Classic Lit: Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Part I: Tales of Macabre
After reading H.P. Lovecraft, it made all the sense in the world to continue going in reverse chronological order and read stories from one of his literary influences. That would be Edgar Allan Poe.
I bought the Barnes & Noble Classic Stories collection, which includes short stories and some of his longer detective stories. Since there is so much to cover. This is Part 1 of a Poe series, giving a quick run through the section called tales of macabre.
The influence on Lovecraft was immediately apparent. The stories are largely first person perspective of someone who is or has witnessed something supernatural and terrifying. Rather than cosmic aliens and bizarre creatures, Poe’s fear focused on psychological trauma, guilt, death, ghosts, and tormenting spirits.
The narrators are usually gentlemen, on the frail side, certainly not intended to be heroes. Unlike many modern stories, the protagonist is here to witness the terror, feel the fear, and have it break them.
In some stories, the narrator is a villain. They are describing their crimes and attempting to explain their motives. The torture of guilt, and the haunting of their victims drives many of them mad.
The collection has some of the best gothic stories I have ever read. The prose is beautiful, complex, and has an almost poetic feel. Poe stretches the English language to the breaking point. In some places, he abandons it entirely and uses French, Latin, or German.
Illustration of "Ligeia" by Harry Clarke, 1919
There were three stories where Poe clearly drew direct inspiration from his own life. The death of the women in his own life inspired the stories of Berenice, Morella, and Ligeia. In Berenice, the narrator marries his cousin (like Poe did) and tragically survives her after she perishes from tuberculosis.
Berenice explores the deep, disturbing impact of grief, with a husband so obsessed with his wife’s teeth, he digs up her grave to retrieve them during a psychotic break.
Morella is more disturbing. The narrator’s wife dies in childbirth and her dying declaration is one transferring her spirit to their daughter. The daughter grows to resemble his dead wife Morella, terrifying the narrator who doesn’t give the daughter a name until she is older. When he finally does, she dies. As he brings her body to his wife’s tomb, he finds it empty.
Ligeia is another dying wife. This time, the narrator remarries but his second wife dies and transforms into his first wife on her deathbed. This one felt repetitive and either should have been separated from the other two or maybe not included. After reading the first two, this one just didn’t strike the nerves the same way.
Another legendary story, now a TV show on Netlfix, bares some similarity but the death spreads from a sister to bring down an entire house. A man visits his friend who seems sick, as does his sister who does succumb. The tragic end of the House of Usher has stood the test of time.
From the start, you feel like the family is on the verge of doom and that everything down to the house itself is sick and dying.
Illustration for "The Masque of the Red Death" by Harry Clarke, 1919
The plague stories stand out to me and likely were inspired by Poe’s direct experiences with the epidemics of the 19th century. The Masque of the Red Death was striking to see a group of people isolating themselves in an abbey and having parties while everyone outside is dying a painful death. Eventually, the red death finds its way inside.
Thoughts of the COVID pandemic come to mind, with wealthy elites ignoring social distancing rules to keep having their parties, traveling to luxury resorts, or sheltering in place in glorious mansions while so many did not have the privilege or opportunity to lock themselves somewhere and wait it out.
Shadow—A Parable is similar with seven men isolating themselves in a great hall in the ancient city of Ptolemais. A plague ravages the city as they hide inside a room, with one of their party already dead. A shadow appears, speaking in a voice of thousand people. Here again, a mysterious figure finds its way into their pandemic bubble.
Illustration by Harry Clarke, 1919
Another group of stories are about murderers. A doppelgänger is murdered in William Wilson, one who torments the narrator, following him around and exposing his many frauds and deceptions. In the end, perhaps the double represented his conscience. The killer may have hallucinated him the whole time.
The murderer stories may be my favorites: The Telltale Heart, The Black Cat, and the Cask of Amontillado. All are about murderers racked with guilt in different ways. Only one ever gets away with it. I loved all three, depicting killers as not just being cold psychopaths but feeling the emotional impact of their crimes afterward.
So few stories explore what it might be like in the hours and days after you’ve killed someone. How does it feel to get away with it?
The deep fear tales are The Pit and the Pendulum and The Premature Burial. A man is tortured by a descending pendulum with a blade. The story accounts what were to be his final moments as the blade slowly drops down to slice him open. Premature Burial is a tough read if you have a fear of being buried alive. What is interesting is the twist at the end, where the man’s fear is found to trigger a death-like seizure that put him a state where one could mistaken him for dead.
A self-fulfilling prophecy is one way to simplify it. His fear almost made it a reality.
Of the remaining stories, Hop-Frog stood out as a tale of revenge by a court jester. It is a dwarf abused by a king or lord and his buddies. They tease a woman he is in love with, so he decides to trick them into dressing like orangutans, with costumes that are highly flammable. He uses the candles on the chandelier to set them all on fire then escapes with his love.
It is a dark tale of revenge, the protagonist a sympathetic abused figure who finally had enough of the powerful and entitled treating the dwarves as subhuman comedic creatures.
After writing this, I think I might reread a few stories and go into more detail with my favorites. That will be after I go through the Tales of Detection or the detective stories. I was surprised to learn that Poe is credited with inventing the detective story that would inspire Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his own Sherlock Holmes.
From a historical perspective and literary influence, it is hard to deny Poe’s massive stature in American literature. Gothic horror would go on to flourish with Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, and eventually Stephen King, Anne Rice, Neil Gaiman.
Up next are the tales of detection…