2019 Book Reviews

#11 The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan

Poe: Including Essays on Poetry: With Memoir by John H. Ingram.

Part 1 of 2.

There is a challenge in reviewing the work of an author as famous and influential as Poe. I think the best solution is to tell the truth about my own experience and how I felt reading through this collection.

The book begins with a memoir where we are introduced to his often tragic life, from childhood through to adulthood and his eventual early demise. If it's true that good art comes from great suffering then it's easy to see that Poe had enough sufferings in his life that he may have drawn from and into the creation of his works.

The book contains all of the poems he wrote plus lengthier pieces of prose. Aside from his very well known works such as the Raven, Annabel Lee and and some others, I often found the poems to be impenetrably cryptic and difficult to read though many were indeed excellent. The prose pieces were enjoyable though Poe has such a large vocabulary that I regularly needed to look up words and had to focus intensely to understand them.

My rating: 6.1/10