William Wilson

by Edgar Allan Poe

"William Wilson" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839, with a setting inspired by Poe's formative years outside of London. The tale follows the theme of the doppelgänger.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Gothic, Mystery, 19th Century

26 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1839

About the author

The 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...

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant story about a young man who is harassed by his own doppelganger or lookalike. You get so much insight into the psychology of that young man and his motifs, it's an incredibly good psychological study. Dr Bransby's Academy, Oxford, William Wilson is always watched by his shadowy lookalike. When practising as a card sharpener his lookalike discovers the fraud. He's expelled from Oxford. Will a masquerade in Venice end the battle of the two Williams? There's a brilliant twist at the end. I'm sure Oscar Wilde knew about this story when he wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray. This is a great Poe story with a fine moral, absolutely recommended!

[Francesc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnífico cuento del gran maestro Edgar Allan Poe. Te hace vibrar, replantearte la realidad, dudar de ti mismo. Su escritura es de una vigencia atemporal.
William Wilson es un cuento sobre uno mismo y su conciencia. Sólo hay que lastimar un pequeño halo de incoherencia en el resultado final, pero, no perjudica ni un ápice su calidad literaria.



Magnificent tale by the great master Edgar Allan Poe. It makes you vibrate, rethink reality, doubt yourself. His writing is timeless.
William Wilson is a tale about oneself and one's consciousness. One only has to harm a little incoherence in the final result, but it doesn't hurt anything of its literary quality.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

HA! A Good One!

Had to dig out my trusty big book of POE after STEPHEN KING mentioned William Wilson as an example to part of the plot in his super new read, THE OUTSIDER.

As usual, (for me) POE does not disappoint....and YEP!....the bit of similarity is there.

Reminder to self: Need to read more POE!

[فايز غازي Fayez Ghazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

- قصة كلاسيكية من قصص ادغار بو، تجري في إطار زمني يمتد منذ طفولة "ويليام ويلسون" حتى مرحلة متقدمة من عمره (لن أقول مماته لأن هذا الأمر غير مثبت، سأعود الى ذلك لاحقاً).

- القصة قد تقرأ على ثلاثة وجوه، اما الوجه الأول فيمكن ان يكون "ويليام ولسون" الثاني موجوداً بالفعل بفعل خارق للطبيعة كتؤام لويلسون الأول، وفي حين ان الأول يمثل النصف الأسود من الدائرة (شر، خمر، مجون، فساد،...) فإن الثاني يمثل القسم الأبيض منها ولا يظهر الا في ذروة فجور الأول.

اما الوجه الثاني، فقد يكون ويلسون الثاني صورة ابتدعها خيال ويلسون الأول والحقيقي مادياً، وبذلك تكون الصورة صدى لضمير مفقود يصحى في حالات حرجة ويغيب لبقية الوقت!!

اما الوجه الثالث، فقد يكون ويلسون الثاني احد الملائكة التي تصوب طريق البشر الذين اقتادتهم الشياطين في غياهب الرذيلة والعتمة!

بجميع الأحوال فإن القصة كيفما قرأتها لها مغزى أخلاقي في النهاية، وما المبارزة في النهاية الا بداية لحياة اخرى، لم ينهها بو كأنه تركنا مع ويلسون لنقرر بنفسنا اذا مات، او اكمل حياة المجون بعد ذبح ضميره نهائياً، او استيقظ من غفوته واندمج الإسم بالصورة وعاد للحياة السوية!

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Edgar Allan Poe's masterpiece. An audiobook in Portuguese.

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creo (y puedo asegurar) que Poe se inspiró en las novelas "Los elixires del diablo” y “Los Dobles" de E. T. A. Hoffmann cuando escribió William Wilson, uno de los cuentos que más me gusta leer de mi héroe literario y que tiene otro ingrediente: el cuento es totalmente autobiográfico, pues está inspirado en su experiencia personal durante sus años de estudios universitarios en la Manor House School de Stoke Newington en Londres, período en el que Poe tuvo una alta adicción al whist y otros juegos de cartas que lo dejaron en una incómoda situación económica, lo que lo llevó a pedirle continuamente sumas de dinero a John Allan, su padre adoptivo quien, ante este inminente desastre le soltó la mano.
La temática del doppelgänger, introducida por los alemanes le sirve a Poe para narrar los sucesos que atraviesa este jugador y de su persecución fatal a manos de un doble perfectamente igual a él.
De aquí se desprenderá el posible germen que utilizó Oscar Wilde para “El retrato de Dorian Gray” (muy especialmente por su final), pero también de notoria asociación con otras narraciones famosas de dobles como “El extraño caso del Dr. Jekyll y Mr. Hyde” de Stevenson, de “El doble” de Dostoievski (aunque seguramente el gigante ruso no leyó este cuento pero sí otros tres que reseña) y de otros que seguramente también podrían amoldarse a este cuento que tiene el thriller necesario para hacerse adictivo a su lectura.
Otro claro ejemplo de como ser un pionero y un “influencer” en la materia.

[Melina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Γνωρίζοντας πως στη συγκεκριμένη ιστορία, εκμεταλλευόμενος το θέμα του σωσία για να υφάνει την πλοκή, ο Πόε διερευνά τις ψυχικές διαταραχές και συγκεκριμένα τη σχιζοφρένεια, και το πώς αυτές μέσω των αναπόφευκτων εσωτερικών συγκρούσεων μπορεί να οδηγήσουν στην αυτοκτονία, κάθε πρόταση που διάβαζα με χτυπούσε σαν ηλεκτρικό ρεύμα ... 

Μια από τις καλύτερές του, αν όχι η καλύτερη!

Είναι ολοφάνερη η επιρροή του Πόε στον Όσκαρ Γουάιλντ, τόσο στο ύφος της γραφής όσο και στη θεματική του και αναφέρομαι κυρίως στο Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι!!!

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing tale of a lookalike following the protagonist around and meddling in his life. It reminded me of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

[Christian Doig · Rating 5 out of 5]

The prototypical tale of the double or doppelgänger, "William Wilson" is also an absolute masterpiece of the short story, Gothic or otherwise. We owe it everything, from Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, to Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to Cortázar's "Axolotl"; besides, under its own title, some of the best writing ever put to print, on top of all that --and beyond. Who are we, you ask? We are you. (Or, as that angelic poet of vice called Rimbaud once said, je est un autre.)

[Pedro Ceballos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buen relato de Poe, se centra en una persona que se siente perseguida por una persona que es idéntica a él en todo sentido, se parece físicamente, y hasta tiene su misma edad. No se puede decir más sin revelar un spoiler. Recomendable.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last night after listening to an OTR (old time radio) program, The Weird Circle [October 31, 1943], I found out it was based on Edgar Allan Poe's William Wilson, it being a short story I just had to read and compare. First, Poe's stories that I have read thus far have had such agonizing characters who have to deal with psychological issues, which I have found so insightful and disturbing. The story has to do with a man who calls himself William Wilson, for the story's sake and withholding his real name which could be disastrous. Side note how the brain works, every time I read the name or heard it, Woodrow Wilson (the 28th US President) would pop into my head_ funny how the mind works. In the story Wilson in his school years, finds another person with his same name and other coincidences to him, is a student there. He is continually outsmarted by this person throughout his life. In the radio version things are a little more unclear and certain dastardly deeds of an amoral Wilson which also has him with a fiance, who he stole from another friend, approaching marriage but the ending is the same. Not wanting to say more which would spoil the read but that this short story was perfection "a la" Poe. I did not read this version but a collection of his works.

Radio link below

https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com...

[Yani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente. Los cuentos de Poe tienen cierta particularidad: todos los narradores parecen ser hombres al borde de un ataque de nervios (si no lo han sufrido ya), quieren contar su historia, dan mil vueltas y llegan al final bruscamente.

William Wilson no es el nombre verdadero del narrador y eso lo dice desde el principio. Hay cierto temor a dar el propio porque lleva un apellido noble (y muy común, lo cual saca de quicio al protagonista) manchado con su terrible reputación, en parte ganada por la adicción al juego y a varios vicios. Wilson nos cuenta que durante su paso por una academia conoció a un compañero que era igual a él y que, por cuestiones obvias, entablaron una relación de amistad y de rivalidad fluctuante.

Los bordes con los que juega Poe en este cuento son ambiguos y confunden, hecho que lo vuelve más genial aún. Wilson asienta desde el comienzo cómo es su peculiar familia y cómo fue su infancia, advirtiéndole al lector que es una persona predispuesta a imaginar y a ejercer la autoridad sin pestañear. Entonces, ¿de qué forma es seguro lo que nos está contando? Los narradores de Poe están tan bien construidos que generan eso: la duda, uno de los ingredientes indispensables para que el fantasy sea fantasy, incluso si está mezclado con un poco terror.

Súper recomendable. Además, se lee en “nada”. Lo interesante es lo que deja para analizar, a pesar de lo corto que es.

[Derrymaine14 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Typical Poe. A chilling, first person narrative story, with a sort of predictable ending for the fans. Very enjoyable, easy-though unsettling-to read and as always, with a very rewarding ending.

[Dmitry Berkut · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to evaluate this story, but it is undoubtedly part of a long tradition of tales exploring the doppelgänger theme, including Stevenson with Jekyll and Hyde and Dostoevsky with The Double.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique doppelgänger story.

[Axl Oswaldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estoy ante el que es ya mi cuento favorito de Poe.
¡Qué maravilla!

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Não existe testemunha mais terrível - acusador mais poderoso - do que a consciência que habita em nós."
Sófocles


(Victor Brauner, Suicide at Dawn)

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Opening: LET ME CALL MYSELF, FOR the present, William Wilson

[Patricia Ayuste]

Un niño con una infancia turbulenta, un joven llamado igual que el protagonista y un enfrentamiento que se agrava con el paso de los años.

Poe nos presenta en este cuento la vida de William Wilson, un niño que encuentra en el colegio a su doble: otro niño llamado igual, nacido el mismo día y de asombroso parecido a él. William se demuestra superior a su contrincante en los estudios y los deportes, pero decide abandonar el colegio cuando nota que el otro William lo está imitando. Años después, ambos vuelven a encontrarse, pero la situación ha cambiado, el protagonista vive sumergido en multitud de estafas y vicios que su contrincante se empeña en boicotear una y otra vez, hasta llegar al extremo.

✔️ Puntos fuertes: lectura ágil gracias a su breve extensión, la envolvente ambientación, la creciente tensión del relato, la prosa narrativa del autor y el sorprendente final.

❤ Te gustará si: buscas una ficción gótica, un cuento de horror o si te gusta el estilo narrativo del autor.

[Earline · Rating 4 out of 5]

An older, and more poetic, version of Fight Club.
Brilliant

[Evoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poe's Gothic and dark-academiaesque short story “William Wilson” is a character study of the themes of “the doppelgänger” and “the double”, which, actually anticipated the major theories developed by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis (beginning of 20th century, while Poe published “William Wilson” in the 1830's). Poe's notion of the rivalrous double predates Freud's concept of the repressed and unconscious alter ego and could even be analysed in connection to Derida's theory on “Hauntology”. Edgar Poe's focus in this Gothic short story lies on the alter ego, meaning the part of the self that haunts us against our will (across temporal and spatial boundaries), which is a psychological condition that he portrays through the manifestation of another body next to the one of the first-person narrator (called William Wilson). This “Other” is a look-alike and pretty much identical copy of our narrator William Wilson and even shares his name, birthday date and so on. Suspicious... Am I right ;) While they are basically 1:1 the same visually speaking, their manners are quite different from one another: the actual William Wilson is hot-tempered and participates in dubious morally-corrupting activities, while this “Other” can almost be seen as the “voice of reason” who gives him (unsolicited) advice, which I, personally, interpret as the corporeal manifestation of his inner self and moral compass.

Honestly, this was probably my favourite short story of Poe so far... Very thought-provoking and captivating reading experience with a strong and striking ending: “[H]enceforward art thou also dead — dead to the World, to Heaven and to Hope! In me didst thou exist…”

[Karlyflower *The Vampire Ninja, Luminescent Monster & Wendigo Nerd Goddess of Canada (according to The Hulk)* · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Snort-Chuckle*

Poe is, for the most part, a love him or hate him kind of bloke. There really isn’t any kind of middle ground with Poe; so if the below quotes appeal to the word lover in you, you will probably like this short. And if they don’t, you probably won’t.

From me, in an instant, all virtue dropped bodily as a mantle,

Oh, gigantic paradox, too utterly monstrous for solution!

The teeming brain of childhood requires no external world of incident to occupy or amuse it; and the apparently dismal monotony of a school was replete with more intense excitement than my riper youth has derived from luxury, or my full manhood from crime.

If there is on earth a supreme and unqualified despotism, it is the despotism of a master mind in boyhood over the less energetic spirits of its companions.

In short, this is an interesting study of a man with an unlikely antagonist.

Read it for free here!

[Rissa (rissasreading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7 - Re-read for me! Listened to the audiobook at work and while this is one of my favorite Poe stories I feel like the audiobook took away from this story. I felt extra confusion around time frames and locations listening to this story rather than reading it. However, I still enjoyed it. For me this story is a great depiction of what happens when you constantly sacrifice yourself for others. Our narrator wins over the other students and mentions that he would've been happier had he listened to more of the advice given to him. I think it's a wonderful depiction of self-sacrifice for our own desires, whether those desires be good or bad.

[A. Dawes · Rating 5 out of 5]

5* William Wilson is all about 'the double'. Even the eponymous title is a pun of sorts: Will-I-am, and Wil-son. Through a doppelganger haunting William, Poe explores the concept of sanity. An interesting story with long sentences but little specific imagery. Psychologically chilling.

[ECG ☕ · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Κι ένα σύννεφο πυκνό, φριχτό κι απέραντο, τάχα δεν κρέμεται για πάντα ανάμεσα στους πόθους σου και στον ουρανό;"

[Liam James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, like pretty much every author, Poe writes about only one or two things: here, the conscience. And this is no knock against him, no, on the contrary, we have to give utterance to the sheer genius and originality that is Poe. Just think, he wrote this piece, I don't know, a hundred years before Freud introduced such concepts as the unconscious and the alter ego? Oh, and don't get me started on the detective story! Sorry Sherlock. But I digress, I couldn't help but notice some distinct phrases in here that I've found in other classic works; among them, "how could you doubt your senses," or something like that. I'm sure we all recall that from jolly ol' Dickens. Well, it so happens it appeared in Poe's work first, by a mere four years (thanks google, but I knew it anyway, just not so precise). But how Twain ever had the audacity to so scathingly criticize Poe is beyond me. Too much time on the ol' Miss, I guess. But again, I digress -in truth I have a pounding headache and am having trouble following any thread for the moment, and No, it's not a precursor to any doppelgänger coming up and whispering sweet nothings in my ear! No, but poor William Wilson. Oh man, he was a good gambler though! How about that one line in the dormitory... what was it... "Madly flushed with cards and intoxication!" Perfect. But his conscience got him good that night, sent him to foreign seas, tail between his legs! But like all addicts of vice, it was never long before he'd push the 'other' Wilson, with that admonishing whisper, out of sight and away till he utterly murdered his poor self.

I'm giving it four point zero one, despite my languid and lazy tone. Really, I loved it. If I ever knew there was a book where Poe wrote about fights and gambling and college life and a nervous breakdown I would've read this years ago. And I'd venture to say it's the closest thing I've seen to realistic writing by Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, his only novel, notwithstanding. But I don't so much recommend that one, unless you want to learn the inner workings and architecture of nineteenth century schooners.

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Spoiler Alert*

After reading ‘The Outsider’ by Stephen King, I was intrigued by the mentions of this very clever short story. The story centres around a man named William Wilson, who is met with another man named William Wilson, with the same age, height, looks and aspects of their personality. He first meets his doppelgänger at school but continues unexpectedly meeting him multiple times in the future. The story turns dark very quickly as the narrator William Wilson becomes filled with jealousy and anger towards the other...

I found the link to King’s novel very interesting. He discusses Poe’s writing, explaining that many believe he wrote “fantastic stories about the supernatural” when in fact, he wrote “realistic stories about abnormal psychology”. The narrator’s alter ego and/or multiple personality had led him to his own death... However, he mentions seeing the doppelgänger in a different light at school where he did not look like the William Wilson he had come to know, but something different, suggesting something more supernatural. A good psychological story.

[Andrei Tamaş · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proză -după notă traducătorului- cu un caracter autobiografic. Poe se prezintă în antiteză cu alter ego-ul său personificat. Genială ideea! Un fel de proză precursoare pentru "Portretul lui Dorian Gray", numai că de dimensiuni mult mai mici. La fel ca şi în opera lui Wilde, Poe se căieşte în ultima clipă...

O remarcă drăguţă: "Dacă există pe lume o tiranie deplină şi mai presus de oricare alta, e tirania minţii unui copil genial asupra tovarăşilor săi cu o minte mai puţin vioaie." Mi-e temă de meditaţie, căci mi-ar fi foarte lesne să înlocuiesc "copil" cu "om"...

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great creepy story about a doppelganger. The whole time the reader is wondering if the narrator is going mad or if someone is really stealing his identity. Even at the end, the conclusion is up to interpretation. This is a classic story line but told so well by Poe.

[Mónica Cordero Thomson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante relato y punto de vista sobre la doble personalidad.
Como todo lo que escribió Poe, de gran calidad.