Poe

Portada
Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005 - 290 páginas

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American original---a luminous literary theorist, an erratic genius, and an analyst par excellence of human obsession and compulsion. The scope of his literary achievements and the dramatic character of Poe's life have drawn readers and critics to him in droves.

And yet, upon his death, one obituary penned by a literary enemy in the New York Daily Tribune cascaded into a lasting stain on Poe's character, leaving a historic misunderstanding. Many remember Poe as a difficult, self-pitying, troubled drunkard often incapable of caring for himself.

Poe reclaims the Baltimore and Virginia writer's reputation and power, retracing Poe's life and career. Biographer and critic James M. Hutchisson captures the boisterous worlds of literary New York and Philadelphia in the 1800s to understand why Poe wrote the way he did and why his achievement was so important to American literature. The biography presents a critical overview of Poe's major works and his main themes, techniques, and imaginative preoccupations.

This portrait of the writer emphasizes Poe's southern identity; his existence as a workaday journalist in the burgeoning magazine era; his authority as a literary critic and cultural arbiter; his courtly demeanor and sense of social propriety; his advocacy of women writers; his adaptation of art forms as diverse as the so-called gutter press and the haunting rhythms of African American spirituals; his borrowing of imagery from such popular social movements as temperance and freemasonry; and his far-reaching, posthumous influence.

Dentro del libro

Páginas seleccionadas

Contenido

Childhood Boston Richmond England 18091825
3
The Byronic Youth University the Army and West Point 18261830
16
Baltimore Early Tales and Satires 18311834
31
Return to Richmond Marriage the Southern Literary Messenger and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym 18351837
46
Philadelphia Burtons Gentlemans Magazine and the Great Tales 18381840
80
Grahams Magazine The Penn and the Red Death 18411843
108
New York Triumphs and TroublesThe Raven and the Longfellow War 18441845
149
Quarrels Loves and Losses 18461848
189
The Journey and the Lighthouse 1849
233
Epilogue
251
Chronology
258
Notes
261
Index
279
Derechos de autor

Otras ediciones - Ver todas

Términos y frases comunes

Acerca del autor (2005)

James M. Hutchisson, Charleston, South Carolina, is a professor of American literature and southern studies at The Citadel.

Información bibliográfica