What Makes Edgar Allan Poe’s Writing Special?
Whatever you may think about the mystery and horror genres, you’ll probably agree with me on this: Edgar Allan Poe is unique among fiction writers in English. Actually, let’s jettison that qualification. There’s never been a writer like Poe in any language.
I happen to be someone who has been captivated by Poe from a very early age. So, I’ve spent a lifetime (on and off, you understand), reading not only all of his stories and his one novel, but books about him. In fact, here I am meeting the great man in person:
You can tell who’s who, because I’m the one smiling.
What is it about Edgar A. Poe (as he signed his name) that makes him unique as a poet and writer of fiction? I believe there are four characteristics that are hallmarks of his writing:
His obsession with the “dark genres.” Poe is unquestionably identified with horror and mystery. Many others have been, of course—though they are almost always associated with one or the other genre, not both. Leaving aside the fact that he virtually invented the modern mystery story, and a similar claim that can be made for his forays into science fiction, any reading of Poe makes clear that he chose the darkest of themes and settings, often painting them in tones of pure black. Yes, he also wrote humorous stories . . . most of the time unsuccessfully. Did his sad and difficult life predispose him to writing about a world of nightmares? I don’t care to speculate!
The severely interior aspect of his writing. Few poets or authors tell their stories from a vantage point so centered in the mind of the narrator. Of course, Poe takes this so far that often, these narrators are either clearly mad or at the mercy of some brain disease. In some of Poe’s stories, there hardly seem to be anyone present but the teller of the tale!
His mastery of mood. Poe called it the “unity of effect,” in a famous essay in the April 1846 issue of Graham’s Magazine. He explains his philosophy like this (the italics are his): “I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect. Keeping originality always in view . . . I say to myself, “Of all the innumerable effects, or impressions, of which the heart, the intellect or the soul is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion select.” Poe was also a leading critic of his time, but the relevant point here is, that he consistently put his philosophy into practice.
His sheer skill in transforming ideas and moods into written words. Any close reading of Poe will reveal a mind that was like a Fourth of July sparkler, throwing off ideas as quickly (or more quickly) than the reader can absorb them. He was as interested in science, philosophy, and cryptography as he was in literature. Again, others have been as interested, but few have had the ability to make ideas come to life so vividly in poetry and prose. One of his most famous skills—that of onomatopoeia or the linking of sound with sense—was vital to achieving this. Read his poem “The Bells” to see this is effect in a tour de force performance. Poe was perhaps the greatest writer to link word sounds and sense since Shakespeare. And of course, you noticed this, didn’t you? — The word for this technique is onomatopoeia.
Note: Thanks to Daniel Hoffman’s book Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe for the quote on the unity of effect.
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