Edgar Allan Poe

James M. Hutchisson is professor of American and Southern literature and director of graduate study in English at the Citadel.

• 1 Introduction 2 "Poe's 'Philosophy of Furniture' and the Aesthetics of Fictional Design" 3 Race, Pirates, and Intellect: A Reading of Poe's "The Gold Bug" 4 Storytelling, Narrative Authority, and Death in "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade" 5 The Man in the Text: Reading Masculinity in "The Man That Was Used Up," "The Man of the Crowd," and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" 6 Gothic DisPLACEments: Poe's South in Politian 7 Poe in the Ragged Mountains: Environmental History and Romantic Aesthetics 8 "King Pest" and the Tales of the Folio Club 9 Understanding "Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling" 10 "Eyes which Behold": Poe's "Domain of Arnheim" and the Science of Vision 11 "A Species of Literature Almost Beneath Contempt": Edgar Allan Poe and the World of Literary Competitions 12 Poe's Early Criticism of American Fiction:The Southern Literary Messenger and the Fiction of Robert Montgomery Bird 13 Mad Ravings, Sound Philosophy, and Poe's Review of Elizabeth Barrett Browning 14 General B

Poe is best known for his works of the supernatural and horror, but those stories--52 in all--are only part of his oeuvre. Poe was an editor and literary critic and also a satirist, hoaxer, mystery writer, pioneer in the science fiction genre, poet, and even playwright. This larger body of work is often ignored, causing him to be considered an isolated figure in US literary history. Hutchisson (The Citadel; Poe, 2005) has edited an important collection that explores the multifaceted, multitalented Poe and reveals his place in broader American literary history. The essays take into account Poe's essays on aesthetics and criticism, Poe in the context of the South and 19th-century issues of race, his detective fiction beyond the obvious Dupin stories, and his stories long considered to be inconsequential or in violation of his own statements of form or genre. The Edgar Allan Poe who emerges from this collection is one who warrants renewed critical attention; the book as a whole argues for reconsidering which of Poe's works should be included in anthologies and studied in the classroom. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.