Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809, in Boston Massachusetts and was orphaned very early on in life, after his father left and his mother died. He was taken in, but not legally adopted by John and Frances Allan, who raised him until after his first and only year of college. Poe was a bit of a nomad, moving from Baltimore (where he married his 13-year old cousin, Virginia Clemm) to Philadelphia, and later to New York City.
Poe is best known for his spook and macabre short stories, some of the more popular ones being The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Pit and the Pendulum.
I think Edgar Allan Poe's work is so great because it is open to so much interpretation, as if not just the ending, but the entire story is one giant cliff hanger; the reader does not even know what's going on when they are reading his work.
I think Poe's literature could definitely be compared to something like a painting, because the artist has painted, and then the painting is open to interpretation. Something like the poem The Raven, where the narrater doesn't tell us, for example, who Lenore is, or the real reason why the raven is there, or even who the narrator is. And all of this just adds to the mysteriousness of Poe's works.
I think that Poe had a very unique writing style, that I really haven't read anywhere else, because he never identifies the narrator. Usually, when you read something in first person, there is aways a lot of information provided about the narrator, but by not fully describing the narrator, it almost makes it seem like Poe is the narrator, which would make all the short stories so much scarier, because that would mean everything that happens in his stories are true.
Edgar Allan Poe has made a huge impact on our society today, and our country would be much different without him.
Yes I agree with you Phoebe there are many similarities between the narrator of Poe's short stories and Poe himself. Like the narrator's of Poe's short stories he experienced grief, death, he had mad tendencies, had traces of incest in his family, and so on. Many people think of his stories as outrageous, scary, and above all FICTION! What if he was referring to things that happened to him in his life? Crazy, right!?!
ReplyDeleteI like how you compare Poe's works with paintings and how his stories are open to interpretation, and overall talk about both his life and his way of writing. It was a well done post.
ReplyDeleteYou're writing is a very good mix between informative and opinionated, and i like that. I feel very informed and I like your comparisons between his life and his writings. Great writing!
ReplyDeleteMy blog was similar to this in that I related Poe's life to his life's work.
ReplyDelete