Author Index
Nineteenth- Century
Literature Criticism
Plumly, Stanley (Ross) 1939See also CA 108; 110; DLB 5
Plumpe, Friedrich Wilhelm
1888-1931
See also C A 112
CLC 33
TCLC 53
if Poe, Edgar Allan
~" 1809-1849 .
NCLC 1,H6-DA; DAB;
PC IjSSC 1; WLC
See also AAYA 14; CDALB 1640-1865;
DLB 3, 59, 73, 74; SATA 23
Mf
Poet of Titchfield Street, The
See Pound, Ezra (Weston Loomis)
Edgar Allan Poe
Pohl, Frederik 1919.............
CLC 18
See also CA 61-64; CAAS 1; CANR 11, 37;
DLB 8; MTCW; SATA 24
1809-1849
American short story writer, poet, critic, editor, novelist, and
essayist.
The following entry presents criticism on Poe's short stories.
For additional information on Poe's career and his short stories,
see NCLC, Vol. 1.
Poe's stature as a major figure in world literature is based in
large part on his short stories and on his critical theories, which
established a highly influential model for the short form in
fiction. Regarded by literary historians as the architect of the
modern short story, Poe is credited with the invention of several
popular story genres: the modern horror tale, the science fiction
tale, and the detective story. Both his short stories and his
critical writings are also considered important for their profound impact on generations of later writers. Twentieth-century
scholars have discerned in such well-known short stories by
Poe as "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Black Cat,"
and "The Cask of Amontillado" a seminal contribution to the
development of various modern literary themes, including the
alienation of the self and the nature of the subconscious. Although during the nineteenth century critics failed to recognize
the true nature of Poe's achievement, he is now acclaimed as
one of literature's most original and influential practitioners of
the short story form.
Poe's father and mother were professional actors who died
before he was three years old, and he was raised in the home
of John Allan, a prosperous exporter in Richmond, Virginia.
Poe attended the best schools in Richmond and began writing
poetry as an adolescent. In 1826 he was sent to the University
of Virginia. There Poe distinguished himself academically but,
as a result of gambling debts and inadequate financial support
from Allan, left after less than a year. His relationship with
Allan disintegrated further upon his return to Richmond in
1827, and soon afterward he left for Boston, where he enlisted
in the army and published his first poetry collection, Tamerlane, and Other Poems. The book went unnoticed by readers
and reviewers, and a second collection received only slightly
more attention when it appeared in 1829. That same year Poe
was honorably discharged from the army and, with Allan's
consent, he entered West Point. However, because Allan would
neither provide him with sufficient funds to maintain himself
nor allow him to resign from the Academy, Poe deliberately
gained a dismissal by ignoring his duties and violating regulations. He subsequently went to New York, where his Poems
azines Poe would direct over the next ten years and through
which he rose to prominence as one of the leading literary
critics in America. Nonetheless, while Poe's writings began to
gain attention in the late 1830s and 1840s, the profits from his
journalism remained meager, and he was forced to move several times in pursuit of a better income, editing Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia
and the Broadway Journal in New York. The money he received from the publication of his two collections of short
stories, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque and Tales by
Edgar A. Poe, as well as from his other works, was also
minimal. After his wife's death in 1847, Poe was involved in
a number of romances and became engaged to his boyhood
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
TITLE INDEX
"The Cascade of Melsingah" (Bryant) 6:180
"A Case That Was Dropped" (Leskov)
See "Pogassee delo"
"Casey's Tabble Dote" (Field) 3:209
"Casey's Table d'Hote" (Field) 3:205
"Cashel of Munster" (Ferguson) 33:294
"Casino des trepasses" (Corbiere) 43:32
"The Cask of Amontillado" (Poe) 1:500, 506;
16:303, 309(329)332
"Cassandra Southwick" (Whittier) 8:489,
