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The Poe Shadow

Matthew Pearl (Goodreads Author)

3.12 · Rating details · 7,307 ratings · 915 reviews

“I present to you . . . the truth about this man’s death and my life.”

Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, and even Poe’s own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. Everyone, in fact, seems to believe this except a young “I present to you . . . the truth about this man’s death and my life.”

Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, and even Poe’s own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. Everyone, in fact, seems to believe this except a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who puts his own career and reputation at risk in a passionate crusade to salvage Poe’s.

As Quentin explores the puzzling circumstances of Poe’s demise, he discovers that the writer’s last days are riddled with unanswered questions the police are possibly willfully ignoring. Just when Poe’s death seems destined to remain a mystery, and forever sealing his ignominy, inspiration strikes Quentin–in the form of Poe’s own stories. The young attorney realizes that he must find the one person who can solve the strange case of Poe’s death: the real-life model for Poe’s brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection.
In short order, Quentin finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade, and the lost secrets of Poe’s final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, Quentin Clark must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe’s.

Following his phenomenal debut novel, The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl has once again crossed pitch-perfect literary history with innovative mystery to create a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense. Pearl’s groundbreaking research–featuring documented material never published before–opens a new window on the truth behind Poe’s demise, literary history’s most persistent enigma. The resulting novel is a publishing event that, through sublime craftsmanship, subtle wit, and devious twists, does honor to Poe himself

From the Hardcover edition. ...more

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Paperback, 400 pages

Published July 10th 2007 by Random House Trade Paperbacks (first published 2006)

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· 7,307 ratings · 915 reviews

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Jul 23, 2007 Brooke rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, mystery

Matthew Pearl's The Poe Shadow is the first book I've read in a while that I did not like at all. The premise is interesting; a contemporary of Edgar Allen Poe attempts to discover what happened in the final days before the poet's death. Pearl had written the moderately entertaining The Dante Club prior to this, and I had expected to see the improvement that often comes with an author's sophomore effort. Instead, Pearl only manages to serve up a snooze-fest.

To begin with, Quentin Clark is the ...more

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Sep 17, 2015 PUMPKINHEAD rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: not-what-i-hoped, could-have-been-better, disappointing, draggy, a-bit-boring

Like all good horror aficionados, I consider myself a Edgar Allen Poe fan as much as the next man/woman. The iconic author set so much foundation for the dark genres we love and enjoy today. So I was instantly intrigued when this book blipped on my radar. A mystery surrounding the death of the great Poe? Count me in.

Alas, The Poe Shadow was a disappointment through and through. This novel just didn't cut it, no matter which way I tried to slice it. It failed to have any of the creepiness or ...more

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Mar 08, 2009 James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It seems that I am outnumbered here in the reviews. I really enjoyed this book a lot.

Many readers are commenting that The Poe Shadow is not as good as The Dante Club. Sure, a serial killer on the loose in Boston is compelling stuff. Graphic murder and mayhem trumps an intellectual mystery in Baltimore. While reading The Poe Shadow, I tried to avoid comparing the two works, as each deserves recognition on its own terms.

Popular sentiment is that Quentin Clark, the protagonist, is quite a knob. It seems that I am outnumbered here in the reviews. I really enjoyed this book a lot.

Many readers are commenting that The Poe Shadow is not as good as The Dante Club. Sure, a serial killer on the loose in Boston is compelling stuff. Graphic murder and mayhem trumps an intellectual mystery in Baltimore. While reading The Poe Shadow, I tried to avoid comparing the two works, as each deserves recognition on its own terms.

Popular sentiment is that Quentin Clark, the protagonist, is quite a knob. He’s obsessed, weak, and whiny. That’s true—in the beginning. He’s on a quest. However, when was the last time you read a book where a quest was less about geography and some kind of Holy Grail and more about something bigger, another kid of quest? Reading The Poe Shadow in its entirety, I think you’ll find that Quentin Clark experiences a transformation from a milquetoast Walter Mitty character to eligible stud. He’s also schooled by just about everyone he meets, young or old, black or white, rich or poor.

