Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 818.309
EAN num: 9780140053715
ISBN number: 0140053719
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: January 29, 1981
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sale Popularity Level: 1625573
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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The Tell-Tale Heart strips away the myths that have grown up around the life of Edgar Allen Poe, and provides a completely fresh assessment of both the man and his work. Symons reveals Poe as his contemporaries saw him - a man struggling to make a living out of hack journalism and striving to find a backer for his new magazine, and a man whose life was beset by so many tragedies that he was often driven to excessive drinking and a string of unhealthy relationships.
Fittingly written by another master in the art of crime writing, The Tell-Tale Heart brilliantly portrays the original creator of the detective story and reveals him as the genius - and unashamed plagiarist - that he was.
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Too bad this book is out of print. One of England's most respected mystery writers of the 20th century and a decent critic, Julian Symons, envisioned this much as today's "Penguin Short Lives" series is conceived: to nail a prominent life in a swift moving narrative with style and critical thinking. He originally published it in 1978 for an English audience but it serves Americans very well. In fact, the absence of American academic obfuscation and the neutrality of perspective are extremely refreshing. He has moved an analysis of Poe's criticism, poetry and fiction, as well as his enduring reputation, to the back of the book to make for an uninterrupted biographical narrative up front.
Poe is hard on any biographer. He was hard on his contemporaries for that matter. He was known to embroider his own back story, and he inspired enough animosity among former colleagues that at least one, his literary executor, went to great lengths to rewrite Poe's life most unflatteringly. Symons performs a yeoman's job of getting down to the facts and reconciling a complex personality whose facets often opposed one another. He critiques the popular Freudian view of Poe and clears up a number of questions about his marriage to a young very first cousin. Most importantly, he affirms Poe's place in literary history and provides a fascinating look at early American literary culture.
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