EDGAR ALLAN POE. THE MACABRE AND THE HORROR.

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest American writers ever

You have probably heard before about Edgar Allan Poe. His name brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials and mysterious women who return from the dead. Moreover, he is considered to be the father of the modern detective story and also to have contributed to the emerging genre of science-fiction in the middle decades of the 19th century.

His life and even his death were quite mysterious too. He had to face poverty and loneliness more usually than he would have wanted. As a result, he fell into drunkenness. On October, 7, 1849, he died in Baltimore in very mysteryous conditions. He had disappeared for some days and when he finally appeared, he was delirious and in great distress, dying  a few days later.

The actual case of the death remains a mystery. Speculation has included delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, rabies, cholera or meningeal inflammation. Therefore, his death was as mysterious as many of his works, contributing to create for him the image of "mad genius" or "tormented artist" that he still has nowadays.

A mysterious man was leaving cognac and three roses
on Poe´s grave for more than seventy years

A curious fact that happened many years after his death was the appearance of the Poe Toaster. This is the nickname of a mysterious person who, for over seventy years, visited the original Poe´s grave, poured himself a glass of cognac and raised a toast to Poe´s memory. Then, he would vanish into the night leaving three roses and the unfinished bottle of cognac. It happened in the early hours of every January 19, Poe´s birthday since the 1930s to 2009. He hasn´t appeared in the last three years, adding to the mystery which surrounds the writer´s figure.



POE´S WORKS


The Raven

The Raven is one of the most popular poems of all time

This narrative poem, published in 1845, made Poe widely popular in his lifetime and remains one of the most famous poems ever written. It tells the story of a talking raven´s visit to a desperate lover, tracing the man´s slow fall into madness. It´s impossible to forget how the raven increases the lover´s distraught by constantly repeating the words "Nevermore".  Here you are the initial verse of the poem:


"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"Tis some visiter", I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door"-
                                                          Only this, and nothing more".



The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Recognised as the first detective story, it was published in 1841. In this short story, Poe created the character of the detective Auguste Dupin, who established a model for later fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot.

This was the first detective story ever published

He created the figure of the brilliant detective, his friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. This story has been adapted for radio, film and television many times.



The Fall of The House of Usher

This story is considered a masterpiece of American Gothic literature and Poe´s most famous prose work. The narrator travels to his old friend Roderick Usher´s house, who has asked for his help. This friend suffers from hypocondria, acute anxiety and hypersensitivity.

The macabre pervades the whole story of "The Fall of The House of Usher"

Usher´s sister dies and they both entomb her in a vault. One week later, they discover that she wasn´t really dead. She appears in front of them and hugs her brother, and both fall on the floor as corpses. The narrator runs away from the house just to see how it breaks in two .

The Tell-Tale Heart

One of the classics of the Gothic fiction and one of Poe´s most famous short stories. The narrator describes a murder he committed. He killed an old man with " a blind vulture eye" and hid his dismembered body under the floorboards.

One of the first illustrations of the story depicts the old man´s murder

 But finally the narrator breaks down and confesses his crime as he can´t stop hearing the man´s heart beating under the floorboards, reminding him of his guilt.



The Masque of The Red Death

Another example of short gothic story. The plot shows Prince Prospero trying to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his palace. He and his nobles have a masquerade ball.

Nobody escapes the Red Death

 A mysterious figure disguised as the Red Death appears in the ball. Prospero himself dies after confronting this stranger. The rest of guests die in turns die in turn after realizing that the figure is actually the Red Death itself. It has been considered an allegory about the inevitability of death.

Finally, we are breaking our own rules puting up a song in Spanish. It´s Annabel Lee, by Radio Futura, one of the main bands of the so-called "Movida madrileña",  which is based on one of Poe´s poems. So you will be able to see the importance of Poe´s work in the history of art.