I've just discovered Brett Zimmerman's Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style, which appears to be an enlightening and entertaining book. I'll try to go into this further later, but for now, a word from the introduction:
More remains to be done to convince the world that Poe's prose deserves more critical attention and that the hostility it has engendered is largely misguided. Proceeding from a position of sympathy, then, I thought it high time that someone devoted a book-length study, a stylistic approach, to Poe's prose.
Regarding another matter of style, here are a few of Poe's remarks on simplicity:
Its general character, as indeed the general character of all that we have seen from the same pen, is a certain unpretending simplicity, nervous, forcible, and altogether devoid of affectation. This is a style of writing above all others to be desired, and above all others difficult of attainment. Nor is it to be supposed that by simplicity we imply a rejection of ornament, or of a proper use of those advantages afforded by metaphorical illustration. A style professing to disclaim such advantages would be anything but simple -- if indeed we might not be tempted to think it very silly. We have called the style of Mr. K. a style simple and forcible, and we have no hesitation in calling it, at the same time, richly figurative and poetical. We have opened the pages at random for an illustration of our meaning, and have no difficulty in finding one precisely suited to our purpose. Let us turn to vol. i. page 112. --" The path of invasion is ever a difficult road when it leads against a united people. You mistake both the disposition and the means of these republicans. They have bold partizans in the field, and eloquent leaders in their senates. The nature of the strife sorts well with their quick and earnest tempers; and by this man's play of war we breed up soldiers who delight in the game. Rebellion has long since marched beyond the middle ground, and has no thought of retreat. What was at first the mere overflow of popular passion has been hardened into principle -- like a fiery stream of lava which first rolls in a flood, and then turns into stone."
--Review of Horse-Shoe Robinson, by John Pendleton Kennedy, from the Southern Literary Messenger
More remains to be done to convince the world that Poe's prose deserves more critical attention and that the hostility it has engendered is largely misguided. Proceeding from a position of sympathy, then, I thought it high time that someone devoted a book-length study, a stylistic approach, to Poe's prose.
Regarding another matter of style, here are a few of Poe's remarks on simplicity:
Its general character, as indeed the general character of all that we have seen from the same pen, is a certain unpretending simplicity, nervous, forcible, and altogether devoid of affectation. This is a style of writing above all others to be desired, and above all others difficult of attainment. Nor is it to be supposed that by simplicity we imply a rejection of ornament, or of a proper use of those advantages afforded by metaphorical illustration. A style professing to disclaim such advantages would be anything but simple -- if indeed we might not be tempted to think it very silly. We have called the style of Mr. K. a style simple and forcible, and we have no hesitation in calling it, at the same time, richly figurative and poetical. We have opened the pages at random for an illustration of our meaning, and have no difficulty in finding one precisely suited to our purpose. Let us turn to vol. i. page 112. --" The path of invasion is ever a difficult road when it leads against a united people. You mistake both the disposition and the means of these republicans. They have bold partizans in the field, and eloquent leaders in their senates. The nature of the strife sorts well with their quick and earnest tempers; and by this man's play of war we breed up soldiers who delight in the game. Rebellion has long since marched beyond the middle ground, and has no thought of retreat. What was at first the mere overflow of popular passion has been hardened into principle -- like a fiery stream of lava which first rolls in a flood, and then turns into stone."
--Review of Horse-Shoe Robinson, by John Pendleton Kennedy, from the Southern Literary Messenger
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