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Virginia's Health and Tales of Ratiocination
(Fall 1841 - April 1844)
Edgar Allan Poe 1841 or 1842
Graham's
prospered with Poe and the number of copies in
circulation went from 5,500 up to 40,000, and it was planned to
increase to 50,000. Poe gained a good reputation from his
cryptography series,
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue",
and his criticism, as a master of German (Gothic) horror, and as
a literary wizard. Even though he was such a success Poe felt
that he could not express his creativity with Graham's and he
still had plans of publishing his own periodical; The
Penn.
A friend of Poe's, Frederick W. Thomas, offered Edgar a job as
a politician, and Poe was very interested. Together they tried
to get Poe a government clerkship, but their efforts and
contacts did not help very much. The reason he finally quit his
job at Graham's was that he was simply fed up with it
and wanted to try something else. He said he might contribute
to the magazine and Poe and Graham parted as friends. The
"friendship" did not last long though, because Graham did not
announce publicly that Poe had quit and let the readers believe
that Poe was still writing. Poe was angry with this and denied
that he was writing in anonymous articles in other magazines.
In July 1842 Poe's resignation from Graham's was finally
made public.
Virginia's Health
During this time Virginia
began to feel ill. Edgar had
encouraged her singing and according to Muddy
she had become a
"perfect musician." But in January 1842 Virginia was bleeding
from her mouth when she sang. She was in the early stages of
tuberculosis.
Virginia's illness took Poe very hard and he made everything he
could to help her. Every cough from her made him shudder. His
marriage to Virginia had meant a lot to Poe. It managed to keep
him calm and kept him from drinking, and living isolated with
his close relatives, like Dupin and the Ushers, made it
possible for him to be in the center of attention.
While watching over Sissy, Poe wrote two Gothic tales that were
published in Graham's. "Life in Death" is about a
painter and his sick wife, whom strongly resembles Virginia.
The painter refuses to see that his bride is dying as he paints
her portrait. "The Mask of the Red Death" is about
Prince Prosperto who tries to save his diseased country from
this figure called "The Red Death". In Red Death Poe
wrote that "the Red Death held illimitable dominion over
all" which shows of an attitude that is very rare in Poe's
work, because death is not normally a terminal thing for him.
Both stories shows of a denial and a struggle to fight death,
just as Poe refused to realize how serious Virginia's condition
was.
Virginia's condition went up and down, and with it Poe's
spirits. He tried to help her the best he could, and in search
for a healthy environment they moved a couple of times in the
spring of 1842. Poe suffered badly from seeing Virginia so weak
and he turned to drinking
again. Some people said he drank huge
amounts while others, including Poe himself, said that he was
intolerant to alcohol and a single drink intoxicated him. The
truth is probably a combination of both, he got drunk after
just one glass and simply couldn't stop drinking. Regardless of
the amount it is no doubt that it was more than he could take,
and it cost him a lot of money. Money he did not have.
Thomas once again offered his help to get Poe a job, now in the
Custom House in Philadelphia. Poe missed a couple of
appointments with Thomas because he was too drunk, and several
misunderstandings and broken promises from politicians made
everything lead to nothing. So Poe went to Washington, both to
speak with the president's son and to get subscribers for
The Penn which he now called The Stylus. His
abuse of alcohol, probably caused by "a great deal of
heartache" made him make a fool of himself, hence he had no
success in either getting the job nor getting the Stylus
published.
Charles Dickens
Poe tried later to improve his reputation and published some
autobiographical material. He was also looking to become more
popular in Europe and turned his eyes to London. Except for an
English version of Pym only four tales had been
published in London, all pirated by Bentley's Miscellany
in 1840.
In order to get that transatlantic recognition that he wanted
Poe put a lot of effort in reviewing the works of Charles
Dickens, around the time of Dickens's visit in Philadelphia in
1842. Poe also wrote to Dickens at the beginning of his visit
and requested a meeting. On March 7 they met and had, according
to Poe, "two long interviews." They discussed American poetry
and Edgar also asked Dickens to find a publisher for a revised
edition of the Tales.
Back in England, Dickens asked
several publishers but none of them were willing to help
him.
Crime and Detection
Poe published several revisions of old poems and also a few new
ones. One of them, which seemed influenced by Virginia's
illness, was "Lenore", which handles the subject on
how you should act when a young woman dies. In "The
Conqueror Worm" like in "The Mask of the Red Death"
dead means really dead, and it shows of Poe's spirits during
Virginia's illness.
During the last year in Philadelphia Poe published "The Pit
and the Pendulum" which is an intense tale of sensation.
It's about a man who is tortured by the Spanish inquisition,
among other things he is close to being sliced by a razor-sharp
pendulum.
Poe also continued his work with crime and detection in tales
like "The Tell-Tale Heart",
"The Black Cat", and
"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt". "The Tell-Tale
Heart" is about a murder of an old man whose heart keeps
beating and finally drives the narrator to confess his crime to
the police. The alcoholic narrator in "The Black Cat"
kills the cat several times but it keeps coming back. At one
time he accidentally cleaves through his wife's head and bricks
her corpse up in a wall, but the cat's howling reveals the
hiding-place to the police.
"The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" is the second story about
Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin,
who is now trying to solve the
murder of a young woman. The story is based on an actual
slaying that took place in 1841 of a New York "cigar girl"
named Mary Rogers whose body was found in the Hudson River.
"The Gold-Bug"
is another tale of ratiocination that
also includes cryptography and an attempt on comedy. Poe won
$100 for the story in the Dollar Newspaper. In the story
Legrand decodes a cipher and with his black servant and a heavy
scarab they search for a hidden treasure.
The language used in these stories is simpler and more
straight-forward than the language Poe usually used, and
reminds a bit of today's movies of violence. They are all
innovative and adventurous and despite their simplicity Poe
retained his poetic characteristics in his language.
In "The Gold-Bug" Poe uses a black servant that is
superstitious and stupid and a black character in "The
Journal of Julius Rodman" is described repellantly. Poe
sympathized with the slavery in the South, but it has nothing
to do with racial hatred. Poe considered, as many other
Americans in the 1840s, that the blacks were less then
human.
The tales might not have been a great financial success but
they became very popular. Especially the prize-wining "Gold-
Bug". Poe estimated that 300,000 copies of it was spread,
many of them pirated. While living in Philadelphia Poe
published 31 tales and stories, among them: "Ligeia", "The
Fall of The House of Usher", "William Wilson", "The Murders in
the Rue Morgue", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Black Cat"
and "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt." It is admirable that he
managed to publish so many popular tales while running from job
to job, taking care of Virginia, insulting people, abusing
alcohol, and so on.
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