Eureka [Hardcover]

Edgar Allan Poe (Author), Stuart Levine (Author), Susan F. Levine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2004 | ISBN-10: 025202849X | ISBN-13: 978-0252028496

Originally published in 1848, Edgar Allen Poe's "Eureka" stands as the single most important expression of the philosophic views on which all of his literary endeavours depend. Put in the context of Melville's "Moby Dick", Thoreau's "Walden", Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", and the music of Liszt and Wagner, it is an explosive, startlingly unconventional creation of the High Romantic era. Representing Poe's fantastical thoughts on how the universe was formed and what its future might be, this user-friendly critical edition is also the first to put "Eureka" in proper context. It includes Poe's proposed emendations to the text and sources and explains the setting in which it was produced, tying "Eureka" to world trends in philosophy and fast-breaking news in astronomy. To compile this definitive text, the Levines travelled to the special collections departments of various libraries to examine Poe's own notes on the various drafts. They also consulted with Poe scholars, classicists, and historians of astronomy. The result of their meticulous scholarship is a deep, broad, and thoroughly useful volume, essential for Poe scholars and valuable to anyone interested in American literature or the roots of science fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Eureka, Poe's testament, the synthesis of his analytic ideas, offers itself as a treatise on nothing less than cosmology. Having begun as a scientific lecture, it winds up as an apocalyptic revelation... It may be read as a rationalistic counterstatement to the metaphysics of Transcendentalism, or as a pioneering experiment in the embryonic genre of science fiction... 'Eureka!' is his heart-cry. 'I have found it!' he breathlessly seems to announce." -- Harry Levin in The Power of Blackness

From the Publisher

Hesperus Press, as suggested by their Latin motto, Et remotissima prope, is dedicated to bringing near what is far—far both in space and time. Works by illustrious authors, often unjustly neglected or simply little known in the English–speaking world, are made accessible through a completely fresh editorial approach or new translations. Through these short classic works, which feature forewords by leading contemporary authors, the modern reader will be introduced to the greatest writers of Europe and America. An elegantly designed series of exceptional books. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (September 8, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 025202849X
• ISBN-13: 978-0252028496
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,745,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-Researched Edition of Eureka by Stuart and Susan Levine, August 5, 2009

By 

Patrick Moore LMT BA (Tucson, Arizona) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eureka (Hardcover)

The rest of the reviews on this page are about Poe's Eureka, a brilliant piece of literature that threatens to solve the riddle of life, the universe, and everything.

I just want readers to see that this is not another ordinary reprint of Eureka, which has lost copyright and so is freely available on the internet, along with all of Poe's work. Why buy a $20 book when you can get it for free? I'll tell you why.

This book edited by Stuart and Susan Levine goes by Poe's proposed edits that were not published. Each page has 51 pages of footnotes after the text, explanations of what Poe was saying in relation to the understanding of his day, referring to his tremendous store of ancient and current books he had read in latin, greek, french, italian, german, spanish, and english. This edition is for someone who really wants to understand where Poe was coming from when he wrote Eureka.

Be careful buying the used copies on this page, as most or all of them (and all the rest of the reviews on this page so far) are not the edition of Eureka edited by Stuart and Susan Levine. I usually buy used, but this time I bought new.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting----Poe wrote this???!, September 7, 2005

By 

Chris Reich "Business Physicist and Astronomer" (Northern, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eureka (Hardcover)

Ok, I was shocked to see a science book written by Edgar Allan Poe. He himself calls it a poem...ok, Poe, poem.

I'm into astronomy so I thought, why not? Well, here's the thing. It strikes me as a serious work---a sort of explanation of how the Universe was seen in 1848. I found the reading to be a grind from time to time. I wondered why I was reading "outdated" science. I wondered why I was reading Poe's outdated science. Sometimes I was bored with it.

Then again...sometimes I was really gripped by the thoughts and the expressions...man, this guy can write. And I was continually amazed at his knowledge...not only just for the time. And then I felt a connection. A connection I felt for those who've grappled with the same issues in the past but with less information than we have today. I'm learning too and am part of that chain of learning...hard to explain. The ideas, some even wrong ideas, are stimulating. THe thoughts stimulate.

In short, yes, I'm glad I read it. I'm glad I bought a hard copy to add to my library. And something will pull me back to it for reference from time to time----I know that already!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poe's Pinnacle Work on the Creation of the Universe, September 29, 2003

By 

Brett J. Millan "Anthro1992" (McAllen, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eureka (Hesperus Classics) (Paperback)

Written in 1848, Eureka, one of Edgar Allan Poe's last works, propounds his theory of the creation of the material and spiritual universe. In his preface, Poe says "...it is as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged after I am dead." However, a reader would find it hard to consider Eureka a poem of any sort when the author spends three-quarters of the work expounding, through philosophical proof, a scientific belief in an essay format. Poe's belief is that "Gravity exists on account of Matter's having been radiated, at its origin, atomically, into a limited sphere of Space, from one, individual, unconditional, irrelative, and absolute Particle Proper, by the sole process in which it was possible to satisfy, at the same time, the two conditions, radiation and equable distribution throughout the sphere-that is to say, by a force varying in direct proportion with the squares of the distances between the radiated atoms, respectively, and the Particular centre of Radiation."

As a scientific or philosophical discourse on astronomy, Eureka is a work ahead of its time. Poe went step by step using undeniable comparisons, similar to a geometric proof, to conclude with the aforementioned statement. He begins by proposing his theme that "In the Original Unity of the First Thing lies the Secondary Cause of All Things, with the Germ of their Inevitable Annihilation." He means that through the only Ultimate Principle-the Volition of God, the Universe was created. Within this creation there is an inherited yearning to return to the Original Unity. Poe further explains his theory which is extremely similar to the Big Bang Theory. During creation, the Will of God produced a reaction within a finite space, causing the Original Unity to separate and disperse (or radiate). After the force of creation, "Gravity", an equal but opposite force began to exert itself. This force, proven through Newtonian experimentation, is now contracting the universe back into the "One" or "Original Unity." That is how Poe explains the existence of Gravity along with the dispersion of galaxies, stars, planets, and moons.

But as a literary piece, most readers would drop the book within the first ten pages. Poe's diatribe succeeds in alienating the modern reader through his references to seemingly unknown astronomers and physicists from the 18th and 19th centuries such as Laplace, Comte, Dr. Nichol, Mädler, Lord Rosse, and many others. The usual motifs found in his short stories and poems are missing within the pages of Eureka. What is retained is his compounded clause sentence structure and his sense of self-worth. In many instances, Poe describes scientists' discoveries as being correct, but driven by instinct instead of reason, unlike his own. Interestingly, throughout his essay, he uses the words Divine and God very often. It leads one to believe that since this is written at the end of his life, that maybe he has begun to fear what is to come. Yet this uncharacteristic Poe disappears in the last page in which he states that "Man will at length attain that awfully triumphant epoch when he shall recognize his existence as that of Jehovah." Here Poe, the short story writer, returns as the curtain falls, letting us all know that there is no God but the Unity of ourselves, which of course includes himself.