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23266282 No.23266282 [Reply] [Original]

What do you like the most about Edgar Allan Poe? What are his best works? Or is he an overrated hack?

>> No.23266431

Style over substance. He can do some pretty writing, but it lacks a soul. His poetry is better than his prose.

>> No.23267300

>>23266282
Don't listen to >>23266431
He is style and substance and his poetry is amazing but it's kind of hit or miss.
He was a funny prankster and not the sad boy people like to represent.

My fav poem of his is Eldorado:

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old—
This knight so bold—
And o’er his heart a shadow—
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow—
‘Shadow,’ said he,
‘Where can it be—
This land of Eldorado?’

‘Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,’
The shade replied,—
‘If you seek for Eldorado!’

>> No.23267393

The Raven is mid-victorian sentimental tripe. Tumpty rumpty wumpty weary, humpty pumpty bumpty dreary. Hate it

>> No.23267424

>>23267300
I have read collections of his short stories and poetry. The poetry is beautiful, but that's all there is about it... There's no soul in it. There's nothing being said, it's just beauty for the sake of beauty. This is why he was a better poet than prosist, in poetry you can more rely on superficial beauty.

He knew this himself, and this is why he relied on short stories with themes which at the time were considered gimmicky, such as detective stories or horror stories. I remember one of his contemporary critics describing his writings as "a plain woman wearing excessive jewelry." Spot on.

>> No.23267430

His poems are all right. His only finished novel is a bit of a mess. Some of his short stories are great, many of them went on to become part of popular culture.

>MS. Found in a Bottle
>The Gold-Bug
Cool adventure stories. The second features a puzzle in it.

>The Murders in the Rue Morgue
>The Purloined Letter
Pioneering works of detective fiction. You bet Collins and Conan Doyle read these many times.

>The Fall of the House of Usher
>William Wilson
>The Masque of the Red Death
>The Tell-Tale Heart
>The Black Cat
>The Cask of Amontillado
>The Pit and the Pendulum
>The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
>Ligeia
>Morella
The Gothic/horror stuff for which he is known.

>> No.23267431

Has anyone read his essays? Are they good?

>> No.23267433

I like the Tell-Tale Heart, the Black Cat and The Fall of the House of Usher

>> No.23267443

>>23267424
not the guy ur replying to but I personallybeit feel asthoughever looking for soul in writing is entirely dependent on *your* relationship with it.

yeah the writing itself is constitutive of that relationship, but only as part of the greater unity of that soul-relationship that builds from your own experiences and bleeds to and from works of art.

there's you, there's the art, there's how you relate to it, and so on.

using soul as a criticism simply speaks more of your character than it does the writing

not that there's anything wrong with that althoughever, it's just never a convincing argument against the art.

>> No.23267520

>>23267393
Filtered.

>> No.23267528
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23267528

I read The Raven by candle light the other day, it took me 40 minutes but it was canon.

>> No.23268352

>>23266282
>What do you like the most about Edgar Allan Poe?
I like that Poetry is named after him. Speaks volumes really.

>> No.23268370
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23268370

Good but overrated. M.G lewis was a far greater writer and poet yet is completely forgotten