T.O. Mabbott's edition of Poe's tales & sketches in 2 vols. is the best possible thing for the interested reader. Many notes are supplied and Mabbott's commentaries are always informative and entertaining. It is a shame that all of Mabbott's writing on Poe is not collected into a single volume, since he wrote other essays not provided here.
This is a hostile biography of commonly poor judgment. Silverman imagines he sees plagiarism in places that no one who has written much fiction or poetry would see it. But it still provides much interesting information and there are worse books on Poe than this.
This is the worse book alluded to above. It is juvenile and unenlightening.
This is the best Poe biography I have come across, and a standard in the field. It is possibly too complete in some respects, but it is observant and well-rounded.
4 comments:
Hodgson,
Great blog, but I have to wonder how on earth you came up with "juvenile and unenlightening" for one of my favorite Poe books, Hoffman's Poe Poe Poe? It's a brilliant book with brilliant readings of Poe's works. I think it's the best book-length piece of criticism on Poe. I can understand the "unenlightened" in that you just didn't respond to Hoffman's ideas. That happens sometimes (and by the way, I don't always agree with Hoffman). But how on earth is it "juvenile?"
A notice of Hoffman's book will appear in the first issue of the new Southern Literary Messenger--www.southernliterarymessenger.com
I'm sorry my comment disagreed with you so much that you felt compelled to wonder aloud whether I'd read it. Hopefully, my short review will clarify.
Can't wait to read it. Your new SLM looks wonderful. A great idea.
Like Ed, I'm a fan of Hoffman's book. However, I agree with you that Quinn's still stands out above all others, a big accomplishment considering it was published in the 1920s. Congrats on SLM, that's exciting.
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