My Favourite Books

Number 11 - Selected Writings - Edgar Allan Poe

"Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe" - The Beatles 'I Am the Walrus' Apart from appearing in 'Walrus' Poe also features prominently on the sleeve of Sgt Pepper I think we can take it that the Beatles were fans. Coincidentally, both Poe and Lennon died at the age of 40 (though in Poe's case it was alcohol rather than gunshot wounds which killed him). But the Beatles connection is not the reason why I've chosen this book as one of my favourites. Edgar Allan Poe is very closely identified with tales of horror and madness, and of course it is that type of material which draws adolescent boys to his work - it is certainly what drew me. All those macabre stories which were converted into Hammer House of Horror films in the sixties ('The Fall of the House of Usher', 'the Pit and the Pendulum', 'the Masque of the Red Death' etc etc etc) are the stuff which hooks you in. People being buried alive, people digging up dead people, people going mad, more people being buried alive - it's all good stuff (rubs hands in glee). But a surprising discovery awaits. A clue is in the cover of the collection illustrated here. The black bird on the cover is supposed to represent 'the Raven'. On opening the book you find that Poe was not just a purveyor of creepy stories. In fact, he was a poet and a literary critic and an early writer of science fiction. One of his most famous poems is 'the Raven'. The poem is not only something of a masterpiece in its own right - Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore ! Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore'.

- but it is also the subject of a truly amazing essay called 'The Philosophy of Composition' in which he 'deconstructs' (to use a modern word) the creation of the poem. If you read the poem first then you will probably find it quite startling and affecting, and perhaps moving. You may tend to think of poetry of this sort as having been composed during a burst of creativity in which the writer is assailed by inspiration 'beyond his control' (many writers speak of being merely the channel for something being received from the ether). Then read what Poe says about its composition - "..the work proceeded, step by step, to its completion with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem." He describes the process in detail - I paraphrase here - in a cold-blooded way he decides that the highest aim of poetry is to capture beauty - the most beautiful thing known to man is a beautiful woman - the poem should inspire the most profound emotion - the most profound emotions are love and grief - the poem should therefore be about the death of a beautiful woman loved by the poet. And so on in clinical fashion. The poem is compelling - the exposition of its construction is masterful. Poe provided the template for Sherlock Holmes in Auguste Dupin. Poe heavily influenced the horror stories of HP Lovecraft, and indeed all of the horror writers who followed him down to Stephen King. Poe practically invented 'science-fiction' as an art form, influencing Ray Bradbury in particular. Poe wrote high quality poetry. In short, Poe was a wonderful writer. Not included in this book, but well worth investigating, is a truly horrifying novel-length story, 'The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucket'. (Hmmm Arthur Gordon Pym - Edgar Allan Poe - I wonder if by any chance they are related) Pym voyages on the American Brig Grampus on her way to the South Seas in 1827. There is mutiny and atrocious butchery on board, then shipwreck and famine. There is rescue by a British schooner which itself is then attacked with the crew being massacred. All of this being merely the prequel to the real horror yet to be discovered. None of this is to be read by anyone of a nervous disposition. 'Pym' still gives me the creeps 30 years after I read it. Wonderful. And much of madness and more of sin And Horror the Soul of the Plot -----from Poe's poem 'Ligeia'