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The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe
One of the greatest of all horror writers, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) also composed pioneering tales that seized upon the scientific developments of an era marked by staggering change. In this collection of sixteen stories, he explores such wide-ranging contemporary themes as galvanism, time travel and resurrection of the dead. 'The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall' relates a man's balloon journey to the moon with a combination of scientific precision and astonishing fantasy. Elsewhere, the boundaries between horror and science are elegantly blurred in stories such as 'The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar', while the great essay 'Eureka' outlines Poe's own interpretation of the universe. Powerfully influential on later authors including Jules Verne, these works are essential reading for anyone wishing to trace the genealogy of science fiction, or to understand the complexity of Poe's own creative vision.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,885 books28.6k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
July 29, 2020
42 SHORT STORIES IN 42 DAYS*
DAY 20: A Descent Into The Maelström
One of Poe's more underrated stories, this takes a while to get going – but the second half is terrifying.
*The rules:
– Read one short story a day, every day for six weeks
– Read no more than one story by the same author within any 14-day period
– Deliberately include authors I wouldn't usually read
– Review each story in one sentence or less
Any fresh reading suggestions/recommendations will be gratefully received 📚 (less)
DAY 20: A Descent Into The Maelström
One of Poe's more underrated stories, this takes a while to get going – but the second half is terrifying.
*The rules:
– Read one short story a day, every day for six weeks
– Read no more than one story by the same author within any 14-day period
– Deliberately include authors I wouldn't usually read
– Review each story in one sentence or less
Any fresh reading suggestions/recommendations will be gratefully received 📚 (less)
October 25, 2023
Second read - 24 October 2023 - **+. This collection of writings by Edgar Allan Poe illustrates his use of science (such as it was at the time) in fiction. Some of those are stories that easily fit the definition of science fiction, although that was not yet a label. Meanwhile others of these writings are essays framed with the barest account of fictional speakers. The longest piece in the collection, Eureka, is just such a work. And a few of the writings are deliberate hoaxes. While science fiction is here, and Poe influenced his science fictional successors such as Jules Verne, the title is misleading; only about half of the page count is science fiction. I found that I did not so much read this, as study it. So set your expectations appropriately.
I have rated these works for readability in modern times, with a (+) bump if the story is significant to the early history of science fiction, or demonstrates something still employed in current SF. But I try not to penalize them for the meager science of the era in which they were written. The works appear in the order first published, nearly 200 years ago. In those terms, I rate the overall collection as 2+. But if one could consider only the actual science fiction, it would be at least 3+.
MS. Found in a Bottle (1833). A passenger on a ship overwhelmed by a typhoon in the vicinity of Indonesia is cast onto a strange ship with a strange crew. They continue to head southward, toward the mysterious South Pole, and descend into a whirlpool. A wild adventure into the unknown with little basis in plausibility, even for the times. Rating 2/5.
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall (1835). A bizarre-looking dwarf descends into Rotterdam in a balloon, and drops a manuscript. It describes a human adventurer who escapes the law by building a super-balloon, and uses it to rise through the atmosphere to the Moon. In spite of the highly incorrect understanding of space travel, Poe is attempting to follow believable scientific principles of his era. He is quite accurate in terms of distances and views of the planets from various distances. This intends to be hard SF rather than a fantasy trip to the moon. Rating 3+/5.
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion (1839). Two spirits in the afterlife discuss the demise of humanity after the Earth is struck by a comet. It combines the effects on the population of biblical prophecies and of astronomical knowledge of comets that was state-of-the-art at the time. The destruction of the Earth by comets and asteroids has become a common trope of science fiction. Rating 2+/5
A Descent into the Maelstrom (1841). An old fisherman relates his terrifying story of survival in a periodic maelstrom off the craggy coast of Norway. As his boat approached the very bottom of the funnel, he observes the rates of descent of objects of varying size and shape. Conclusively, he jumps from the boat, tied to a barrel, and watches as his brother still in the boat descends to his death. I was reminded of the gravitational tides in Frederik Pohl’s Gateway. Rating 4+/5.
The Colloquy of Monos and Una (1841). A spirit converses with his wife, describing the sensory experience of the afterlife in his dead body. More of a creepy tone piece with than science fiction, with loads of classical references unknown to me. Rating 1/5.
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains (1844). The physician of a peculiar man describes the man’s experience of viewing what is apparently the 1781 Benares insurrection, while wandering in the Appalachian wilderness near Charlottesville VA in 1827. It is nearly a time travel story, except that it holds the experience to be hallucinatory although uncannily accurate under the influence of morphine. Rating 3/5.
The Balloon-Hoax (1844). Published as a news story in the New York Sun, this piece created a profit-generating rush on purchases of the newspaper, but was soon revealed to be a deliberate hoax. The inclusion of technical specifications of the balloon and a highly impractical dragging ballast rope lent credibility; it is an early example of the SF technique of technobabble. The plot aspect of the story is negligible. Rating 2+/5.
Mesmeric Revelation (1845). In this “story,” a first-person narrator, named as “P.”, interviews a man entered into a mesmeric trance state, named as “V.”, concerning philosophical and theological concepts. It is not a story in any sort of plot sense, more of an essay in a fictionalized frame. The idea is that there is “non-particulate matter” in the universe, and that it coalesces into a continuous medium known as “ether”. The human mind functions in this ether, and is transmitted to and from the particulate universe through vibrations in the bodily organs. (Obviously this was before the electro-chemical nature of brain function was known). The minds of humans, considered collectively in this ether, are God, who is in similar relationship to the overall physical universe. His characters P. and V. are discussing this model as a physical reality, not a supernatural one. Frankly it seems like untestable gobbledygook to me. Since Poe was fond of publishing hoaxes and spoofs, and in real life disdained Transcendentalism, I think this could very well have been intended satirically. Interestingly though, the piece was reprinted in a serious theological journal “The Universalist Watchman and Christian Repository”. Rating 2/5.
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade (1845). Set the day after the conclusion of the traditional story of Scheherazade and her husband king who keeps postponing her death, she tells one more story of a voyage of Sinbad. In this one, he is picked up by a modern (1845) British armored cruiser, and is taken to see many wonders of the modern world of technology and exploration, which the king finds too incredulous. Rating 4/5.
Some Words with a Mummy (1845). An archeologist and his associates open the sarcophagus of an Egyptian mummy, and by complete accident discover how to reanimate him. They are disappointed to find he is not impressed with their smug descriptions of modern advancements. Their modern notions of superiority over historical times are inaccurate and nothing more than egotism. Rating 4/5.
The Power of Words (1845). This piece is a short conversation between two angels - Oinos and Agathos - regarding creation. It is a little bit of preposterous theological reasoning, that includes a dependency on the physical reality of a universal ether. A supernatural episode, but not a story. Rating 1/5.
The System of Dr Tarr and Prof. Fether (1845). A young man visits an insane asylum in France to learn about the new treatment techniques there, and discovers that it is run being by the inmates. Notice the tar-and-feather in the title! It is a sarcastic and entertaining story, but I don’t see anything science fictional about it. Rating 4/5.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845). A widely-published hoax about the experimental application of mesmerism to a man on his death bed. While he is entranced by the power of animal magnetism, his death is postponed by nine months. Another example of plausible (for the times) scientific speculation in a story. Rating 3+/5.
Eureka: An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe (1848). Framed as the contents of a document conveyed somehow from the future, this is a lengthy essay on natural philosophy, not a science fiction story. The first half expands on the notion of two competing tendencies – attraction, operating on a physical basis through gravitation, and repulsion, operating on a spiritual basis through magnetism, electricity, and mesmerism. I found it very difficult to get past Poe’s overblown use of language. Take this one sentence for example – “The absolute, irrelative particle primarily created by the Volition of God, must have been in a condition of positive normality, or rightfulness – for wrongfulness implies relation.” Even taking into consideration that Volition of God here refers to that mysterious counter-intuitive force we now know as electromagnetism, the sentence is still boggling. And the essay is nearly a hundred pages of that.
Poe argues for the supremacy of intuition over experimentation, going so far as to childishly ridicule Francis Bacon’s name as “hog.” Of course, his belief flies in the face of subsequent 20th century science – quantum mechanics describes non-intuitive behavior on the micro scale, and relativity describes non-intuitive behavior on the macro scale. Human intuition fails us, and has, in fact, been an obstacle to acceptance of the experimental and theoretical advances in physics for some time now.
The second half of the essay repetitively emphasizes the immensity of astronomical distances and the process of nebular cosmogony. By the time of this essay, he has abandoned his earlier idea of a material ether, but still upholds the existence of a spiritual ether. Poe was neither a physicist nor an astronomer, and his beliefs seem to largely be based on contemporaneous trends in theology and scientific thinking – at a time when science was just beginning to diverge from natural philosophy. This work was an expansion of a lecture he gave, and I suspect that mostly he was attempting to capitalize on the sort of financial rewards that speakers like Ralph Waldo Emerson could earn in those days. Rating 1/5.
