Ebook Edgar Allan Poe

Poe is a writer whose work has come to mean something quite different from himself. He has been hidden by a small group of his writings. The bulk of his work is covered away under a mantle of the iridescent colouring of his tales. The popular conception of him is so narrow and powerful that it has made of him a legendary Faust, and it is hard for us to say "Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man," and, lifting that brilliant, shining mantle, to unveil the real astrologer. There is this traditional Poe to blind our eyes, and there is also the hero of a new morality play, where Art is Life, Beauty is Virtue, and Public Opinion is the Devil. Baudelaire, and cheap editions of His works, which take account only of his tales, and, among them, of a single group alone, combine to obscure him.

It would not be surprising if Poe had been labelled out of existence, or fallen into a general contempt. This is far from being the case.