Customer Reviews

The Unknown Poe

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3 star:		(1)
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The book goes far beyond the myth and the macabre of E.A. Poe. It goes into his everyday life and shows you in his own words how Poe saw it. From ordinary letters written to friends and relatives, to essays and obscure of obscure poems from Poe's earlist days. A true gem for the Poe buff. This title shows how Poe became a legend so much in France that many of the French people thought him one of thier own. This of course you can read about in the book because of Charles Baudelaire's ceasless efforts to translate Poe for the French people. The downfalls of this book are few in that I felt that there should have been more of an effort to put Poe's letters in more context. The way they were printed was more in chronological order, rather than sensible order. Perhaps more narration between the letters were neccesary. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and especially the early work of Poe that he himself never thought much of publishing. This book is a steal at this price and should adorn every bookshelf of every Poe buff everywhere.

I've had "The Unknown Poe" for about five years now, and still can't understand how some of this material got past Poe scholars and found its way into this book. There are poems and aphorisms which are simply not available in the huge volumes of Poe's work and critical essays on the man.

The "Poems" section contains little of importance as regards his skill as a poet. I think these were lost for a reason, with the exception of "Deep In Earth", a two line couplet that foreshadows his later self-image as mega-sorrowful artist and "Lines on Ale" which is a sort of ode to his alcoholism.

His philosophical aphorisms range from banal and idiosyncratic to astoundingly brilliant. His constantly repeated belief that life is a "dream within a dream" gets less intriguing the fifth time he says it: but passages like "Men of Genius", which shows him to have been a close contemporary of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, show quite plainly the unrealized potential he possessed in so many areas. He takes pains to contradict the image of himself as some mad, drunken genius. He expounds on the nature of instinct vs. reason, genius vs. talent, etc.

The comments of Mallarme, Valery and Breton can be seen anywhere. There is nothing unknown about the French adulation of Poe that began with Baudelaire, who never really knew him that well. There are some interesting illustrations/sketches of Poe in here also. This is a must have for many reasons.

The book goes far beyond the myth and the macabre of E.A. Poe. It goes into his everyday life and shows you in his own words how Poe saw it. From ordinary letters written to friends and relatives, to essays and the obscure of obscure poems from Poe's earlist days. A true gem for the Poe buff. This title shows how Poe became a legend so much in France that many of the French people thought him one of thier own. This of course you can read about in the book because of Charles Baudelaire's ceasless efforts to translate Poe for the French people. The downfalls of this book are few in that I felt that there should have been more of an effort to put Poe's letters in more context. The way they were printed was more in chronological order, rather than sensible order. Perhaps more narration between the letters were neccesary. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and especially the early work of Poe that he himself never thought much of publishing. This book is a steal at this price and should adorn every bookshelf of every Poe buff everywhere.

This collection was not quite as great as i was hoping. the poems were nice to have, most aren't in the complete tales and poems. i especially like the lines on ale. the letters were truly a gem to read. it gave a nice view of poe's thoughts and a hint of his wit. the selection from poe's marginalia gave a wonderful insight to his mind. but the essays by the french were dull and really didn't give any new information, other than his worship by the french. i recommend this collection only for the poe enthusiast (like me).