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Sorry…no independent reading today (short period). Need to have your book read by next week. Monday (1/18) last day of in-class reading for the semester.
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Sorry…no independent reading today (short period). • Need to have your book read by next week. • Monday (1/18) last day of in-class reading for the semester. • Take-home assignment on your book will be given Wednesday (1/20) and due the following Monday (1/25) consisting of discussion questions about the content of your book. • Please take out your Edgar Allan Poe film notes to complete. • Turn in two full pages at end of class. • HOMEWORK: Finish vocabulary for “The Raven” by Poe.
EDGAR ALLAN POE A&E BIOGRAPHY FILM VOCAB • tuberculosis • kindred
EDGAR ALLAN POE A&E BIOGRAPHY FILM NOTES • Born in 1809. Grew up mostly in Virginia (a Southern Gentleman). • Both his parents were actors. • Father abandoned the family when Poe was a baby. • Mother somewhat famous and well-respected actress; died of consumption (tuberculosis) when Poe was three. • Orphaned young; mother’s death - FIRST TRAGIC LOSS OF A BELOVED WOMAN IN HIS LIFE. • Taken in by foster parents Francis and John Allan; never formally adopted him.
Francis Allan loved and cared for him. • John Allan (foster father) did not really like Edgar; thought Edgar an odd, unlovable and (later) ungrateful. Still, John and Francis Allan provided him a good home and a quality education. • Poe was a sensitive, artistic, precocious, athletic young man. • John Allan carried on affairs with other women in his own home where his wife was deathly ill. • Francis Allan died of consumption (tuberculosis) – SECOND TRAGIC LOSS OF A BELOVED WOMAN IN HIS LIFE
John Allan sends Edgar to the University of Virginia and pays his tuition, but does not provide any other financial support. • While in college Edgar captivated his classmates with his artistic and literary talents—could have been a writer or an artist. • Poe determined to make his living only “by the pen”—as a writer, editor, and literary critic. • Wrote for and edited MAGAZINES. Was a very good editor. • Worked as a LITERARY CRITIC (for which he was best known): wrote book and poetry reviews; was BRUTAL in many of his reviews, even of popular and beloved writers (Longfellow). Called “The tomahawk man” because he so brutally criticized writers.
Often unemployed (couldn’t hold a job)—drank too much; “prickly” personality; classic outsider. • Goes to live in Baltimore with his Aunt Maria (“Muddy”) Clem and her daughter, Virginia. • At age 26 he marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia; called her “sissy” and the relationship was probably more brother/sister than husband/wife at the beginning (“the intimate details of their relationship remain a mystery”). • Poe lived with Virginia and Maria; they take care of each other—he supports them financially; they give him a warm and loving home life, which he had not had before that. They were happy, despite being poor.
1845 wrote and published “The Raven” which was his only critical success; “wildly popular,” especially with women and children; gave popular lectures/public readings of his poems. Made almost NO money from “The Raven” ($14). • WROTE MORE THAN 70 STORIES AND POEMS IN ALL. • Invented the DETECTIVE STORY as a genre (Sherlock Holmes stories modeled after Poe’s detective tales) • The Murders in the Rue Morgue • Virginia dies of “consumption” (TB) after 15 years of marriage - THIRD TRAGIC LOSS OF A BELOVED WOMAN IN HIS LIFE. • Virginia’s death leaves Poe distraught and alone; wrote “Annabell Lee” for her.
Broke, brokenhearted, he wandered Europe, then returned to the US and tried to marry several different (rich) women at the same time. • Drinking problem worsens; suffered bouts of mental instability. • Takes a trip to see his mother-in-law; disappeared for a few days; turned up ill/drunk in the street, taken to a bar, and at first refuses help; eventually taken to a hospital. • Died four days later at age 40 in 1849. • FAMOUS, BUT NOT BELOVED.
THEMES IN POE’S WORK (according to film): • uncertainty of life and mysteries of death • connections to the afterlife • sanity/insanity • rationality/irrationality • guilt driving behavior • PSYCHOLOGICAL INTROSPECTION • Poe often used “tortured” first person narrators in his stories and poems.