The Complete Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

Author: Edgar Allan Poe (Author), translated by Chen Liangting, Xu Ruchun, Ma Airon
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-02-01
Features: Among the many works he wrote in his short life, literary criticism holds significant importance. In literary circles at the time, he was almost unmatched by anyone except James Russell Lowell. Lowell, who rarely praised others, hailed Poe as a "profound, philosophical, and fearless critic." Contemporary literary critic Edmund Wilson also remarked that "Poe's literary criticism was truly unprecedented in the American literary world." He consistently advocated for "art for art's sake." This artistic philosophy permeates nearly all his works, including poetry, short stories, and essays. In these works, he claimed that "the purpose of all art is entertainment, not truth." He believed that "in poetry, the only way to evoke pleasure is to create beauty—transcendent beauty." Music is an indispensable component of poetry, especially crucial for poets striving to express transcendent beauty. In fiction writing, the artist might as well aim to create effects of excitement, terror, and strong emotions. Moreover, every work should achieve a certain effect." His original essays, such as The Philosophy of Composition (1846), The Principles of Poetry (1850), critiques of Hawthorne's Old Tales, and reviews of the poetry of Longfellow, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and critiques of Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, among others, all demonstrate his incisive insights and are still regarded as exemplary works in literary criticism to this day.