Some have said it is improbable for Quentin, being a lawyer and having a fiancé, to take off on flights of fancy like this. I beg to differ. It’s not unheard of for people to drop out of the rat race, for whatever reason. Quentin admits to being an underachieving paper pusher in a law office. His girlfriend is someone he has known since childhood. To me, he does not have the hots for her at all; they have no chemistry, and she’s more of comfortable and safe choice for a spouse. I was reminded of Roderick and Madeline (brother and sister in The Fall of the House of Usher), and I half expected to find out Quentin and Hattie shared the same father. Anyway, it’s actually Bonjour who he’s passionate about and who serves as a catalyst for his transformation while he’s in prison.

Some of the themes found in Poe’s works can be found here: class/society, madness, politics, supernatural (such as the dead having power of the living), and love/hate rivals. If you read beyond the surface of the story, there appears to be a lot going on.

There’s also Poe’s penchant for a bulky writing style. A lot of people don't like it. For me, had Pearl penned a Robert Ludlum rip off, I doubt I’d of liked it as much as I did. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste, and I can see why it might be off putting to many readers.

Minor trouble spots. I can’t remember where (and I could be mistaken), but the author described Baltimore in 1849 and talked about the use of steel in construction. But steel wasn’t being mass-produced until the Bessemer process in the mid 1850s, so it didn’t seem quite right. Secondly, one scene annoyed me to no end. It was when the clerk at the post office tells Quentin that he knows who had sent him the packages, and Quentin says to wait until later because he has to see Hattie. That was out of character. Finally, Chapter 35, where Duponte’s explanation drags on for 27 pages. This could’ve been shorter.

Just to clarify, I’m certainly not a big Poe fan, but I’ve probably read most of his stories at one time or another over the years. For me, having visited Baltimore 5-6 times added personal interest. And one of those visits was a Poe road trip when the mysterious “Poe Toaster” became a headline interest.
...more

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May 22, 2008 Gina rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Poe obsessives

Shelves: audio-books, historical-fiction

While this was an interesting subject & the mystery surrounding Poe's death was written well, I HATED the lead character. He was whiney, obsessive and at times down right stupid. He's one of those guys with book smarts, but is dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to real life.

He is obsessive to the point of loosing everything he is/has, his career, fortune, home, finance, friends...the only thing that keeps him from absolutely loosing everything is due to friends coming to his aid at the ...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Catherine Bracy added it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: no one

I enjoyed Dante Club (I like historical fiction) and so was looking forward to reading The Poe Shadow--I even bought it in hardcover, which is rare for me. Well, it was terrible. Quite possibly the worst book I've ever read. It was totally unclear to me what was going on--was he crazy or was all this stuff really happening to him? I was hoping it would be brilliantly explained at the end so I kept trudging along even though it was beyond tedious. There was no payoff in the end. It was so bad ...more

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Oct 29, 2013 Jen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I think I actively disliked this book.

The more I think of it, the more I dislike. I read his book about Dante, and didn't hate, but wow I disliked this one.

First off, I know a lot about Poe. Helps that I was a docent (fancy word for tour guide) at the Richmond Poe Museum. So, yeah, I got your Poe right here.

The whole plot didn't make sense. Oh my god, I hated the main character who was pretty much a 19th century stalker. Poe should have gotten a restraining order on this guy. So when Poe dies, ...more

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Dec 08, 2007 Rose rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Although I appreciate novels as good literature and occasionally forces of social change ("Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a good example, as it strengthened the abolitionist movement), I don't normally read them, as I find truth to be more fascinating than fiction.

"The Poe Shadow" is set in antebellum America. The protagonist, a young attorney, risks life and limb to unravel the mystery of Edgar Allan Poe's death, and enlists the aid of a French detective, supposedly the prototype for Poe literary ...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Ed Mestre rated it liked it · review of another edition

My rating should actually be taken as 3.5 stars.

This is the 2nd book involving Edgar Allan Poe I've read in the past year. The other being "The Beautiful Cigar Girl" a work of non fiction & this being historical fiction. It takes place in mid 19th century Baltimore at the time of Poe's death which the press has leaped upon as an object lesson of the evils of drink. A young lawyer & admirer of Poe becomes incensed at this slander & sets out to make the record straight, but his ...more

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Jun 25, 2014 Terese rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

I honestly don't think I can finish this book. Which is disappointing because I really like "The Dante Club" so I had high hopes for this one.