Mellonta Tauta (1849). Poe re-hashes the frame story of Eureka in the words of a balloonist of the year 2848. This allows him to re-state his premises in a much shorter and more entertaining package. He even teases the reader about torturing him with lengthy prose. The balloonist lands and discovers artifacts dating from Poe’s own time, amusingly misunderstood. Compared to modern SF, Poe’s assessment of technological progress over a period of 1000 years is ridiculously minimal. But the specifics of names and events through deep history are appropriately blurred. Rating 3+/5.
Von Kempelen and His Discovery (1849). Poe attempted to manipulate the California Gold Rush and the price of gold by writing a hoax report of a scientist that discovered how to transform lead into gold. The hoax did not catch on. The resultant work, considered as a story, has no plot, other than describing the situation. Rating 2/5.
First read - 1 December 1976 - **. I read this in college, during a frenzy of reading all things science fictional. At the time, I did not appreciate the significance of these stories in the history of the genre, but rather was disappointed with them in comparison to modern science fiction.
I have rated these works for readability in modern times, with a (+) bump if the story is significant to the early history of science fiction, or demonstrates something still employed in current SF. But I try not to penalize them for the meager science of the era in which they were written. The works appear in the order first published, nearly 200 years ago. In those terms, I rate the overall collection as 2+. But if one could consider only the actual science fiction, it would be at least 3+.
MS. Found in a Bottle (1833). A passenger on a ship overwhelmed by a typhoon in the vicinity of Indonesia is cast onto a strange ship with a strange crew. They continue to head southward, toward the mysterious South Pole, and descend into a whirlpool. A wild adventure into the unknown with little basis in plausibility, even for the times. Rating 2/5.
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall (1835). A bizarre-looking dwarf descends into Rotterdam in a balloon, and drops a manuscript. It describes a human adventurer who escapes the law by building a super-balloon, and uses it to rise through the atmosphere to the Moon. In spite of the highly incorrect understanding of space travel, Poe is attempting to follow believable scientific principles of his era. He is quite accurate in terms of distances and views of the planets from various distances. This intends to be hard SF rather than a fantasy trip to the moon. Rating 3+/5.
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion (1839). Two spirits in the afterlife discuss the demise of humanity after the Earth is struck by a comet. It combines the effects on the population of biblical prophecies and of astronomical knowledge of comets that was state-of-the-art at the time. The destruction of the Earth by comets and asteroids has become a common trope of science fiction. Rating 2+/5
A Descent into the Maelstrom (1841). An old fisherman relates his terrifying story of survival in a periodic maelstrom off the craggy coast of Norway. As his boat approached the very bottom of the funnel, he observes the rates of descent of objects of varying size and shape. Conclusively, he jumps from the boat, tied to a barrel, and watches as his brother still in the boat descends to his death. I was reminded of the gravitational tides in Frederik Pohl’s Gateway. Rating 4+/5.
The Colloquy of Monos and Una (1841). A spirit converses with his wife, describing the sensory experience of the afterlife in his dead body. More of a creepy tone piece with than science fiction, with loads of classical references unknown to me. Rating 1/5.
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains (1844). The physician of a peculiar man describes the man’s experience of viewing what is apparently the 1781 Benares insurrection, while wandering in the Appalachian wilderness near Charlottesville VA in 1827. It is nearly a time travel story, except that it holds the experience to be hallucinatory although uncannily accurate under the influence of morphine. Rating 3/5.
The Balloon-Hoax (1844). Published as a news story in the New York Sun, this piece created a profit-generating rush on purchases of the newspaper, but was soon revealed to be a deliberate hoax. The inclusion of technical specifications of the balloon and a highly impractical dragging ballast rope lent credibility; it is an early example of the SF technique of technobabble. The plot aspect of the story is negligible. Rating 2+/5.
Mesmeric Revelation (1845). In this “story,” a first-person narrator, named as “P.”, interviews a man entered into a mesmeric trance state, named as “V.”, concerning philosophical and theological concepts. It is not a story in any sort of plot sense, more of an essay in a fictionalized frame. The idea is that there is “non-particulate matter” in the universe, and that it coalesces into a continuous medium known as “ether”. The human mind functions in this ether, and is transmitted to and from the particulate universe through vibrations in the bodily organs. (Obviously this was before the electro-chemical nature of brain function was known). The minds of humans, considered collectively in this ether, are God, who is in similar relationship to the overall physical universe. His characters P. and V. are discussing this model as a physical reality, not a supernatural one. Frankly it seems like untestable gobbledygook to me. Since Poe was fond of publishing hoaxes and spoofs, and in real life disdained Transcendentalism, I think this could very well have been intended satirically. Interestingly though, the piece was reprinted in a serious theological journal “The Universalist Watchman and Christian Repository”. Rating 2/5.
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade (1845). Set the day after the conclusion of the traditional story of Scheherazade and her husband king who keeps postponing her death, she tells one more story of a voyage of Sinbad. In this one, he is picked up by a modern (1845) British armored cruiser, and is taken to see many wonders of the modern world of technology and exploration, which the king finds too incredulous. Rating 4/5.
Some Words with a Mummy (1845). An archeologist and his associates open the sarcophagus of an Egyptian mummy, and by complete accident discover how to reanimate him. They are disappointed to find he is not impressed with their smug descriptions of modern advancements. Their modern notions of superiority over historical times are inaccurate and nothing more than egotism. Rating 4/5.
The Power of Words (1845). This piece is a short conversation between two angels - Oinos and Agathos - regarding creation. It is a little bit of preposterous theological reasoning, that includes a dependency on the physical reality of a universal ether. A supernatural episode, but not a story. Rating 1/5.
The System of Dr Tarr and Prof. Fether (1845). A young man visits an insane asylum in France to learn about the new treatment techniques there, and discovers that it is run being by the inmates. Notice the tar-and-feather in the title! It is a sarcastic and entertaining story, but I don’t see anything science fictional about it. Rating 4/5.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845). A widely-published hoax about the experimental application of mesmerism to a man on his death bed. While he is entranced by the power of animal magnetism, his death is postponed by nine months. Another example of plausible (for the times) scientific speculation in a story. Rating 3+/5.
Eureka: An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe (1848). Framed as the contents of a document conveyed somehow from the future, this is a lengthy essay on natural philosophy, not a science fiction story. The first half expands on the notion of two competing tendencies – attraction, operating on a physical basis through gravitation, and repulsion, operating on a spiritual basis through magnetism, electricity, and mesmerism. I found it very difficult to get past Poe’s overblown use of language. Take this one sentence for example – “The absolute, irrelative particle primarily created by the Volition of God, must have been in a condition of positive normality, or rightfulness – for wrongfulness implies relation.” Even taking into consideration that Volition of God here refers to that mysterious counter-intuitive force we now know as electromagnetism, the sentence is still boggling. And the essay is nearly a hundred pages of that.
Poe argues for the supremacy of intuition over experimentation, going so far as to childishly ridicule Francis Bacon’s name as “hog.” Of course, his belief flies in the face of subsequent 20th century science – quantum mechanics describes non-intuitive behavior on the micro scale, and relativity describes non-intuitive behavior on the macro scale. Human intuition fails us, and has, in fact, been an obstacle to acceptance of the experimental and theoretical advances in physics for some time now.
The second half of the essay repetitively emphasizes the immensity of astronomical distances and the process of nebular cosmogony. By the time of this essay, he has abandoned his earlier idea of a material ether, but still upholds the existence of a spiritual ether. Poe was neither a physicist nor an astronomer, and his beliefs seem to largely be based on contemporaneous trends in theology and scientific thinking – at a time when science was just beginning to diverge from natural philosophy. This work was an expansion of a lecture he gave, and I suspect that mostly he was attempting to capitalize on the sort of financial rewards that speakers like Ralph Waldo Emerson could earn in those days. Rating 1/5.
Mellonta Tauta (1849). Poe re-hashes the frame story of Eureka in the words of a balloonist of the year 2848. This allows him to re-state his premises in a much shorter and more entertaining package. He even teases the reader about torturing him with lengthy prose. The balloonist lands and discovers artifacts dating from Poe’s own time, amusingly misunderstood. Compared to modern SF, Poe’s assessment of technological progress over a period of 1000 years is ridiculously minimal. But the specifics of names and events through deep history are appropriately blurred. Rating 3+/5.
Von Kempelen and His Discovery (1849). Poe attempted to manipulate the California Gold Rush and the price of gold by writing a hoax report of a scientist that discovered how to transform lead into gold. The hoax did not catch on. The resultant work, considered as a story, has no plot, other than describing the situation. Rating 2/5.
First read - 1 December 1976 - **. I read this in college, during a frenzy of reading all things science fictional. At the time, I did not appreciate the significance of these stories in the history of the genre, but rather was disappointed with them in comparison to modern science fiction.
May 23, 2016
Why I Almost Docked This Rating One Star Just For The Inclusion of “Eureka” And Why I Didn’t Follow Through With That, And Also Why This Book is Mistitled: A Review Of “The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe”
First, why I was so sorely tempted to give this volume 2 stars instead of the deserved three: “Eureka” is atrocious.
Now, I know what you’re all going to say (or many of you, anyway). You’re going to say that it’s easy to look back in time nearly 200 years with our early-21st century perspective and criticize the level of scientific knowledge/understanding of a poet. And you’re right. It is easy – too easy. But the total and complete lack of understanding of the scientific method, of the aims and objectives of scientific research, and of the foundations of scientific thinking are NOT why I was tempted to dock this book one star.
See, it is one thing to be scientifically illiterate -and make no mistake: even for the period in which he lived, Poe was scientifically illiterate. To know some few facts, to be able to drop a name (be it of a person or of a theory), to understand that two and two will always equal four: these do not count as scientific literacy, any more than being able to tell the difference between a rap song and a tin pan alley ditty makes one musically literate. In order to be considered scientifically literate one must understand what it is that science is, what it does and can do and can not do, its goals and aims, or, to sum up, the context in which the scientific enterprise takes place. Poe displays none of this.
He rails against what he considers to be the scientists' “two paths to knowledge,” induction and deduction, as though those two words taken in and of themselves can somehow encapsulate the totality of scientific thought. Yes, I agree that these two words can be used as basic, high-level descriptors of the ways we come to consider a statement to be true or to be a fact, but in and of themselves they say nothing. He mocks the great minds of his time and of the past, those who, while definitely fallible (as all science is, another thing lost on Poe), accomplished far more in the realm of science than he ever accomplished in the realm of poetry.
Then, the topper: he states that he will replace both deduction and induction with – wait, this’ll have you over-the-barrel-laughing: INTUITON! Yes! That fabulous intuition of ours which, though it may be argued has kept the human race alive for several eons, is by definition antithetical to the concept of truth. That way of thinking which can only lead to trial-and-error attempts at discovering something which may closely enough resemble the truth as to not get us killed!
And not just any intuition – no, HIS intuition! HE is the only human being alive who can intuit the TRUTH! Why? Because he’s a freaking poet, of course! Does this make any sense (deductive, inductive, or intuitive, or otherwise) to anyone?
Then, after he explains WHY we should believe what he says, we get on to the meat of the matter. The spoiled, rotting, fat-filled, empty-calorie-laden meat. This isn’t science, folks: this is theology. His explanation of god’s plan for the universe, basted with a thin veneer of names and words. The entire thing makes no sense whatsoever.
Now, I don’t want to hear “It’s satire! He didn’t really mean it!” Bullshit. He most definitely meant it. That he begins the essay with a satirical message-in-a-bottle-from-the-future introduction does nothing to diminish the earnestness of his exposition. And, though it is satirical, there is nothing in that introduction to lead us to believe that what follows is meant to be satirical. No, the introduction satirizes science, that thing which he does not understand. The introduction reinforces the thoughts expressed in the essay, it does not belie them.
Nor do I want to hear “But he was RIGHT on some things! Black holes and the expanding universe and blah and blah and blah!” No, he wasn’t right on anything. That some of the things he says can be compared in some way to true scientific ideas means nothing more than saying “Well, the big bang was god saying let there be light!” Balderdash. Pure, utter, total, and complete balderdash. On a side note, the editors of this volume hint at this way of thinking, even though they do not come right out and say it. They are wrong, and seem to be as scientifically illiterate as Poe.
Poe comes across as a bitter, weak man who knows he has failed to be what he wanted to be and insanely insists and acting the part hoping that others may actually see him this way. Yes, I lost respect for Poe on reading this.
So, why DIDN’T I dock this review one star for the inclusion of “Eureka”?
Well, because I’m glad it’s in here. And I’m glad I read it. It helped me solve a thirty year-old mystery.
Or approximately thirty years, anyway. See, it was about that long ago that I first became acquainted with Poe. I don’t remember which I read first, “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “A Cask of Amontillado,” but it was definitely Amontillado which had the greater effect on me. I had grown up reading a lot of SF and a slap-dash of fantasy, but I had never read any horror. This Poe guy intrigued me, and I sought out and read many of his stories (including most of those included in this volume). I read that Poe was the inventor of the modern short story, and I still see that, though I think “inventor” is perhaps too strong a word. I read that Poe created the modern horror and mystery genres, and I still see that, though I think “created” is perhaps too strong a word. I also read that he created the modern SF genre. But I never saw that. I could not understand why these stories were considered to be integral to the development of SF. As an avid reader of SF, this has bugged me for three decades. What was I missing?
And now I know: I was missing NOTHING. The truth of the matter is that Poe did NOT create the genre of SF. Nothing he wrote, this volume inclusive, can be considered SF. I know the literary theorists will say I’m wrong, the Poe fan-boys-and-girls will claim I have no idea what I’m talking about, the professors and the text books will roll their eyes and their pages, but I’m right.
SF developed out of gothic literature by turning from the supernatural to the natural. Whereas gothic literature saw horror in the world and blamed this on supernatural causes, SF began to begin when Shelley looked at the horror and saw completely natural causes. Later writers then realized that if the causes of things in the world were natural (or existential) and not supernatural (or metaphysical), then we could harness these causes and create not horror but progress. This progress may carry with it its own variety of horror, but the horror will be due to the way we interact with the natural world. There’s still room for gods and magic in SF, in a way, but even these gods and this magic will obey natural laws.
Poe will have none of that. Poe is a regressive writer, attempting to turn the outlook of the human race backwards to the gothic. He can not let go of his supernatural, and “Eureka,” while not explaining that in any real sense, exemplifies it. Perhaps it was his own psychological demons that caused him to confront the world on a metaphysical plane, but those demons themselves were natural.
This book is misnamed. Poe wrote no science fiction.
First, why I was so sorely tempted to give this volume 2 stars instead of the deserved three: “Eureka” is atrocious.
Now, I know what you’re all going to say (or many of you, anyway). You’re going to say that it’s easy to look back in time nearly 200 years with our early-21st century perspective and criticize the level of scientific knowledge/understanding of a poet. And you’re right. It is easy – too easy. But the total and complete lack of understanding of the scientific method, of the aims and objectives of scientific research, and of the foundations of scientific thinking are NOT why I was tempted to dock this book one star.
See, it is one thing to be scientifically illiterate -and make no mistake: even for the period in which he lived, Poe was scientifically illiterate. To know some few facts, to be able to drop a name (be it of a person or of a theory), to understand that two and two will always equal four: these do not count as scientific literacy, any more than being able to tell the difference between a rap song and a tin pan alley ditty makes one musically literate. In order to be considered scientifically literate one must understand what it is that science is, what it does and can do and can not do, its goals and aims, or, to sum up, the context in which the scientific enterprise takes place. Poe displays none of this.
He rails against what he considers to be the scientists' “two paths to knowledge,” induction and deduction, as though those two words taken in and of themselves can somehow encapsulate the totality of scientific thought. Yes, I agree that these two words can be used as basic, high-level descriptors of the ways we come to consider a statement to be true or to be a fact, but in and of themselves they say nothing. He mocks the great minds of his time and of the past, those who, while definitely fallible (as all science is, another thing lost on Poe), accomplished far more in the realm of science than he ever accomplished in the realm of poetry.
Then, the topper: he states that he will replace both deduction and induction with – wait, this’ll have you over-the-barrel-laughing: INTUITON! Yes! That fabulous intuition of ours which, though it may be argued has kept the human race alive for several eons, is by definition antithetical to the concept of truth. That way of thinking which can only lead to trial-and-error attempts at discovering something which may closely enough resemble the truth as to not get us killed!
And not just any intuition – no, HIS intuition! HE is the only human being alive who can intuit the TRUTH! Why? Because he’s a freaking poet, of course! Does this make any sense (deductive, inductive, or intuitive, or otherwise) to anyone?
Then, after he explains WHY we should believe what he says, we get on to the meat of the matter. The spoiled, rotting, fat-filled, empty-calorie-laden meat. This isn’t science, folks: this is theology. His explanation of god’s plan for the universe, basted with a thin veneer of names and words. The entire thing makes no sense whatsoever.
Now, I don’t want to hear “It’s satire! He didn’t really mean it!” Bullshit. He most definitely meant it. That he begins the essay with a satirical message-in-a-bottle-from-the-future introduction does nothing to diminish the earnestness of his exposition. And, though it is satirical, there is nothing in that introduction to lead us to believe that what follows is meant to be satirical. No, the introduction satirizes science, that thing which he does not understand. The introduction reinforces the thoughts expressed in the essay, it does not belie them.
Nor do I want to hear “But he was RIGHT on some things! Black holes and the expanding universe and blah and blah and blah!” No, he wasn’t right on anything. That some of the things he says can be compared in some way to true scientific ideas means nothing more than saying “Well, the big bang was god saying let there be light!” Balderdash. Pure, utter, total, and complete balderdash. On a side note, the editors of this volume hint at this way of thinking, even though they do not come right out and say it. They are wrong, and seem to be as scientifically illiterate as Poe.
Poe comes across as a bitter, weak man who knows he has failed to be what he wanted to be and insanely insists and acting the part hoping that others may actually see him this way. Yes, I lost respect for Poe on reading this.
So, why DIDN’T I dock this review one star for the inclusion of “Eureka”?
Well, because I’m glad it’s in here. And I’m glad I read it. It helped me solve a thirty year-old mystery.
Or approximately thirty years, anyway. See, it was about that long ago that I first became acquainted with Poe. I don’t remember which I read first, “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “A Cask of Amontillado,” but it was definitely Amontillado which had the greater effect on me. I had grown up reading a lot of SF and a slap-dash of fantasy, but I had never read any horror. This Poe guy intrigued me, and I sought out and read many of his stories (including most of those included in this volume). I read that Poe was the inventor of the modern short story, and I still see that, though I think “inventor” is perhaps too strong a word. I read that Poe created the modern horror and mystery genres, and I still see that, though I think “created” is perhaps too strong a word. I also read that he created the modern SF genre. But I never saw that. I could not understand why these stories were considered to be integral to the development of SF. As an avid reader of SF, this has bugged me for three decades. What was I missing?
And now I know: I was missing NOTHING. The truth of the matter is that Poe did NOT create the genre of SF. Nothing he wrote, this volume inclusive, can be considered SF. I know the literary theorists will say I’m wrong, the Poe fan-boys-and-girls will claim I have no idea what I’m talking about, the professors and the text books will roll their eyes and their pages, but I’m right.
SF developed out of gothic literature by turning from the supernatural to the natural. Whereas gothic literature saw horror in the world and blamed this on supernatural causes, SF began to begin when Shelley looked at the horror and saw completely natural causes. Later writers then realized that if the causes of things in the world were natural (or existential) and not supernatural (or metaphysical), then we could harness these causes and create not horror but progress. This progress may carry with it its own variety of horror, but the horror will be due to the way we interact with the natural world. There’s still room for gods and magic in SF, in a way, but even these gods and this magic will obey natural laws.
Poe will have none of that. Poe is a regressive writer, attempting to turn the outlook of the human race backwards to the gothic. He can not let go of his supernatural, and “Eureka,” while not explaining that in any real sense, exemplifies it. Perhaps it was his own psychological demons that caused him to confront the world on a metaphysical plane, but those demons themselves were natural.
This book is misnamed. Poe wrote no science fiction.
September 7, 2023
Разказите на По много повече ми харесаха от тези на някои други класически писатели в този жанр.
Почти всички, с едно-две изключения, ми бяха интересни или най-малкото интригуващи. Езикът на автора хем е описателен, хем успява да поддържа интереса. За мен разказите бяха предимно мистериозни и фантастични, но колко ли ужасяващо са звучали на хората от 19 век! Разказът с балона вече не е актуален, макар тогава да е вихрел въображението и те да са смятали летенето за чудо. За лудницата ми беше много забавен, досещах се какво е положението и заигравката ми хареса. Впечатлена съм и от хиляда и втората приказка на Шехеразада. В останалите разкази има философия и изследване на различни феномени, занимавали умовете на хората през 19 век. Донякъде разказите са и поглед към онова отминало време и разкриват от какво са се вълнували хората през онези далечни години.
Почти всички, с едно-две изключения, ми бяха интересни или най-малкото интригуващи. Езикът на автора хем е описателен, хем успява да поддържа интереса. За мен разказите бяха предимно мистериозни и фантастични, но колко ли ужасяващо са звучали на хората от 19 век! Разказът с балона вече не е актуален, макар тогава да е вихрел въображението и те да са смятали летенето за чудо. За лудницата ми беше много забавен, досещах се какво е положението и заигравката ми хареса. Впечатлена съм и от хиляда и втората приказка на Шехеразада. В останалите разкази има философия и изследване на различни феномени, занимавали умовете на хората през 19 век. Донякъде разказите са и поглед към онова отминало време и разкриват от какво са се вълнували хората през онези далечни години.
March 4, 2023
Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. But as writers are often commentators on matters of public concern, Poe too found inspiration in the zeitgeist of his day. He lived in what was termed the age of science and progress by his contemporaries. What emerged in his short stories and dialogs was science-themed fiction.
Poe was critical of the spirit of optimism. In "Some Words with a Mummy" he mocks the pride that modern men take in their recent technical achievements. In "The Colloquy of Monos and Una" he warns us that our attempts to rationalize every aspect of society turned us into slaves of reason and rendered as incapable of the intuitive appreciation of beauty.
Above I've said that Poe wrote tales of mystery, and some of his science-fiction writings fall under this umbrella, too. There are two stories about balloon journeys. "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" reports the wondrous journey to the moon. The unpopular tale was later republished in The Sun presented as non-fiction and soon called "Great Moon Hoax". Another hoax was consciously produced by Poe when, in the same paper, he publishes an article about balloonist Monck Mason and others crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon. The tales are rich in technical detail and convey the impression that engineers could follow the advice and succeed.
Much darker – and more in the vain of what people will expect of Poe – are his two naval tales included here. "MS. Found in a Bottle" and "A Descent into the Maelström" tell us about journeys more straining that men are able to endure. They are classical adventures and, for this reason, more easily enjoyable reads. Similarly, "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" and "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade" tell us of adventuring men, though their journeys appear significantly more fantastical.
Frankly, many contributions to the collection are small philosophical treatises in disguise. "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion", "The Colloquy of Monos and Una", and "The Power of Words" share the common setting of interlocutors discussing worldly and metaphysical matters after death. In "Mesmeric Revelation" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" Poe puts his trust in accounts of Mesmerism that were taken seriously by scientific authorities of his day to create a communicational bridge between the mortal world and the realm beyond. "Von Kempelen and his Discovery" discusses the potential consequences of another pseudoscience once held in serious regard, alchemy.
If you are interested in somewhat more detailed discussions of the individual entries, I tried to summarize my thoughts on them in individual reviews. Due to length restrictions imposed by GoodReads, I wasn't able to include them in this review (as originally intended). Here are the links:
- MS. Found in a Bottle / A Descent into the Maelström
- The Unparalleled Adenture of One Hans Pfaall
- The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
- The Colloquy of Monos and Una
- A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
- The Balloon-Hoax
- Mesmeric Revelation
- The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
- Some Words with a Mummy
- The Power of Words
- The System of Dr Tarr and Prof Fether
- Von Kempelen and his Discovery
I fully recognize the unquestionable quality of Poe's writing. Yet, to my mind it's an exemplary case of where the mind has to force the sentiment to take pleasure in what to read. Which is a rather convoluted way of say that it wasn't a lot of fun. The only exception is a story I haven't yet mentioned, "The System of Dr Tarr and Prof Fether". If we talk Poe I'm sure this is the kind of storytelling that comes to mind. It doesn't come as a surprise that many of his other pieces are mostly forgotten.
Rating: 3/5
Poe was critical of the spirit of optimism. In "Some Words with a Mummy" he mocks the pride that modern men take in their recent technical achievements. In "The Colloquy of Monos and Una" he warns us that our attempts to rationalize every aspect of society turned us into slaves of reason and rendered as incapable of the intuitive appreciation of beauty.
Above I've said that Poe wrote tales of mystery, and some of his science-fiction writings fall under this umbrella, too. There are two stories about balloon journeys. "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" reports the wondrous journey to the moon. The unpopular tale was later republished in The Sun presented as non-fiction and soon called "Great Moon Hoax". Another hoax was consciously produced by Poe when, in the same paper, he publishes an article about balloonist Monck Mason and others crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon. The tales are rich in technical detail and convey the impression that engineers could follow the advice and succeed.
Much darker – and more in the vain of what people will expect of Poe – are his two naval tales included here. "MS. Found in a Bottle" and "A Descent into the Maelström" tell us about journeys more straining that men are able to endure. They are classical adventures and, for this reason, more easily enjoyable reads. Similarly, "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" and "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade" tell us of adventuring men, though their journeys appear significantly more fantastical.
Frankly, many contributions to the collection are small philosophical treatises in disguise. "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion", "The Colloquy of Monos and Una", and "The Power of Words" share the common setting of interlocutors discussing worldly and metaphysical matters after death. In "Mesmeric Revelation" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" Poe puts his trust in accounts of Mesmerism that were taken seriously by scientific authorities of his day to create a communicational bridge between the mortal world and the realm beyond. "Von Kempelen and his Discovery" discusses the potential consequences of another pseudoscience once held in serious regard, alchemy.
If you are interested in somewhat more detailed discussions of the individual entries, I tried to summarize my thoughts on them in individual reviews. Due to length restrictions imposed by GoodReads, I wasn't able to include them in this review (as originally intended). Here are the links:
- MS. Found in a Bottle / A Descent into the Maelström
- The Unparalleled Adenture of One Hans Pfaall
- The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
- The Colloquy of Monos and Una
- A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
- The Balloon-Hoax
- Mesmeric Revelation
- The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
- Some Words with a Mummy
- The Power of Words
- The System of Dr Tarr and Prof Fether
- Von Kempelen and his Discovery
I fully recognize the unquestionable quality of Poe's writing. Yet, to my mind it's an exemplary case of where the mind has to force the sentiment to take pleasure in what to read. Which is a rather convoluted way of say that it wasn't a lot of fun. The only exception is a story I haven't yet mentioned, "The System of Dr Tarr and Prof Fether". If we talk Poe I'm sure this is the kind of storytelling that comes to mind. It doesn't come as a surprise that many of his other pieces are mostly forgotten.
Rating: 3/5
January 24, 2017
Very disappointed. Some old stories, some stories using science ideas already around. A so-called "prose poem" to rid yourself of the need for ambien. So sad, I have loved his stories and poems for years. I wish I had not found this one.
August 1, 2019
Колкото и да уважавам По и ролята му в литературата, не мога да си кривя душата, той не ми е от любимите автори. Освен това тази подборка далеч не обхваща най-добрите му произведения. Доколкото разбрах от предговора, правена е с идеята да се покажат различните страни на таланта му и съдържа някои разкази, не особено типични за неговото творчество.
Мнението ми за всеки разказ накратко:
Разказ за нащърбените планини - Скучновата мистична история, която включва пренасяне в чуждо тяло (от предишен живот?) Няма кой знае каква логика, но горе-долу се трае. - 2
Балонът-измислица - Опит за прогностична фантастика, описващ първия презокеански полет с балон, изпъстрен със скучни псевдонаучни обяснения. Мъка ми беше да го чета. - 1
Системата на доктор Тар и професор Федър - Тук няма и помен от фантастика, разказът е по-скоро нещо като социална сатира и описва лудница, управлявана от пациентите (това уж би трябвало да е изненада, но се отгатва прекалено бързо). - 1
Спускане в Маелстрьом - Виж, този разказ вече е съвсем в стила на По, но за жалост не е особено интересен. Някакъв моряк разказва как е попаднал в гигантски водовъртеж и с малко съобразителност е успял да се измъкне. - 2
Сфинксът - Много тъп разказ, в който героят взима насекомото, пълзящо на сантиметри пред очите му, за чудовище, бягащо по далечния планински склон. - 1
Истината в случая с господин Валдемар - Единственият разказ, който предизвика някакъв смътен интерес у мен, въпреки цялата си научна несъстоятелност. Човек на ръба на смъртта е хипнотизиран и остава в странно "немъртво" състояние в продължение на месеци. - 3
Хиляда и втората приказка на Шехерезада - Опит да се опишат съвременните "чудеса" през погледа на Синдбад. На някого може да му се стори интересно, за мен не беше. Давам една звезда отгоре само за въображението на автора в описанията. - 2
Фон Кемпелен и неговото откритие - Още един безбожно скучен разказ. След разчистване на несвързаните дрънканици, сюжетът му на практика се свежда до "Някакъв си човек превръщал оловото в злато". - 1
Разговор с мумия - Колкото и да е странно, този разказ представлява не друго, а фейлетон. Учени случайно съживяват мумия с ток, тя започва да им се оплаква, те се извиняват, след което започват да беседват джентълменски на всякакви теми - от история и политика до мода. Доста е забавен и крайно малоумен. Предполагам, оценката зависи от това доколко човек е склонен да приеме първото за сметка на второто. - 2,5
Не мога да препоръчам с чиста съвест този сборник на никого, дори и на фенове на По. Освен ако не са мноооого непретенциозни.
Мнението ми за всеки разказ накратко:
Разказ за нащърбените планини - Скучновата мистична история, която включва пренасяне в чуждо тяло (от предишен живот?) Няма кой знае каква логика, но горе-долу се трае. - 2
Балонът-измислица - Опит за прогностична фантастика, описващ първия презокеански полет с балон, изпъстрен със скучни псевдонаучни обяснения. Мъка ми беше да го чета. - 1
Системата на доктор Тар и професор Федър - Тук няма и помен от фантастика, разказът е по-скоро нещо като социална сатира и описва лудница, управлявана от пациентите (това уж би трябвало да е изненада, но се отгатва прекалено бързо). - 1
Спускане в Маелстрьом - Виж, този разказ вече е съвсем в стила на По, но за жалост не е особено интересен. Някакъв моряк разказва как е попаднал в гигантски водовъртеж и с малко съобразителност е успял да се измъкне. - 2
Сфинксът - Много тъп разказ, в който героят взима насекомото, пълзящо на сантиметри пред очите му, за чудовище, бягащо по далечния планински склон. - 1
Истината в случая с господин Валдемар - Единственият разказ, който предизвика някакъв смътен интерес у мен, въпреки цялата си научна несъстоятелност. Човек на ръба на смъртта е хипнотизиран и остава в странно "немъртво" състояние в продължение на месеци. - 3
Хиляда и втората приказка на Шехерезада - Опит да се опишат съвременните "чудеса" през погледа на Синдбад. На някого може да му се стори интересно, за мен не беше. Давам една звезда отгоре само за въображението на автора в описанията. - 2
Фон Кемпелен и неговото откритие - Още един безбожно скучен разказ. След разчистване на несвързаните дрънканици, сюжетът му на практика се свежда до "Някакъв си човек превръщал оловото в злато". - 1
Разговор с мумия - Колкото и да е странно, този разказ представлява не друго, а фейлетон. Учени случайно съживяват мумия с ток, тя започва да им се оплаква, те се извиняват, след което започват да беседват джентълменски на всякакви теми - от история и политика до мода. Доста е забавен и крайно малоумен. Предполагам, оценката зависи от това доколко човек е склонен да приеме първото за сметка на второто. - 2,5
Не мога да препоръчам с чиста съвест този сборник на никого, дори и на фенове на По. Освен ако не са мноооого непретенциозни.
January 19, 2024
Много готин и интересен сборник на Едгар Алън По... Според мен, най-добрият разказ в него е именно „Спускане в Маелстрьом“.
October 11, 2013
Kate Beaton sums it all up very well. Poe wrote about balloons. A lot. And as I read, I looked very similar to Beaton's drawing of Verne in the third panel of that comic. And when my back hurt too much, I turned into Verne in the fourth panel.
I love Poe, quite a bit. He's one of those authors I remember reading when I was probably too young to read him, but I could read him in the library and I dug it. Now that we've become fans of Baltimore, where Poe lived for many years and where his grave is, we made it a mission to visit the Poe House and Museum which, we were informed by the Visitors' Center, is "in a negative part of town". You can't get any info about it at the Center, you have to find it on your own because if you get shot or carjacked outside, the city doesn't want to be held responsible for it. Very sweet, Baltimore. So we found it on our own, something I consider a personal victory, and I highly enjoyed it even though it's exceptionally small and has limited information within its walls. It's where Poe lived, man, and that's really awesome. He could have been drunk at some point right where I was standing. That's incredible.
We're all familiar with his stories of mystery and macabre, but people are less familiar with his science fiction and hoaxes. This collection has all that stuff. From what I can tell (and I'm certainly no expert), Poe wasn't all that smart when it came to science stuff. Seems like he took a lot of the popular theories of the day and sort of bastardized it so it made sense to him, and then he would write stories based on those ideas. Hey, don't knock it, it's "speculative" fiction for a reason, I'm okay with it, and I tend to do the same thing myself. I just don't sell those stories to the papers.
I won't say I like his science fiction more than his gothic stories because that would be a stretch. They're like the bread and butter of my childhood and I'm new to the more speculative fiction aspect of Poe's mind. I'm not entirely comfortable with it. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, he wrote a bit about balloons and those are probably my favorite stories/hoaxes of the bunch. There are others that never needed to have ever been written, which is not something I would normally say about Poe.
And then there's Eureka, a long essay (100 pages exactly in my edition) that Poe claims he wanted people to consider as a poem. A prose poem. I don't buy it. This was an essay, and a not very good one, and pretty boring to boot. It shows most of all how little he really knew about what was going on in the scientific world. But apparently it was even received poorly in his own day and age, so I guess I'm not alone in these feelings.
Those are 100 pages of my life I will never get back. Yes, it breaks my heart to write that.
What makes up for it is the cover of this edition which is an image of my beloved Odilon Redon's 'L'oeil comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers L'INFINI' which, the back cover tells me, was inspired by Poe himself. Clicky-click for a close-up of the image. It's great, much like everything else I've ever seen of Redon's. (Except that god-awful stupid print hanging up where I work. I'm over that one.)
Sadly, I failed to finish this on Poe's death-day which was just three days ago. I plan to make up for that by visiting his grave again next month. I'm sure he'll understand.
I love Poe, quite a bit. He's one of those authors I remember reading when I was probably too young to read him, but I could read him in the library and I dug it. Now that we've become fans of Baltimore, where Poe lived for many years and where his grave is, we made it a mission to visit the Poe House and Museum which, we were informed by the Visitors' Center, is "in a negative part of town". You can't get any info about it at the Center, you have to find it on your own because if you get shot or carjacked outside, the city doesn't want to be held responsible for it. Very sweet, Baltimore. So we found it on our own, something I consider a personal victory, and I highly enjoyed it even though it's exceptionally small and has limited information within its walls. It's where Poe lived, man, and that's really awesome. He could have been drunk at some point right where I was standing. That's incredible.
We're all familiar with his stories of mystery and macabre, but people are less familiar with his science fiction and hoaxes. This collection has all that stuff. From what I can tell (and I'm certainly no expert), Poe wasn't all that smart when it came to science stuff. Seems like he took a lot of the popular theories of the day and sort of bastardized it so it made sense to him, and then he would write stories based on those ideas. Hey, don't knock it, it's "speculative" fiction for a reason, I'm okay with it, and I tend to do the same thing myself. I just don't sell those stories to the papers.
I won't say I like his science fiction more than his gothic stories because that would be a stretch. They're like the bread and butter of my childhood and I'm new to the more speculative fiction aspect of Poe's mind. I'm not entirely comfortable with it. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, he wrote a bit about balloons and those are probably my favorite stories/hoaxes of the bunch. There are others that never needed to have ever been written, which is not something I would normally say about Poe.
And then there's Eureka, a long essay (100 pages exactly in my edition) that Poe claims he wanted people to consider as a poem. A prose poem. I don't buy it. This was an essay, and a not very good one, and pretty boring to boot. It shows most of all how little he really knew about what was going on in the scientific world. But apparently it was even received poorly in his own day and age, so I guess I'm not alone in these feelings.
Those are 100 pages of my life I will never get back. Yes, it breaks my heart to write that.
What makes up for it is the cover of this edition which is an image of my beloved Odilon Redon's 'L'oeil comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers L'INFINI' which, the back cover tells me, was inspired by Poe himself. Clicky-click for a close-up of the image. It's great, much like everything else I've ever seen of Redon's. (Except that god-awful stupid print hanging up where I work. I'm over that one.)
Sadly, I failed to finish this on Poe's death-day which was just three days ago. I plan to make up for that by visiting his grave again next month. I'm sure he'll understand.
August 15, 2011
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most interesting and intriguing authors of the 19th century. A poet, and master of the short story, he is credited with creating the detective story, and of course his gothic horror stories are well known. The collection “The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe” demonstrates that Poe also influenced the development of the genre of Science Fiction. There are 15 works of short fiction, along with the incredible essay/poem “Eureka”. These stories are arranged in chronological order of when they were published.
While these are not typical of stories that one usually considers Science Fiction, for example the first story in the book “MS. Found in a Bottle” is a sea tale which probably would be considered more horror than science fiction, the narrator finds himself aboard the legendary Flying Dutchman, and hints at the idea of a Hollow Earth, but other stories which deal with mesmerism, and life-force, and even a trip to the moon, certainly include elements of science fiction.
For myself, the most interesting and amazing work in this collection is “Eureka”, which isn’t fiction at all, but rather an essay or prose poem containing Poe’s thoughts on science and the nature of things. Though there are certainly many incorrect thoughts contained in the work, he did anticipate the theory of the Big Bang, and the existence of entities like black holes. That being said, one cannot call it a scholarly work, but rather one of inspiration on the part of the author. It is certainly interesting choice, and a good one as well, that this work is included in a collection dedicated to Poe’s works which contain science fiction elements
There are too many works contained in this volume to go over each one, but some of my favorites include “A Tale of The Ragged Mountains”, “Some Words with a Mummy”, “Melonta Tauta”, and “Von Kempelen and His Discovery”. I wouldn’t consider any of the works included to be poor, and the supporting documentation included with the Penguin Classics edition helps the reader to understand Poe, the stories, and the circumstances under which they were published. Overall, I am rounding this work up to 5-stars, even if not all of the stories contained merit a rating that high.
While these are not typical of stories that one usually considers Science Fiction, for example the first story in the book “MS. Found in a Bottle” is a sea tale which probably would be considered more horror than science fiction, the narrator finds himself aboard the legendary Flying Dutchman, and hints at the idea of a Hollow Earth, but other stories which deal with mesmerism, and life-force, and even a trip to the moon, certainly include elements of science fiction.
For myself, the most interesting and amazing work in this collection is “Eureka”, which isn’t fiction at all, but rather an essay or prose poem containing Poe’s thoughts on science and the nature of things. Though there are certainly many incorrect thoughts contained in the work, he did anticipate the theory of the Big Bang, and the existence of entities like black holes. That being said, one cannot call it a scholarly work, but rather one of inspiration on the part of the author. It is certainly interesting choice, and a good one as well, that this work is included in a collection dedicated to Poe’s works which contain science fiction elements
There are too many works contained in this volume to go over each one, but some of my favorites include “A Tale of The Ragged Mountains”, “Some Words with a Mummy”, “Melonta Tauta”, and “Von Kempelen and His Discovery”. I wouldn’t consider any of the works included to be poor, and the supporting documentation included with the Penguin Classics edition helps the reader to understand Poe, the stories, and the circumstances under which they were published. Overall, I am rounding this work up to 5-stars, even if not all of the stories contained merit a rating that high.
July 14, 2020
Като за първо запознаване с произведения на Алън По съм достатъчно впечатлена! Почти всички разкази ми харесаха, в повечето случаи даже се усещах как затаявам дъх в очакване на развръзката. Едноименният разказ си заслужава определено... Както и разказа със сфинкса. Радвам се, че нямаше никакви страхотии, които да ме откажат да дочета книгата. Сега ще дам шанс и на други бележити заглавия от Едгар Алан По.
October 6, 2014
This book is an interesting insight into the period when "science fiction" was still forming. As such, I feel very guilty about giving up on it - it certainly isn't terrible, and some of the concepts are very interesting, I simply find (and have always found) Poe's writing style hard going. I managed "MS. Found in a Bottle", "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion", "A Descent into the Maelström", and "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall".
The dense writing style is not helped by the rather stuffy endnotes in this collection; a short introduction or addendum to to each item explaining the scientific context would be more helpful (for example, recent fiction and public beliefs about ways to travel to the moon for "Hans Pfall", or the belief in Hollow Earth theory at the time of "MS. Found in a Bottle"), as well as footnotes translating the occasional French or Latin quotations.
The dense writing style is not helped by the rather stuffy endnotes in this collection; a short introduction or addendum to to each item explaining the scientific context would be more helpful (for example, recent fiction and public beliefs about ways to travel to the moon for "Hans Pfall", or the belief in Hollow Earth theory at the time of "MS. Found in a Bottle"), as well as footnotes translating the occasional French or Latin quotations.
April 9, 2012
Sci-fi and fantasy has always been my genre, but reading this triggered my love of darker and gothic genres, classics, poetry...Even in this day and age, Poe's imagination draws you in and makes it real, whether it be journeying to the moon in a balloon or falling through the centre of the earth at the poles...
January 20, 2020
Давам този рейтинг (като одобрение) за следните истории: “Разказ за нащърбените планини”, “Системата на доктор Тар и професор Федър”, “Спускане в Маелстрьом” (реално ми допадна най-много), както и “Сфинксът”. Останалите писания ми бяха крайно отегчителни и излишно разточителни.
December 26, 2022
It was interesting to read some of Poe’s work that wasn’t horror. He certainly was much more accomplished in the horror genre, but some of these science fiction offerings were entertaining, and some had elements of humor and a bit of horror. Others just left me wondering exactly what did happen, especially when the endings came unexpectedly and abruptly. Still, it’s Poe, and so must be given the respect that author deserves, even if not all stories were gripping in their telling.
February 2, 2018
Some Words with Poe's Mummy
If I could bring Edgar Allan Poe's own mummy out today for a conversation at my dining table, much like the one he has with Ponnonner's Mummy Allamistakeo in Some Words with a Mummy; I wonder if we could not find more than lozenges with which to shame him over the state of his era. He probably wouldn’t be surprised though, since he admits that he was already tired of the state of the 19th Century.
Poe was quite an interesting man, with a unique mind and imagination. Like all of us, he was widely influenced by the details of his personal life, his childhood circumstances, and the age in which he lived. But, no era could have prevented Poe from being Poe. I believe his writing would have a cult following if he were alive and writing today. But, he's dead. And, so are most of the ideas presented as "Science Fiction" in this book in scientific circles today. That makes it a very credible snapshot of what Science looked like 200 years ago. And, it gives the basis for the inspiration of many other Sci-fi writers like Jules Verne.
It almost seems odd classifying Poe as Sci-fi, though it’s not much of a misnomer if at all. Much of his work seems more like horror or macabre. I’d read some of his short stories in the past, and my favorite was probably The Pit and the Pendulum, though that is not included here. It is true horror, though it really only illustrates historical reality in a sense. So, what I’m saying is that it would be impossible to truly classify Poe in any sense. His writing is different. Name any genre… it’s not like that. He was an original. And, you really don’t have to look past his poetry (The Raven) to see that. I do love reading The Raven, which is not in this book, of course.
But, what did I like in this collection? I felt A Descent into the Maelstrom was intriguing, though a bit creepy in the psychological sense. The Balloon Hoax was possibly the most accurate resemblance of Science Fiction. And, it only took a century for men to be able to fly a balloon across the Atlantic. So, that could be seen as a true prediction. Some Words with a Mummy was hilarious, intentionally so. Poe seems to be laughing at the Science community. And, that quip about Democracy resulting in mob rule is a point well taken. In the past, I had avoided that story, simply because I mistook it for a horror tale. But, after reading it I realized it was only a parody meant in jest.
Some of the short stories here I did not enjoy at all. I didn’t enjoy Mellonta Tauta. I found most of the stories dealing with the idea of ‘mesmerism’ boring, with the exception of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. In that story, you can see Poe’s sense of toying with science. And, that is a good example of the fact that he tends to descend into the maelstrom of psychology and philosophy sciences, rather than the ‘hard’ science of physics, or geology, or even chemistry. And, of course, he’s always looking at death.
I read this from an old dog-eared paperback copy I’ve had for a few decades. I suggest this for those who like Poe, but less horror. You will find something here to enjoy in the collection, and much at which to marvel.
If I could bring Edgar Allan Poe's own mummy out today for a conversation at my dining table, much like the one he has with Ponnonner's Mummy Allamistakeo in Some Words with a Mummy; I wonder if we could not find more than lozenges with which to shame him over the state of his era. He probably wouldn’t be surprised though, since he admits that he was already tired of the state of the 19th Century.
Poe was quite an interesting man, with a unique mind and imagination. Like all of us, he was widely influenced by the details of his personal life, his childhood circumstances, and the age in which he lived. But, no era could have prevented Poe from being Poe. I believe his writing would have a cult following if he were alive and writing today. But, he's dead. And, so are most of the ideas presented as "Science Fiction" in this book in scientific circles today. That makes it a very credible snapshot of what Science looked like 200 years ago. And, it gives the basis for the inspiration of many other Sci-fi writers like Jules Verne.
It almost seems odd classifying Poe as Sci-fi, though it’s not much of a misnomer if at all. Much of his work seems more like horror or macabre. I’d read some of his short stories in the past, and my favorite was probably The Pit and the Pendulum, though that is not included here. It is true horror, though it really only illustrates historical reality in a sense. So, what I’m saying is that it would be impossible to truly classify Poe in any sense. His writing is different. Name any genre… it’s not like that. He was an original. And, you really don’t have to look past his poetry (The Raven) to see that. I do love reading The Raven, which is not in this book, of course.
But, what did I like in this collection? I felt A Descent into the Maelstrom was intriguing, though a bit creepy in the psychological sense. The Balloon Hoax was possibly the most accurate resemblance of Science Fiction. And, it only took a century for men to be able to fly a balloon across the Atlantic. So, that could be seen as a true prediction. Some Words with a Mummy was hilarious, intentionally so. Poe seems to be laughing at the Science community. And, that quip about Democracy resulting in mob rule is a point well taken. In the past, I had avoided that story, simply because I mistook it for a horror tale. But, after reading it I realized it was only a parody meant in jest.
Some of the short stories here I did not enjoy at all. I didn’t enjoy Mellonta Tauta. I found most of the stories dealing with the idea of ‘mesmerism’ boring, with the exception of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. In that story, you can see Poe’s sense of toying with science. And, that is a good example of the fact that he tends to descend into the maelstrom of psychology and philosophy sciences, rather than the ‘hard’ science of physics, or geology, or even chemistry. And, of course, he’s always looking at death.
I read this from an old dog-eared paperback copy I’ve had for a few decades. I suggest this for those who like Poe, but less horror. You will find something here to enjoy in the collection, and much at which to marvel.
January 23, 2022
A strange collection of stories, of which I only liked about half. The ones I did enjoy I had encountered in other Poe collections before, and are generally well-known. It was fun to read them (again), not in the least because they revolve around novel ideas and were clearly an important pre-cursor of/inspiration for later speculative fiction. It gives an insight into some of the 'obsessions' of authors and scientists at the time (re-animating bodies, re-creating life, hypnosis/mesmerising, and so on). Not all stories seemed to firmly fit into the 'science-fiction' genre, however, even when taking into account that the genre as such didn't really exist yet at the time of writing.
The lesser-known (and in my case, lesser-liked) stories mostly had to do with either the afterlife or hot-air balloons. They were, honestly, quite a slog to get through - and that while I adore the 19th-century obsession with balloons! (NB: I have to say, because of that, I did enjoy Poe's image of the year 2045, with everyone floating around in balloons and zeppelin-type aircrafts. It's still in the future now, so who knows - it could prove to be accurate.)
Weirdly, I didn't mind the abundance of footnotes, as they provided some ideas about what Poe set out to do, and some context about his humour and the little digs at contemporaries. They made the more boring stories a little less so. However, they couldn't save the fact that some of the 'science'-parts were both incredibly detailed and not very well thought out. Sure, this was all based on 19th-century science insights, but even for the era it felt nonsensical! When I read science-fiction I want it to at least have the illusion it could be true; that wasn't much the case here.
A special mention for the story about the 'Rotterdam' balloonist Hans Pfaall, which annoyed me to no end because, being Dutch, I can't overlook it when people mix up Dutch and German stuff. I couldn't help myself: it might have cost Poe, and the editors of this collection, almost a full star.
The lesser-known (and in my case, lesser-liked) stories mostly had to do with either the afterlife or hot-air balloons. They were, honestly, quite a slog to get through - and that while I adore the 19th-century obsession with balloons! (NB: I have to say, because of that, I did enjoy Poe's image of the year 2045, with everyone floating around in balloons and zeppelin-type aircrafts. It's still in the future now, so who knows - it could prove to be accurate.)
Weirdly, I didn't mind the abundance of footnotes, as they provided some ideas about what Poe set out to do, and some context about his humour and the little digs at contemporaries. They made the more boring stories a little less so. However, they couldn't save the fact that some of the 'science'-parts were both incredibly detailed and not very well thought out. Sure, this was all based on 19th-century science insights, but even for the era it felt nonsensical! When I read science-fiction I want it to at least have the illusion it could be true; that wasn't much the case here.
A special mention for the story about the 'Rotterdam' balloonist Hans Pfaall, which annoyed me to no end because, being Dutch, I can't overlook it when people mix up Dutch and German stuff. I couldn't help myself: it might have cost Poe, and the editors of this collection, almost a full star.
December 19, 2025
This may be the best argument for considering Poe as the grandfather of the scifi genre. It's tough not to analyze his proto-SF work within the context of SF evolution in the 19th century, and that includes comparing his stories with Shelley's "Frankenstein". The editor posits in favor of Poe:
MS. Found in a Bottle: manuscript describing the hollow earth theory and a "Flying Dutchman"
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, and The Balloon-Hoax: fake news satire, early inspo for man-in-a-balloon trope; showcasing escapism, greed, mass gullibility and disdain for (pseudo)science
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion: postapocalyptic dialogue about a comet colliding into earth; "That tenuity in the comet which had previously inspired us with hope, was now the source of the bitterness of despair."
The Colloquy of Monos and Una: rejection of scientific progress; "In Death we have both learned the propensity of man to define the indefinable... for all this nothingness, yet for all this immortality, the grave was still a home..."
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains: anti-imperialist 'mesmeric journey'
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade: a queen avoids execution by telling a very long 'fantastical' Sinbad story of actual historical events
Some Words with a Mummy: What would you ask a galvanised, ancient undead? "The truth is, I am heartily sick of this life and of the nineteenth century in general. I am convinced that everything is going wrong. Besides, I am anxious to know who will be the President in 2045."
The Power of Words: "of this infinity of matter, the *sole* purpose is to afford infinite springs, at which the soul may allay the thirst *to know* which is for ever unquenchable within it -- since to quench it would be to extinguish the soul's self"
The System of Dr Tarr and Prof. Fether: illusion of control in an asylum
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar: suspending death via mesmerism using his familiar horror theme
Eureka: delirious essay on the cyclical universe
Mellonta Tauta, and Von Kempelen and His Discovery: 'alternate' history; "Amricca (am rich, am rich, am rich)"
Difficult but ESSENTIAL READ!
MS. Found in a Bottle: manuscript describing the hollow earth theory and a "Flying Dutchman"
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, and The Balloon-Hoax: fake news satire, early inspo for man-in-a-balloon trope; showcasing escapism, greed, mass gullibility and disdain for (pseudo)science
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion: postapocalyptic dialogue about a comet colliding into earth; "That tenuity in the comet which had previously inspired us with hope, was now the source of the bitterness of despair."
The Colloquy of Monos and Una: rejection of scientific progress; "In Death we have both learned the propensity of man to define the indefinable... for all this nothingness, yet for all this immortality, the grave was still a home..."
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains: anti-imperialist 'mesmeric journey'
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade: a queen avoids execution by telling a very long 'fantastical' Sinbad story of actual historical events
Some Words with a Mummy: What would you ask a galvanised, ancient undead? "The truth is, I am heartily sick of this life and of the nineteenth century in general. I am convinced that everything is going wrong. Besides, I am anxious to know who will be the President in 2045."
The Power of Words: "of this infinity of matter, the *sole* purpose is to afford infinite springs, at which the soul may allay the thirst *to know* which is for ever unquenchable within it -- since to quench it would be to extinguish the soul's self"
The System of Dr Tarr and Prof. Fether: illusion of control in an asylum
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar: suspending death via mesmerism using his familiar horror theme
Eureka: delirious essay on the cyclical universe
Mellonta Tauta, and Von Kempelen and His Discovery: 'alternate' history; "Amricca (am rich, am rich, am rich)"
Difficult but ESSENTIAL READ!
December 31, 2022
Well, this was different. I had never heard of most of these works by Edgar Allan Poe, and I can see why: these are tales that stray from Poe’s usual fare of horror and mystery. Here, he tries his hand at sci-fi and even comedy. And believe it or not, I did laugh out loud a little bit in places. This is a bit of a mixed bag: some of Poe’s classic poems are included alongside bizarre tales of adventure and even a silly satirical response to the legend of Scheherazade. As to the quality of some of these stories, that’s a bit tougher to judge. I listened to an audio recording, but I’m not sure that that is the best format for these tales. There is, for example, a great deal of dialogue and some long-winded explanations given by different characters. Parts of this collection felt a little tedious to me, but it’s possible—and, I suspect, likely—that these stories would flow better in a traditional print format. As to the content, one of the stories was so disturbing I couldn’t finish it, but most were interesting. I tend to like 19th-century sea tales, so that helped a bit, too. This would probably be interesting to people who like Poe, or who are interested in short fiction from this era.
July 19, 2024
Whilst this is classified as "science-fiction", these short stories and essays do not fall into classic tropes and motifs of sci-fi. Writing in the early 19th century, Poe offers an altogether different view of sci-fi. The motifs of balloons and scientific imagery/description differs to typical science fiction.
Some stories like the Unparalleled Adventure of Hans Pfall look over the development of the character via scientific development through a balloon trip. A Tale of the Ragged Mountains is a tale about traversing mountains, which is Romanticist in its ideas. Some Words with Mummy are comparable to Frankenstein as it involves galvanism. The mummy who is reanimated comments on the modern world. The Mesmeric Revelation is about hypnosis.
I found the second half of the book as more interesting than the first section. The Power of Words is a Platonic dialogue which I found to be the most intriguing writing in the book because it wasn't sci-fi. The Platonic dialogue looks over the knowledge of existence and how God is the centre of existence. Eureka is an incomprehensible philosophical essay. I think it is about how science and philosophy is linked to God.
The book offers an interesting selection of short stories and essays but varies significantly in quality.
Some stories like the Unparalleled Adventure of Hans Pfall look over the development of the character via scientific development through a balloon trip. A Tale of the Ragged Mountains is a tale about traversing mountains, which is Romanticist in its ideas. Some Words with Mummy are comparable to Frankenstein as it involves galvanism. The mummy who is reanimated comments on the modern world. The Mesmeric Revelation is about hypnosis.
I found the second half of the book as more interesting than the first section. The Power of Words is a Platonic dialogue which I found to be the most intriguing writing in the book because it wasn't sci-fi. The Platonic dialogue looks over the knowledge of existence and how God is the centre of existence. Eureka is an incomprehensible philosophical essay. I think it is about how science and philosophy is linked to God.
The book offers an interesting selection of short stories and essays but varies significantly in quality.
February 20, 2019
Всички разкази, подбрани тук, са в един стил и не мога да кажа, че са най-силните и запомнящи се. Това са произведения, които са били силни за своето си време, преди около два века, но не дават възможност на човек да бъде включен и увлечен в случващото се. Остарели са като много стари статии от много стар вестник, а знаем, че най-старото нещо на света по принцип е новината от вчерашния вестник... За чувството спомага и фактът, че повечето истории са написани именно като статии. Може би най-силният разказ действително е "Спускане в Маелстрьом", в който си личи оня истински стил на По, с който аз съм свикнала и заради който силно обичам този автор.
April 23, 2023
Mi principal problema con este libro fue "La singular aventura de un tal Hans Pfaall", el primero, el más largo y por lejos el más aburrido de todos los relatos de Poe que he leído, no parece fuera de él.
Después de semejante fiasco, vienen los mejores, dos conocidos, ya consagrados de su producción: "La verdad sobre el caso del señor Valdemar" y "Un descenso en el Maelström", el segundo uno de mis favoritos de siempre. También destaco uno que desconocía, "La conversación de Eiros y Charmion", antecesor directo de futuros apocalipsis literarios.
No obstante recomiendo quedarse en el terreno conocido de Poe, ese terrorífico de larvas, mortaja, locura y podredumbre.
Después de semejante fiasco, vienen los mejores, dos conocidos, ya consagrados de su producción: "La verdad sobre el caso del señor Valdemar" y "Un descenso en el Maelström", el segundo uno de mis favoritos de siempre. También destaco uno que desconocía, "La conversación de Eiros y Charmion", antecesor directo de futuros apocalipsis literarios.
No obstante recomiendo quedarse en el terreno conocido de Poe, ese terrorífico de larvas, mortaja, locura y podredumbre.
November 10, 2018
Outside of his poetry and detective fiction, Poe is egregiously overrated. This collection is well-edited and annotated (aside from the fact that some of the pieces are not science fiction) but is otherwise disappointing. Poe's hoaxes and satires are difficult to interpret. His snarky timbre is a harbinger of today's culture in some ways, and it is particularly unfortunate in the context of the nineteenth century. My star rating is as high as it is due to the work of editor Harold Beaver as much as Poe, but Poe's prose can be intoxicating and mellifluous (like his poetry).
December 24, 2022
MS. Found in a Bottle 3.5
The Unparellelled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall 3.5
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion 4
A Descent into the Maelstrom 2.5
The Colloquy of Monos and Una 3
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains 2.5
The Balloon-Hoax 3
Mesmeric Revelations 3.5
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade 4
Some Words with a Mummy 3.5
The Power of Words 3.5
The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Feather 3
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar 3.5
Eureka: An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe 0/5 (DNF)
Mellonta Tauta 2.5
Von Kempelen and His Discovery 2.5
The Unparellelled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall 3.5
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion 4
A Descent into the Maelstrom 2.5
The Colloquy of Monos and Una 3
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains 2.5
The Balloon-Hoax 3
Mesmeric Revelations 3.5
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade 4
Some Words with a Mummy 3.5
The Power of Words 3.5
The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Feather 3
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar 3.5
Eureka: An Essay on the Material and Spiritual Universe 0/5 (DNF)
Mellonta Tauta 2.5
Von Kempelen and His Discovery 2.5
October 10, 2019
I underestimated the quality of Poe's mind. He's more thoughtful than I remembered. These stories explore topics such as the nature of death, the experience of time, natural philosophy, cosmic metaphysics, shifting perspectives on historicity, and more. This for me is the big appeal of the book. His philosophical inclinations helped sustain my interest in these stories, even while reading some of the less eventful ones.
October 29, 2024
Unfortunately a good number of the Poe works in here are of lesser maturity or otherwise lesser, drier quality than his finest. However, there are gems in here, and the more academic structure (there are abour 330 pages of Poe and another hundred more of notes) made it a more than worthy read. And what is the autumn season without a little bit of Poe?
June 23, 2018
this book is not without its occasional charm, but many of the stories suffer from being written at the early and still murky stages of the industrial revolution, and a number of them are frankly unreadable.
January 12, 2020
Трудно ми е да дам оценка на сборника, тъй като по начало рядко чета такива разкази, а и това е първата ми среща с Едгар Алан По (но не и последна!). Тъй като може да се каже,че половината разкази ми хареса, а другата половина-не особено, ще дам оценка от 3 звезди.
May 18, 2020
Mooie verhalen maar SF uit 1835 is ook wel érg gedateerd nu. Leuk om te zien wat er is uitgekomen van al die fantasieen maar ook waar ze de plank volledig misslaan.
May 25, 2020
I was sadly underwhelmed. I like Jules Verne, but this was just... boring. And not very imaginative, to mee.
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