Customer Reviews

Poe & Fanny: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

John May's first novel left me with great hope that he will write more. Poe & Fanny was a wonderful education in the state of the literary world, and life in general, in the 1840's as well as a fascinating look at Poe himself. Most people grow up reading The House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Raven in school with only enough information about him to know he had a way with the macabre and married his first cousin. This book revealed the very vulnerable, tender, human side of this incredibly talented man who, like a lot of artists, had all the talent and the heart to succeed but couldn't get it together. The daily drama of his life combined with the passion he felt for Fanny --and John May's wit and talent - made this a book I could not put down.

Baltimore's original Raven fans could not be more compellingly imagined. This romantic and richly detailed story of Poe's struggles with alcohol, ambition, creativity, loyalty, and multiple loves not only introduces readers to the wrongly forgotten poet Frances Osgood, but also brilliantly illuminates 19th-century American culture, especially the competitive world of New York City publishing. The writing is fresh. The scandal is new. The book is terrific.

I was so taken by the world of this book-- the hustling and rivalry of the various magazine editors of the time, the heated, gossipy atmosphere of the literary salons-- all fascinating. And Poe himself emerges as an intriguing character. Despite the fact that he's one of the pillars of American literature, Poe & Fanny shows his all-too human sides as well as his constant struggles for both financial solidity and literary reputation. And I was torn as a reader between Poe's love for his sickly young wife and his soulmate-like passion for Fanny! The pages flew by as I was drawn into the author's delicate resolution of the story.

My mother inlaw need this for a book club meeting, we ordered from the sell and never received it. The only reason I gave it the 'I hate it" star was because we never received.

I'll begin by saying that the story is at least well-written. May does a good job of bringing the times and characters to life. I do wish his characterization of Poe had been more on the mark. From what I've read of him (which is a lot) he was not the foul-mouthed slob that May paints him as.

The story ends rather ubruptly. Everything gets explained away in the few paragraphs that make up the last chapter. May really stretches some of the facts to create the story, and then clumsily tries to sew it all together at the very end.

All in all, it was an okay read as a work of fiction.

For some reason it took me much longer than usual to read this book. Maybe it was the detail. However, I really wanted to know how the story evolved and ultimately ended. A fascinating and captivating story which is written from the revolving points of view of the main characters.

I didn't find out until the end of the book that most of the poems referenced or excerpted were in the back of the book. This would have been good to know so I could have read them as they took place in the storyline.

Some imporatant points or references to Poe's life could have been better clarified or discussed in the storyline. They were simply passed over or given passing reference. But I came away thirsting for more on Poe. I also advise you to keep a copy of "The Raven" handy since it is pivitol to the story and not reprinted. You will want to re-read it!

I've visited his grave often since I live in Baltimore, and attended law school here where he rests (at Westminster Hall's graveyard attached to the school). Now I really understand better some of the main events in his life and his downfall.

I recommended the book.

This remarkably unpleasant novel is, evidently, the author's first published work, and it shows. A description of a doubly adulterous semi-affair Poe supposedly had with the deservedly forgotten poetess Frances Osgood in 1845 under the nose of his dying wife (an affair all responsible Poe scholars agree never took place,) "Poe and Fanny" is nothing but a cruel insult to the memory of one of our greatest writers (and no, I don't mean Osgood.)

As there is no plausible documentation to back up May's claim for this "romance," and plenty to discount it--never mind the (in Michael Deas' words) "ludicrous" notion that Poe fathered Osgood's third child--the author is reduced to simply using his imagination to depict their entire relationship, bolstered mainly by peculiar interpretations of the pair's poems, particularly Osgood's--what is the kindest way to put it?--highly fanciful work.

It is clear from Osgood's writings and known personal history that she was a strange, childlike, desperately unhappy woman with a bit of a frustrated "crush" on Poe--she comes off as what we today would call an "obsessed fan"--but there is absolutely no reason to carry her year-long acquaintance with him any further than that. (Especially since it can be proven that Osgood was living away from New York--and Poe--for most of 1845.) Contrary to this novel's scenario, Osgood and her husband were never, at any time, estranged, and her extant correspondence indicates that at the time her youngest child was conceived, she and Samuel Osgood were together. There is certainly no reason to presume Poe was ever in love with her. Historical novels need a certain amount of imaginative license, to be sure, but they should be based on some level of historical reality. For an author to just completely invent a scenario that is based on nothing but empty speculation, and foist it onto the public as biographical fact, is irresponsible. It is appalling to think of anyone unaware of the true facts of Poe's life reading this book and assuming it is based on some sort of credible evidence. It is not.

All this might be forgivable if May had at least come up with a readable work of fiction, but he has not. The writing style is reminiscent of a creative writing project done by a third-grader with a prematurely sordid mind. The characterizations and plot are uniformly dark, trite and unbelievable. Poe himself is depicted as such a pitiful cretin that one cannot picture him writing for the supermarket tabloids, let alone crafting some of the most esoteric and enlightened works of American literature. Anyone who has made a true study of Poe's writings can sense at once the absurdity of this degrading novel.

What's next, a sequel based on Griswold's claim that Mrs. Clemm was Poe's mistress?!

A rather turgid, disjointed read. You know the sort. Where the POV is strained and details are sketched in where they may. There's a lot of historical information here, lots of names are dropped, but the characters never quite come alive.

Much is made of the setting, little of what lay deeply within the hearts of these passionate, driven characters. I'd hoped for more than a tedious, detailed, never-ending wardrobe account of poetess Mrs. Fanny Osgood (all pin tucks and beribboned bonnets and full skirts) and somewhat more besides the fact that Poe was a gaunt, dark-eyed genius with a taste for liquor and threadbare suits, with a white-clad consumptive young wife hidden in the shadows.

May does not pick the brains of his characters ~ especially Poe, that wildly creative, outside-the-envelope literary figure who enthralls to this day. May puts together his story by simply placing description and action and conversation onto the page, and leaves one to guess at motives and emotions.

Too bad, because what might have been a fascinating gallop through a complex friendship blossomed into a true, shared passion becomes instead a pedestrian, properly fashionable stroll through the gaslit, cobbled streets of old New York ~ fur muffs, bonnets, top hats, walking sticks, pintucks, waistcoats and all.

The subject matter of this book - Edgar Allan Poe, his child bride and the passionate Fanny Osgood provide great potential for an exciting and fascinating read; however, it just never comes together. There is none of the mystery, darkness, or passion that one would expect in a fictional look of Poe and his wife and supposed lover. The author takes a very detached view of Poe and those around him; I was never really able to "connect" with any of the characters especially the many and confusing editors, magazine publishers, other writers, and business partners of Poe. The book is a good "overview" of the world of publishing in New York during the middle 1800's and Poe's place or lack of place in it. Another strange note: Poe's poem "The Raven" is a focus of the book and seems to be Poe's only real claim to fame during his life time; it is referred to many times. In the back of the book a section entitled "The Poems" contains many of the poems written by Poe, Fanny Osgood, and others in the story. "The Raven", however, is missing. It seems that would have definitely been included. That lack seems to sum up the overall feeling I got from this book -- the peripheral is there, but the core is missing.