Greg Kerestan’s Reviews > Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe > Status Update

The tales and poems are done (a mixed bag over all- the highs are so high, and the lows so low), leaving only Poe's novel, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," left to explore.

This has been a weaker installment of Poe, with the oddball humor of "Three Sundays in a Week," the artistic and investigative philosophy pieces "The Landscape Artist" and "The Mystery of Marie Roget," but finally things pick up in Poe's classic sensation piece, "The Pit and the Pendulum."

Poe's "disposable" works may be less memorable, but bizarre little humors like "Never Bet the Devil Your Head," or transcendental supernatural romances like "Eleonora" and "The Colloquy of Monos and Una" still have their appeal.

Is "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" a good story? I don't know. It invented detective fiction, but the ending is kind of a cheat, as it couldn't possibly be solved by any quick-witted reader.

This installation of Poe's work seemed most to focus on the satirical side of Poe's career, with pastiches like "A Predicament" and "The Devil in the Belfry," but it ended well on "The Fall of the House of Usher," easily one of his greatest masterpieces.

Poe's earlier stories are an interesting blend of academic pastiche, peculiar humor and the supernatural/metaphysical style he perfected later. Some, like "King Pest," work very well. Others, like "Mystification," fail to turn the trick entirely.

Poe has entered his "dead uncanny women" phase with tales of Berenice and Morella.