What is the problem? Motivation. As in - what is the character's motivation for doing what he does? Seemingly there is none. I would describe it as such; Quentin is a man who only wants a blue M&M, however he lives in a world where there ARE NO blue M&M's. So he just runs around and screams erratically at strangers to make them believe there's a ...more

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Dec 08, 2014 Jaret rated it did not like it · review of another edition

The premise of this novel was very intriguing. I liked the concept behind the story, but it could have used a lot more editing. There were quite a few descriptions and events that could have been omitted and allowed the plot to move at a better pace. The ending was one area that needed to be edited. I found myself re-reading a lot to try and follow along as Pearl was revealing Poe's last hours. I'm still not sure I understood where he was going with his story. Then, all of a sudden, everyone's ...more

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Jul 10, 2013 Vanessa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

2.5 stars.

I finished the book! I can't believe I finished it! This is a major deal for me, because I've had this book on my shelf for around 8 years now, and I've always put it off. I don't really know why, because I'm a fan of Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe it was the mystery element, something I don't really tend to read in fiction. Anyway, I finally knuckled down and finished this book, so finally I am in the position to write a complete review.

The Poe Shadow follows the endeavors of Quentin Clark, a 2.5 stars.

I finished the book! I can't believe I finished it! This is a major deal for me, because I've had this book on my shelf for around 8 years now, and I've always put it off. I don't really know why, because I'm a fan of Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe it was the mystery element, something I don't really tend to read in fiction. Anyway, I finally knuckled down and finished this book, so finally I am in the position to write a complete review.

The Poe Shadow follows the endeavors of Quentin Clark, a young Baltimore lawyer in the 1800s, to discover what happened in Poe's final days. As a dedicated fan of his work, having corresponded directly with him several times, the impression that people have of Poe dying as a drunkard, enrages and troubles him. Clark sets out to clear Poe's name and relate the true events, by travelling to Paris to find the inspiration for Poe's character C. Auguste Dupin. However, a nefarious Baron may well put a spanner in the works.

This novel is first and foremost a mystery novel, but on the other hand it is almost a work of literary fiction in that it deals so much so with character motives, political intrigue, and of course literature itself. The prose is written in a somewhat Victorian style - this may be due to the fact that it is set in the Victorian era, but as it is set in America and not Britain, this is debatable. Although I felt the novel was well-written, it was a little laborious to read at times because the pace was incredibly slow. This may well be more realistic, as a mystery surely would not be wrapped up toute suite, but it doesn't exactly capture my excitement and attention as a reader.

The main issue that I had with The Poe Shadow however was that it just wasn't that interesting to me. Quentin Clark is a very unsympathetic character - he may be incredibly driven and passionate about his quest, but it is at the expense of everything and everyone else in his life. I found myself being constantly frustrated with him and his perpetual naivety. I didn't really warm to the character of Auguste Duponte either - he was eternally cryptic and closed off, and I felt like he was meant to be portrayed as a Sherlock Holmes type of character, albeit with a lot less charisma. I felt that the plot dragged on considerably, and not enough happened until Part 5 of the book (the final part, I might add). Although the villainous characters were quite charismatic and interesting, I felt they weren't even present enough to make me care enough about the plot of this novel.

If you are a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, and a fan of mystery novels, then I would recommend you maybe give this a shot. The fact that a great many of the characters and details surrounding Poe's final days in this book were factual is an interesting element to this, and something I was not aware of while reading. Although the investigation itself is fictional, it was satisfying to find out about many people involved with Poe's last days in the novel were in fact truly involved, and I felt I had learned something from it. However, I would not read it again as it was far too slow-moving for me.
...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

On Oct. 7, 1849, a little-known poet and author of strange gothic tales died in a Baltimore hospital. He had been found, disheveled and injured, in an alleyway. After his death, a small funeral was held at a small Baltimore Presbyterian church. A total of four people attended.

The man's name was Edgar Allan Poe.

The true events leading to the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe remain a mystery to this day. No one knows what he was doing in Baltimore, as he was supposed to be in New York at the On Oct. 7, 1849, a little-known poet and author of strange gothic tales died in a Baltimore hospital. He had been found, disheveled and injured, in an alleyway. After his death, a small funeral was held at a small Baltimore Presbyterian church. A total of four people attended.

