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Poe Knows: A Miscellany of Macabre Musings
An illustrated wit-and-wisdom-style packaging of quotes and excerpts from the fiction and nonfiction of Edgar Allan Poe, organized by theme and presented in a lighter-than-Poe context.
This book will collect several hundred quotes and aphorisms from Poe’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Quotes will be organized in thematic chapter groupings, and each chapter will be prefaced with several introductory paragraphs that discuss Poe’s preoccupation with their subject matter in a lighter vein. Chapter subjects will include such themes as “Madness,” “Dreams,” “Revenge,” “Mortality,” and “Premature Burial.” Spot illustrations will be distributed through the text.
This book will collect several hundred quotes and aphorisms from Poe’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Quotes will be organized in thematic chapter groupings, and each chapter will be prefaced with several introductory paragraphs that discuss Poe’s preoccupation with their subject matter in a lighter vein. Chapter subjects will include such themes as “Madness,” “Dreams,” “Revenge,” “Mortality,” and “Premature Burial.” Spot illustrations will be distributed through the text.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published July 5, 2022
6 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,941 books28.9k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 17, 2023
This just felt like an excuse for the illustrator to make some art and publish a book without actually writing anything.
October 20, 2022
I love Poe's work and I enjoyed the graphics as well as the designs throughout the book. I did not give this book a 4 star because at times it felt out of order or as a repetition of the same quotes. Overall, it was not bad!
November 12, 2022
Just read Poe. Random quotes didn’t stand alone well.
March 3, 2023
Review for Poe Knows
As anybody In my life will tell you I am an Edgar Allan hoe, he is my favorite classic Gothic author. his poems, his prose, his short stories everything about it got me into reading and wanting to be a writer myself. So when I saw this book in Barnes & Noble and saw that it was just small snippets of all of his work put together with artwork inside I knew I immediately had to have it as a coffee table book. If you have read any of Poe’s stuff and you just want a fun little book, this is definitely the book for you. I like that this book breaks down all of what Poe had to say about all the different topics touched upon in his writings.
As anybody In my life will tell you I am an Edgar Allan hoe, he is my favorite classic Gothic author. his poems, his prose, his short stories everything about it got me into reading and wanting to be a writer myself. So when I saw this book in Barnes & Noble and saw that it was just small snippets of all of his work put together with artwork inside I knew I immediately had to have it as a coffee table book. If you have read any of Poe’s stuff and you just want a fun little book, this is definitely the book for you. I like that this book breaks down all of what Poe had to say about all the different topics touched upon in his writings.
February 1, 2024
It gives a very brief analysis of every theme Poe carried throughout his works in his career and short life. The pictures are beautifully illustrated. Is a glorious reprint of quotes? Absolutely. But to read this is to take a moment to look beneath the surface and see the true pain and meanings behind the quotes. Poe was a brilliantly troubled man. Sensing the bigger picture, the driving force behind his works, this book definitely does; and I’ve been a reader of Poe since 13.
October 15, 2024
I didn’t give this book a long enough look when I picked it up. I thought it was going to talk a bit more about Poe and his philosophies about stuff, etc. Instead, it’s just a bunch of quotes from his writings - kind of lazy and lame, to be honest.
It gets 2 stars because the illustrations are beautiful.
It gets 2 stars because the illustrations are beautiful.
November 17, 2025
“Yet, if all hope flys away,
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore, the less gone?”
There were some very good quotes, as Ive never read Poe’s work myself, but I do think It is probably way better as a whole book, which I will be reading. Likely Black Cat and Nevermore.
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore, the less gone?”
There were some very good quotes, as Ive never read Poe’s work myself, but I do think It is probably way better as a whole book, which I will be reading. Likely Black Cat and Nevermore.
September 23, 2023
I mean…it’s quotes. Some were good, others bad, few too long for my taste; but still quotes nonetheless. I enjoyed the images and look of the book.
October 16, 2024
A fabulous collection of quotes from Edgar Allan Poe. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is a Poe fan.
June 22, 2025
I absolutely love Edgar Allan Poe and his writing. I think any fan of Edgar Allan Poe should read this because it’s dives deep into themes like sadness, death, beauty, etc. using quotes from lots of his writings, I genuinely thought this book was beautiful. I finished it in one sitting in the span of 1 hour.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews