Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by lavanda4
The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science by John Tresch
5.0
Ever since my mom quoted Edgar Allan Poe's poetry to me as a child, I was fascinated by the enigma and mystery which enshrouded him. He seemed almost otherworldly. But this book answered many questions as well as posed others. Poe is still mysterious but I know much more about him now than ever before. He accomplished so much by the time he died at 40...it makes me wonder what else he would have accomplished had he died at 75.
Most of us know Poe best by his powerful poems such as the dark and stark "The Raven" and short stories including The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart and his character Auguste Dupin in The Murders in the Rue Morgue and others. As a young man he wrote for and edited many newspapers, tantalizing with his cliffhangers and ongoing sagas. Poe's scientific slant was completely new to me, though unsurprising. He was also a brilliant lecturer and expounded upon religion, philosophy, astronomy and metaphysics. He believed "Eureka" to be his best work which I now long to read.
Poe married his young cousin, Virginia, who had chronic illnesses much of her life. At times he said he thought he was insane. He had been an orphan and had a cruel step father. Extreme poverty and homelessness were common to him. To me it seemed he was sorely misunderstood and in ways much ahead of his time. He liked Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde but disparaged Longfellow. Even after his death he was scorned, though also venerated.
Poe's quick intelligence and wit must have been truly fascinating. I would love to see him debate his contemporaries such as Wilde. Poe did enjoy spurts of fame now and then during his lifetime but as he was an orphan and not connected to wealth or position was not as known as he ought to have been.
My sincere thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this book about a writer I've held in esteem and admired for his unparalleled writing of his time.
Most of us know Poe best by his powerful poems such as the dark and stark "The Raven" and short stories including The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart and his character Auguste Dupin in The Murders in the Rue Morgue and others. As a young man he wrote for and edited many newspapers, tantalizing with his cliffhangers and ongoing sagas. Poe's scientific slant was completely new to me, though unsurprising. He was also a brilliant lecturer and expounded upon religion, philosophy, astronomy and metaphysics. He believed "Eureka" to be his best work which I now long to read.
Poe married his young cousin, Virginia, who had chronic illnesses much of her life. At times he said he thought he was insane. He had been an orphan and had a cruel step father. Extreme poverty and homelessness were common to him. To me it seemed he was sorely misunderstood and in ways much ahead of his time. He liked Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde but disparaged Longfellow. Even after his death he was scorned, though also venerated.
Poe's quick intelligence and wit must have been truly fascinating. I would love to see him debate his contemporaries such as Wilde. Poe did enjoy spurts of fame now and then during his lifetime but as he was an orphan and not connected to wealth or position was not as known as he ought to have been.
My sincere thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this book about a writer I've held in esteem and admired for his unparalleled writing of his time.