505, 509-11, 513, 515, 527, 530
Cassiodor (Eminescu) 33:266
The Cassique of Accabee (Simms) 3:504
The Cassique of Kiawah (Simms) 3:503, 508,
514
JAMES W. GARGANO
(essay date 1963)
[Gargano contends that the often turgid and overwritten prose of
Poe's narrators is deliberately intended to reflect their disturbed
states of mind and should not be confused with Poe's own prose
style. For additional commentary by Gargano on Poe's short
stories, see excerpt dated I960.}
Part of the widespread critical condescension toward Edgar
Allan Poe's short stories undoubtedly stems from impatience
with what is taken to be his "cheap" or embarrassing Gothic
style. Finding turgidity, hysteria, and crudely poetic overemphasis in Poe's works, many critics refuse to accept him as a
really serious writer, (p. 177)
It goes without saying that Poe, like other creative men, is
sometimes at the mercy of his own worst qualities. Yet the
contention that he is fundamentally a bad or tawdry stylist
appears to me to be rather facile and sophistical. It is based,
ultimately, on the untenable and often unanalyzed assumption
•
9
*
meaning of his existence resides in the tomb in which he has,
symbolically, buried himself. In other words, Poe leaves little
doubt that the narrator has violated his own mind and humanity,
that the external act has had its destructive inner consequences.
The same artistic integrity and seriousness of purpose evident
in "The Cask of Amontillado" can be discovered in "The
Black Cat." No matter what covert meanings one may find in
this much-discussed story, it can hardly be denied that the
nameless narrator does not speak for Poe. Whereas the narrator,
at the beginning of his "confession," admits that he cannot
explain the events which overwhelmed him, Poe's organization
of his episodes provides an unmistakable clue to his protagonist's psychic deterioration. The tale has two distinct, almost
parallel parts: in the first, the narrator's inner moral collapse
is presented in largely symbolic narrative; in the second part,
the consequences of his self-violation precipitate an act of murder, punishable by society. Each section of the story deals with
an ominous cat, an atrocity, and an expose of a "crime." In
the first section, the narrator's house is consumed by fire after
he has mutilated and subsequently hanged Pluto, his pet cat.
Blindly, he refuses to grant any connection between his violence and the fire; yet the image of a hanged cat on the one
remaining wall indicates that he will be haunted and hag-ridden
by his deed. The sinister figure of Pluto, seen by a crowd of
neighbors, is symbolically both an accusation and a portent,
an enigma to the spectators but an infallible sign to the reader.
LITERATURE CRITICISM,(Vol.
16)
blunts his powers of self-analysis; he is guided by his delusions
to the climax of damnation. Clearly, Poe does n Jt espouse his
protagonist's theory any more than he approves of the specious
rationalizations of his other narrators. Just as the narrator's
well constructed house has a fatal flaw, so the theory of perverseness is flawed because it really explains nothing. Moreover, even the most cursory reader must be struck by the fact
that the narrator is most "possessed and maddened" when he
most proudly boasts of his self-control. If the narrator obviously
cannot be believed at the end of the tale, what argument is
there for assuming that he must be telling the truth when he
earlier tries to evade responsibility for his "sin" by slippery
rationalizations?
A close analysis of "The Black Cat" must certainly exonerate
Poe of the charge of merely sensational writing. The final
frenzy of the narrator, with its accumulation of superlatives,
cannot be ridiculed as an example of Poe's style. The breakdown of the shrieking criminal does not reflect a similar breakdown in the author. Poe, I maintain, is a serious artist who
explores the neuroses of his characters with probing intelligence. He permits his narrator to revel and flounder into torment, but he sees beyond the torment to its causes.
In conclusion, then, the five tales I have commented on display
Poe's deliberate craftsmanship and penetrating sense of irony.
