duties. By 1831, Poe had published three versions of his early poetry.

6. Finally, a family… He settled in Baltimore with his paternal aunt Maria Clemm and her eight-year-old daughter, Virginia. Poe, Virginia, and Maria Clemm eventually moved to Richmond, where Poe then took the reins as editor of the Messenger. The next year, Poe, 27, and Virginia, 13, married.

7. Marriage and more heart break In 1842 Virginia ruptured a blood vessel, the first sign of the ill health that plagued her short life. To cope with her illness and the stress of his failing finances, Poe occasionally turned to alcohol. In 1845, Poe published “The Raven,” which brought him temporary popular and critical acclaim. Two years later, Virginia died of tuberculosis.

8. Poe’s Death Poe was overcome by grief after the death of his beloved Virginia in 1847. While he continued to work, he suffered from poor health and struggled financially, seriously ill and drinking steadily. On Election Day, October 3, 1849, he was found senseless near a polling place. Taken to a hospital, he died on October 7 “of congestion of the brain.” A recent theory is that he died of rabies.

9. Poe worked in a variety of genres (1827-1849) Criticism--he gained a national reputation as a virulently sarcastic critic, a literary hatchet man. The bulk of his writing consists of his criticism, and his most abiding ambition was to become a powerful critic. Poetry--He was an experimental poet. Psychological fiction--He wanted to produce the greatest possible horrific effects on the reader. Detective Story/short story--Poe created this form when he was 32 with all its major conventions complete, earning him the nickname "Father of the Detective Story."

10. Characteristics of Poe’s detective stories Poe places veiled clues before the reader. The writer/narrator strives to appear objective. Poe liked to solve everything by the mind. He was disturbed by what he could not solve by reason. The climax of the story is the narrator’s explanation of the crime.

12. Poe and the Gothic Ironically, Poe did not want to write gothic stories; he started his career spoofing the Gothic. He said that he wrote, “Tales of terror, not of Germany, but of the soul.” He transformed tales of terror into psychological stories by delving into the mysterious recesses of the human mind.

13. Elements of Gothic in Poe’s Fiction Grim setting Landscapes are often reflections of character’s mind. Unusual buildings, extremes of nature, eccentric works of art Very few of his stories take place in America; most take place in Europe or Never-never-land.

14. Other elements of the Gothic Hidden evil Omens, foreshadowing, & dreams Unspeakable, mysterious crimes, including incest and parricide Obsession with Death & unexplainable occurrences Ghosts, legends, blood, body parts Supernatural events Doors that open themselves, unexplained sounds

15. Other elements of the Gothic Damsels in distress are frequent. Women are frightened, confused, wandering or dying due to a slow an unexplainable ailment Maniacal Laughter The discovered manuscript gives responsibility to someone else Deformity the grotesque--people who don’t look right are capable of activity beyond the norm

16. An element of Poe’s style Poe uses vocabulary to create setting, for rhetorical effect, rather than for information. Words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom: Dark, foreboding, forbidding, ghostly, etc. Modern horror films use music to create atmosphere; Poe used vocabulary.

17. Hawthorne/Poe Hawthorne described the conflict between the intellect and heart. Poe described the conflict between two sides of the intellect.

18. Doubling Motif seen in “..Usher” Represents the dual nature of man In Poe, one side of man is reason or the mind. The other is emotion or the body Roderick and Madeleine are genetically twins, but psychologically they are also doubles Examples from other literature? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson) The Secret Sharer (Joseph Conrad)