The man's name was Edgar Allan Poe.

The true events leading to the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe remain a mystery to this day. No one knows what he was doing in Baltimore, as he was supposed to be in New York at the time.

There is also the question as to his condition: clearly intoxicated, which was not that odd, considering Poe had been a notorious alcoholic for much of his adult life. What was odd was that months before he had joined a temperance organization, completely sworn off all alcohol, and had, according to friends and acquaintances, been succeeding in living a new life of sobriety. No one knows what happened in the four days prior to his death, although there were many speculations.

Matthew Pearl, the author of "The Dante Club", has written a fictionalized account of the missing last four days of Poe's life in "The Poe Shadow". It is painstakingly researched, although it is, alas, merely fiction.

Pearl's protagonist is a Baltimore attorney named Quentin Clark who inextricably becomes entangled in the mystery of Poe's death. He may have been the last person to have corresponded with Poe, a man he had never met in person but with whom he shared a kindred spirit in Poe's macabre but mind-expanding poetry and fiction.

After seeing how the media was defaming Poe's name, Clark vows to find the truth about Poe's death, a quest which quickly becomes an obsession, and a quest that becomes a journey to Paris, France, where he enlists the aid of the one man who might possibly be able to solve the mystery: a private detective name Auguste Duponte, the real-life basis for Poe's classic fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin.

Fans of Poe will appreciate the many literary references that abound in Pearl's novel. Part historical account, part murder mystery, and part literary criticism, "The Poe Shadow" is a brilliantly conceived novel that is as fun to read as it is fascinating and moving in places.

Poe was a complicated man in life, but it was only after his death that people began to appreciate the complexities in his literary work, an appreciation that has made Poe one of the best-loved writers in the American canon. ...more

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May 14, 2018 Müsli rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Good book.
I couldn't put it down

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Jun 27, 2010 Neil Cochrane rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This book was a huge disappointment. The plot--a young 19th century attorney investigates the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe--seemed promising, but was not nearly as interesting as I'd hoped. I attribute this to two failings: failure to create likeable characters, and failure to adhere to the adage "brevity is the soul of wit."

On the first count: the protagonist, Quentin Clark, is childish and insipid. He's an irritating hero, but what's worse is that he isn't a hero who moves the plot ...more

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May 04, 2016 Devon rated it did not like it · review of another edition

A 300+ page framing device for his personal research and interest into the death of Edgar Allen Poe. Full of false promises, an unlikable and unreliable narrator that we are forced to trust due to the publisher promised "answers to Poe's death" and little closure at the end. The whole thing seemed a self indulgent excuse for why the author himself had wasted his life researching Poe- making "purpose" out of his research by publishing it as a piece of historical fiction. "See mom and dad!? You ...more

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Dec 14, 2016 Eduardo marked it as x · review of another edition

I could suffer this novel up to page 130, and then I gave up: Pearl has a very bewildering and baffling style. Maybe in a Spanish translation it'll be digestible.

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Mar 05, 2011 Bev rated it did not like it

Shelves: american-mystery, mount-tbr-2015, mystery, historical-mystery, 19thc-american, carl-s-r-i-p

So...the common saying is that "the third time's the charm"--right? Not necessarily. A couple of challenges asked us to give a book we'd never been able to finish another try. So, I decided on The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl. I tried to read it a couple of times and just couldn't finish it. This year was the chance to change that. For good measure, I also added it to my TBR Pile list for Adam's challenge. That would ensure that I read the darn thing.

Okay. So, I did. And I didn't like it any So...the common saying is that "the third time's the charm"--right? Not necessarily. A couple of challenges asked us to give a book we'd never been able to finish another try. So, I decided on The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl. I tried to read it a couple of times and just couldn't finish it. This year was the chance to change that. For good measure, I also added it to my TBR Pile list for Adam's challenge. That would ensure that I read the darn thing.

Okay. So, I did. And I didn't like it any better than the other two times I tried. The first attempt came after reading Pearl's The Dante Club--which was an excellent serial killer mystery. I enjoyed it so much that I went right out and got The Poe Shadow from the library and started to read it....and came to a screeching halt about 40 pages in. Then when Patty, my friend, gifted me a copy I gave it another go. I managed to get a bit further to my standard 100 pages and gave it up as a lost cause. This time round I finished it. And all I can say is....I'm glad that's over.

Here's your basic peek at the plot: It's 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. Edgar Allan Poe has just been buried, virtually unmourned, and his friends and family have all written him off as a drunken sot. Nobody seems to think there was anything odd about what happened to Poe. Except for Quentin Clark. Clark is a young lawyer who thinks Poe was the greatest writer ever and becomes obsessed with investigating the truth of Poe's death. He sets out to find the real August Dupin--the man Poe based his detective upon--to help him get to the bottom of a plot that seems to involve international political agents, a female assassin, and the dark, corrupt slave trade. Quentin will be marked insane and have to prove not only that his suspicions are correct but also that he has all his marbles. Otherwise, he's going to lose his friends, his career, his reputation, and the girl he loves....

This is such a disappointing book after The Dante Club. It's poorly plotted with a pace that moves about as quickly as a herd of turtles. It also makes no sense. Quentin's motivation for his intense obsession and willingness to give up his livelihood is murky at best and not really explained at all. It's very unclear whether all the plots and machinations are really happening or if he's imagining things. Pearl makes a great deal out nothing. And in the end, I just plain didn't care what happened to Poe and whether Quentin could prove it and get on with his life. Not because I don't think the death of Poe wasn't mysterious and that there couldn't be a story in it--but because as far as I can tell, Pearl didn't really make it into a story interesting enough to be worth telling.

Quentin is also an extremely unsympathetic protagonist. He's annoying and creates difficulties and adversaries where he has no need. And for a lawyer, he's not terribly bright. The Dupin proto-type is constantly pointing out the most obvious things to him. He doesn't just miss the connections that a great detective would make--he misses connections that are all but labeled "Look at THIS, this is important." One has to wonder why the girl would wait around for him to come to his senses and get his head out of the Poe problem. She can do much better for herself. Not recommended at all to anyone.

This review posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

*******************
Previous Review comments:

I really wanted to read this one--having loved The Dante Club. But I couldn't even finish it.

Postscript: I have now received this as a Christmas gift. Am going to give it another try.

Okay, so I have now tried again. Same result. I just cannot finish this one. I did, actually, make it a bit further and just when I thought that it simply had a slow beginning and was now getting better then Pearl dumped me in France with Quentin Clark harrassing the man that Dupin was supposedly based on. Totally lost me there. Not even interested in seeing how it comes out. My apologies to my gifter...I just can't do it.

My advice...Read _The Dante Club_ (It is a FAR superior book). Skip this one. I hope his Dickens book is better. ...more

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Jun 11, 2007 Tama Wise added it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-never-finished

I have to agree with a lot of the reviews here. I read and absolutely loved the Dante Club, so when I heard there was a new book from the same author, I snatched it up. The premise was tantalizing, what really happened to Edgar Alan Poe in his final days?

I got about halfway through this book, and eventually decided to throw it in. Where Dante Club moved with all the pace and movement of a well plotted film, the Poe Shadow was boring from the start. I do agree. The main characters not likable in ...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Matthew Pearl's best-selling The Dante Club (2003) successfully meshed history, literature, and mystery. Though he tries to duplicate this formula and honor a great American writer, The Poe Shadow fails to garner similar interest. First, Pearl's attempt to echo 19th-century prose is fusty and verbose. Second, Clark, though he has his eccentricities, is rather "poor company" (Wall Street Journal). Third, while the subplots offer intrigue, they rarely advance the plot and never attain the macabre

...more

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Dec 22, 2014 GypsyBookworm rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For people who like Poe. I am a huge fan of Poe's poetry and short stories. This is a fun read for people who enjoy his works or people new to him and want to learn more about his life through a story.

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Mar 28, 2018 Tim Kimber rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Having read The Dante Club with relish, I settled into The Poe Shadow with expectations of gruesome murders, conspiracy and learned men falling upon a mystery with all the pomp and refinement of a Dickensian Sherlock Holmes.