If my thesis is correct, Poe's narrators should not be construed
as his mouthpieces; instead they should be regarded as expressing, in "charged" language indicative of their internal
disturbances, their own peculiarly nightmarish visions. Poe, I
contend, is conscious of the abnormalities of his narrators and
does not condone the intellectual ruses through which they
strive, only too earnestly, to justify themselves. In short, though
his narrators are often febrile or demented, Poe is conspicuously "sane." They may be "decidedly primitive" or "wildly
incoherent," but Poe, in his stories at least, is mature and
lucid, (pp. 177-81)
j //James W. Gargano, "The Question of Poe's Nar-\\ in C
(\
\^ h
her, 1963, pp. 177-81.
SV
KENNETH GRAHAM (essay date 1967)
[In the following excerpt from his introduction to a collection of
Poe's tales, Graham surveys several of their unifying characteristics, including their symbolism and emphasis on metaphysical
concerns.]
Poe's narrations are all, like the one found in a bottle ["MS.
Found in a Bottle"], manuscripts sent back from the edge of
nothingness. With unique single-mindedness and intensity they
probe into a spirit world, at times dark, at times beautiful, that
underlies and destroys all the material phenomena of life, a
world of the whirlpool, of the pit and the grave, of consciousness-after-death, of mystically alluring eyes, of torture, of the
desire to kill, of guilt, madness, and, in the end, utter silence.
They may be narrowly obsessive and joyless, but their continuing power is founded on one recognizable and even familiar
vision of life: that an awareness of death is the starting-point
of knowledge, and that reality is not solid and reasonable but
a flux, a maelstrom like the Norwegian fisherman's that contains within it some destructive promise of eternity. Yet Poe
is at the same time incorrigibly reasonable. Again like the
fisherman lost in the maelstrom, his mind acts like a scientist's
even as he perceives the inadequacy of science to attain Truth.
A part of his creating imagination always clings to the solid
Nineteenth- Century
Literature, Criticism
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
LITERATURE CRITICISM,(V
ADDITIONAL^IBLIOGRAPHY^
Abel, Darrel. "A Key to the House of Usher." University of Toronto
Quarterly XVIII, No. 2 (January 1949): 176-85.
Argues that "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a "consummate
psychological allegory" that anticipates the methods of Franz
Kafka.
Aldiss, Brian W. "'A Clear-Sighted, Sickly Literature': Edgar Allan
Poe." In his Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction,
pp. 40-56. New York: Schocken Books, 1974.
Discusses Poe's contribution to the science fiction genre.
Basler, Roy P. "The Interpretation of 'Ligeia'." College English 5,
No. 7 (April 1944): 363-72.
Suggests that "Ligeia" is primarily a study of madness and obsession rather than a horror story.
Beaver, Harold. Introduction to The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan
Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Harold Beaver, pp. vii-xxi. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1976.
A general discussion of Poe's contribution to science fiction.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Edgar Allan Poe. Modern Critical Views. New
York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985, 155 p.
A collection of highly regarded twentieth-century essays on Poe,
including a number of influential studies of his tales.
Buranelli, Vincent. "Fiction Themes." In his Edgar Allan Poe, pp.
64-86. Twayne's United States Authors Series, edited by Sylvia E.
Bowman, no. 4. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1961.
A general introduction to Poe's short stories.
Carlson, Eric W., ed. The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe: Selected
Criticism since 1829. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966,
316 p.
Reprints important criticism on Poe's works by various nineteenthand twentieth-century commentators.
Dameron, J. Lasley, and Cauthen, Irby B., Jr. Edgar Allan Poe: A
Bibliography of Criticism, 1827-1967. A John Cook Wyllie Memorial
Publication. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974, 386 p.
An annotated guide to critical and biographical writings on Poe
published prior to 1968.
Daniel, Robert. "Poe's Detective God." Furioso VI, No. 3 (Summer
1951): 45-54.
A study of Poe's fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin.
Eddings, Dennis W. The Naiad Voice: Essays on Poe's Satiric Hoaxing. National University Publications. Port Washington, N.Y.: Associated Faculty Press, 1983, 175 p.
A collection of essays devoted to understanding the satirical intent
of Poe's comic tales.
Feidelson, Charles, Jr. "Poe." In his Symbolism and American Literature, pp. 35-42. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.
Explores Poe's use of symbols in his tales within the context of
the tradition of symbolism in American literature.
Fletcher, Richard M. The Stylistic Development of Edgar Allan Poe.
De Pro Prietatibus Litterarum, Series Practica 55, edited by C. H. van
Schooneveld. The Hague: Mouton, 1973, 192 p.
Explores the evolution of Poe's style in both his poetry and fiction,
focusing on such topics as his vocabulary, major themes, and use
of symbols.
POE
Griffith, Clark. "Poe's 'Ligeia' and the English Romantics." University of Toronto Quarterly XXIV, No. 1 (October 1954): 8-25.
Maintains that "Ligeia" is primarily a satire of Gothic fiction.
Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. 1972. Reprint. New
York: Random House, Vintage Books, 1985, 335 p.
A highly regarded study of Poe's works that offers a thematic
approach to understanding various groups of his short stories.
Howarth, William L., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Poe's
Tales: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Interpretations, edited by Maynard Mack. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: PrenticeHall, Spectrum Books, 1971, 116 p.
Reprints selected twentieth-century criticism on Poe's tales.
Hyneman, Esther F. Edgar Allan Poe: An Annotated Bibliography of
Books and Articles in English, 1827-1973. Research Bibliographies in
American Literature, no. 2. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1974, 375 p.
An annotated survey of writings about Poe and his works published
between 1827 and 1973.
Kesterson, David B., ed. Critics on Poe. Readings in Literary Criticism, no. 22. Coral Gables, Fla.: University of Miami Press, 1973,
128 p.
A collection of seminal essays on Poe and his writings by various
nineteenth- and twentieth-century critics.
Ketterer, David. The Rationale of Deception in Poe. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1979, 285 p.
A study of "deception as theme and technique" in Poe's works.
Knapp, BettinaL. "The Tales." In her Edgar Allan Poe, pp. 101-204.
Literature and Life Series. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing
Co., 1984.
A four-part study of major thematic elements in Poe' s short stories,
focusing on what Knapp describes as "The Descent," "The Anima," "The Shadow," and "The Mystical Quest."
Lauber, John. " 'Ligeia' and Its Critics: A Plea for Literalism. "Studies
in Short Fiction IV, No. 1 (Fall 1966): 28-32.
Argues in favor of a literal interpretation of the plot of "Ligeia."
Levine, Stuart. Edgar Poe: Seer and Craftsman. Deland, Fla.: Everett/
Edwards, 1972, 282 p.
Probes the mythic elements underlying Poe's horror tales, focusing
on "The Cask of Amontillado."
Levine, Stuart, and Levine, Susan, eds. The Short Fiction of Edgar
Allan Poe: An Annotated Edition, by Edgar Allan Poe. Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1976, 633 p.
An annotated edition of the tales that includes pictures, maps, and
diagrams, as well as explanatory notes for each story.
Liebman, Sheldon W. "Poe's Tales and His Theory of the Poetic
Experience." Studies in Short Fiction VII, No. 4 (Fall 1970): 582-96.
Investigates the relationship between Poe's short stories and his
ideas concerning poetry.
Mooney, Stephen L. "Comic Intent in Poe's Tales: Five Criteria."
Modern Language Notes LXXVI, No. 5 (May 1961): 432-34.
Outlines five common indications of humorous purpose in Poe's
short stories.
. "The Comic in Poe's Fiction." American Literature 33, No.
4 (January 1962): 433-41.
Examines the humorous and satirical aspects of Poe's comic tales.
Pollin, Burton R. Dictionary of Names and Titles in Poe's Collected
Works. New York: Da Capo Press, 1968, 212 p.