The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe (Penguin Classics)

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The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe (Penguin Classics) Page 53

by Edgar Allan Poe


  † ‘The Literati of New York’, Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1846.

  *Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part IV, 224–31.

  †Camille Mauclair, Le Genie d’Edgar Poe (Paris, 1928), p. 123.

  *Edward Davidson, Poe, A Critical Study (1957), p. 207.

  * ‘The Literati of New York’, Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1846.

  † For a rather different view, of Poe perversely sabotaging his own success, see Doris V. Falk, ‘Thomas Low Nichols, Poe, and the “Balloon Hoax” ’, Poe Studies vol. 5 (1972), pp. 48–9.

  ‡ ‘The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall’, p. 30.

  *Which is precisely what he planned. On 20 December 1843, in fact, John Wise petitioned the United States Congress for permission to cross the Atlantic by balloon. A few months after ‘The Balloon-Hoax’ he even published a notice in the Lancaster Intelligence advertising the attempt, requesting help from seamen of all nations.

  *Maunsell B. Field, Memories of Many Men (New York, 1874), p. 224.

  † R. E. Shapley in a Philadelphia newspaper, quoted by George E. Woodberry (1894).

  ‡As he wrily informed Charles Astor Bristed, grandson of John Jacob (Fordham : 7 June 1848).

  *See letter to Charles Fenno Hoffman (Fordham : 20 September 1848).

  † By William Whewell in Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840).

  ‡To George E. Isbell (New York: 29 February 1848).

  * The description is Stephen Toulmin’s.

  *Since Einstein a wholly new vocabulary of astronomical collapse has entered the language: white dwarf, quasar, pulsar, supernova, neutron star, black hole. The concept of a ‘black hole’ – an assemblage of matter shrunk to a state so dense as to become invisible – would have particularly appealed to Poe. As early as 1926 R. H. Fowler proposed that a star, which has burned all its fuel, collapses upon itself to form one gigantic, dense super-molecule, or ‘white dwarf’.

  *See ‘Lionizing’ (1835) and ‘The Landscape Garden’ (1842).

  Table of Contents

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Contents

  Introduction

  A Note on the Text

  Bibliography

  The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe

  MS. Found in a Bottle

  The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall

  The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion

  A Descent into the Maelström

  The Colloquy of Monos and Una

  A Tale of the Ragged Mountains

  The Balloon-Hoax

  Mesmeric Revelation

  The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade

  Some Words with a Mummy

  The Power of Words

  The System of Dr Tarr and Prof. Fether

  The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

  EUREKA

  Dedication

  Preface

  Eureka: AN ESSAY ON THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE

  Mellonta Tauta

  Von Kempelen and His Discovery

  Commentary

  Appendix

  Footnotes

  Introduction

  Page vii

  Page viii

  Page ix

  Page x

  Page xi

  Page xii

  Page xiii

  Page xiv

  Page xv

  Page xvi

  Page xvii

  Page xviii

  Page xix

  Page xx

  Page xxi

  The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall

  Page 29

  Page 30

  Page 53

  A Descent into the Maelström

  Page 87

  The Colloquy of Monos and Una

  Page 92

  Page 93

  The Balloon-Hoax

  Page 110

  Page 121

  The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade

  Page 143

  Page 144

  Page 145

  Page 146

  Page 147

  Page 148

  Page 149

  Page 150

  Page 151

  Page 152

  EUREKA

  Eureka: AN ESSAY ON THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE

  Page 234

  Page 243

  Page 246

  Page 247

  Page 254

  Page 259

  Page 261

  Page 262

  Page 265

  Page 267

  Page 270

  Page 274

  Page 279

  Page 297

  Page 306

  Page 308

  Commentary

  Page 338

  Page 339

  Page 341

  Page 357

  Page 360

  Page 369

  Page 370

  Select Bibliography

  Page 396

  Page 397

  Page 398

  Page 401

  Page 417

 

 

 


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