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A review by guarinous
The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science by John Tresch
5.0
Approaching a canonical, American titan of literature such as Edgar Allan Poe must seem incredibly daunting for a biographer. In Poe we have a man already the subject of countless articles, books, and films that, thanks in part to some cleverly placed slander after his death, carries with him the stigma of alcoholism and itinerant poverty to go along with his genius in letters. John Tresch's solution to that is to approach Poe from a novel angle, taking into account the burgeoning scientific scene of his time and the author's contributions to the cause as well as the inspirations he took into his writing.
The Reason for the Darkness of the Night paints Poe in a far different light from the other biographical accounts of his life that I have read. Rather than completely focusing on Poe's reputation as tortured and poverty stricken goth genius, Tresch shows Poe as actively engaged with, and often at odds with, the wider scientific community around him. Alternating between debunking hoaxes and perpetuating them himself as well as fraternizing and then later being at loggerheads with the premier scientific minds of the time, Tresch shows Poe as an often enigmatic figure who nevertheless added (and took inspiration from) scientific advancement far more than he is given lasting credit for.
Tresch also does a fantastic job showing the overarching sadness and tangle of contradictions that defined Poe's life. He achieved critical success with his writing and became a household name with the publication of the Raven, but was never able to turn this into any sort of lasting monetary success. Tresch juxtaposes glowing critical reviews of Poe's work with stark depictions of the author and his family engulfed in near starvation poverty made worse by his unpredictable bouts of drunken sickness. While Poe's struggles cannot be denied, Tresch ardently defends and debunks the image of the man dying "friendless and alone in a gutter" as the product of jealous posthumous revisionist history and proves Poe's undeniable contributions to both American literature and modern science.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux**
The Reason for the Darkness of the Night paints Poe in a far different light from the other biographical accounts of his life that I have read. Rather than completely focusing on Poe's reputation as tortured and poverty stricken goth genius, Tresch shows Poe as actively engaged with, and often at odds with, the wider scientific community around him. Alternating between debunking hoaxes and perpetuating them himself as well as fraternizing and then later being at loggerheads with the premier scientific minds of the time, Tresch shows Poe as an often enigmatic figure who nevertheless added (and took inspiration from) scientific advancement far more than he is given lasting credit for.
Tresch also does a fantastic job showing the overarching sadness and tangle of contradictions that defined Poe's life. He achieved critical success with his writing and became a household name with the publication of the Raven, but was never able to turn this into any sort of lasting monetary success. Tresch juxtaposes glowing critical reviews of Poe's work with stark depictions of the author and his family engulfed in near starvation poverty made worse by his unpredictable bouts of drunken sickness. While Poe's struggles cannot be denied, Tresch ardently defends and debunks the image of the man dying "friendless and alone in a gutter" as the product of jealous posthumous revisionist history and proves Poe's undeniable contributions to both American literature and modern science.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux**