Rebeka’s Reviews > Edgar Allan Poe: His Complete Works: (Bauer Classics) > Status Update

Diddling - not a story but more of a musing on the topic of scams (that’s what’s meant by diddling here). Poe describes various scams and scam artists of his day. Interesting!

Mystification — A story of a usual fare. A very long set up and explanation of an unbelievable event, that gets resolved in few sentences. Except this time the premise was more believable, as these were some college guys taking the mick out of each other.

How to Write a Blackwood Article — A satire on publishing industry, which is in itself an introduction to another story.

The Literary Life of Thingum Bob Esq. — I think was a satire on his own career. Incredibly boring and tedious.

The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether — a more interesting and better written kind of Poe’s story. It’s a comical story of a revolution in a mental institution.

Metzengerstein — The descriptions of young baron and his infernal horse are evocative, but the story surrounding them was rather boring. I think these characters could surely do more.

X-ing a Paragraph — an unassuming and genuinely hilarious story. Probably because Poe stopped trying so hard to set up a believable ground to an unbelievable story. Very natural. Best of the bunch, I’d say!

Lionizing — absurdist satire again, about a man who’s huge nose makes him the cream of society until he shoots another fellow’s nose off. I didn’t get it.

The Devil in the Belfry — a nonsense silly type of satirical story that seems taken straight out of Poe’s morphine dreams. Not my type at all, but perhaps I just didn’t get the references.

Three Sundays in a Week — Poe starts strong with a very submissive narrator’s voice, in servile rage toward a master. Very intriguing, but in the end it devolves into the same boring narrative trickery.