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A review by socraticgadfly
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
First, as others have noted, Dawidziak doesn't really offer anything new, not even new informed speculation, on Poe's death. He agrees that "cooping" is most likely right as a proximate cause or contributing cause. He does add, which I hadn't thought of, that Poe quite possibly had tuberculosis, and that it possibly flaring up could have been a background contributing cause — but without noting (which we do know) that Poe had none of the major consumptive symptoms.
Second, although noting that Poe as an author has a number of short stories beyond his best-known ones, and that they might be good, doesn't actually discuss them much.
The only other things new to me were how readily Poe made enemies in the literary world and the number of Platonic, even infatuated, interests in women he had. The talk about Poe's humor had somewhat more emphasis than I might have heard before, but wasn't totally new.
Other than that, Dawidziak doesn't really plumb the depths on either Poe's death or life.
Second, although noting that Poe as an author has a number of short stories beyond his best-known ones, and that they might be good, doesn't actually discuss them much.
The only other things new to me were how readily Poe made enemies in the literary world and the number of Platonic, even infatuated, interests in women he had. The talk about Poe's humor had somewhat more emphasis than I might have heard before, but wasn't totally new.
Other than that, Dawidziak doesn't really plumb the depths on either Poe's death or life.