Alas, though I enjoyed the setup, the second act in Paris irreparably undermines the rest of the story. Aside from glacial pacing, it sets up a flawed conceit – that the protagonist would care who discovers the truth behind Poe's final days, and wouldn't be grateful both the ...more

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Sep 05, 2007 Katherine rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The real redeeming this about this book is that at the end (in the historical notes) you find out that the main character's conclusions about Poe might really be true. That made the book a million times more interesting... and yet I still think it only gets two stars. The main character is a bit too irritating, and not in any sort of loveable or identifiable way. You get sick of him, which makes it hard to keep reading the otherwise interesting story about Poe's death. If you're interest in Poe, ...more

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Mar 19, 2018 Julie Rogers rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Had to bail on this one...
I just can’t get into this one. It’s a mystery about Poe’s death with a “detective” who wants to be like the detectives in Poe’s stories, & this author is doing a bad impersonation of Poe’s style. It just all feels so overblown & overdone, & I just don’t have time for that. His other work is higher rated, so maybe I’ll give it a shot at some point.

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Aug 03, 2008 Jenny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I am being a little generous with four stars, but three seemed stingy. I very much liked the premise of this book, and Pearl has a nice knack for literary mystery and period details. Perhaps I was hoping for more about Poe himself, or perhaps I hold all literary mysteries up to "Possession" (which is hardly fair). I would recommend this and look forward to "The Last Dickens".

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Nov 26, 2015 Angela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, read-2015

This started off quite slowly but it's a good mystery read and I'm glad I stuck with it. A lot of the prose can be quite long-winded and think it could have done with a better edit.

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Jan 26, 2011 Tracey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: hist-myst, 3-star, fiction, mystery, history

I loved The Dante Club (reviewed in July). It was intelligent, and pure geeky fun, and I had a lovely time picking my way among the corpses in 19th century Boston. So I jumped at the chance to take The Poe Shadow on paperbackswap.com.

I should preface this by admitting I haven't read much Poe. I have a couple of collections; I've just ... never gotten around to it. But I'm familiar with his most famous poems, I knew who C. Auguste Dupin was, and I knew a little about Poe's life and reputation - I loved The Dante Club (reviewed in July). It was intelligent, and pure geeky fun, and I had a lovely time picking my way among the corpses in 19th century Boston. So I jumped at the chance to take The Poe Shadow on paperbackswap.com.

I should preface this by admitting I haven't read much Poe. I have a couple of collections; I've just ... never gotten around to it. But I'm familiar with his most famous poems, I knew who C. Auguste Dupin was, and I knew a little about Poe's life and reputation - about the fact that though he was often condemned for being a drunkard he was not, and in fact had a very low tolerance for alcohol. And about his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, and his despair at her early death. But the only work I've read about him before this was some dreadful thing I can't recall the name of and won't look up which cast him and P.T. Barnum as detectives... This had to be light years better.

And it was. Especially in the beginning I had as much fun as I did with The Dante Club. The story is told in the first person by Quentin Clark, an attorney in Baltimore in 1849 who has long enjoyed reading Poe. "Enjoyed" is actually an understatement; Clark's interest in the poet and his work begins to sound like obsession, and that becomes full-blown as the book proceeds - but it begins with his defiance of his family's opinion that Poe is a dangerous influence. He reads every scrap that he can find, and enters into a correspondence with Poe, even offering his legal services pro bono if they are needed to defend the magazine Poe dreams of starting.

Upon Poe's death, Clark is distressed by the tone of newspaper articles and essays. Most of them paint him, obliquely or outright, as a drunk, and most take the tone that he didn't contribute much to the universe and won't much be missed. Outraged, Clark begins a campaign to try to gain retractions and corrections, to try to rehabilitate Poe's reputation, which leads by various paths to his quest to find the real man who was Poe's inspiration for Dupin, the genius of detection. Surely the real Dupin can discover the truth about Poe's death and clear his name.

The quest leads Clark to Paris, which is in an upheaval of government; it has not been so long since the French Revolution, and now the republic is beginning to give way to a new empire under the Bonapartes. It's dangerous, but the obsession is strong, and Clark soon has two possible Dupins on his hands: the attorney Baron Dupin, whom Clark had written earlier, and Duponte, who is the new lead contender. Baron Dupin is a charlatan and showman, and Clark decides he can't be the one - especially as he learns more about Duponte, an investigator who fits the descriptions in Poe's stories perfectly. He works to bring the latter back to Baltimore, and to complicate matters the former comes too, along with his wife (a beautiful assassin) and a matched set of men who appear to be hunting him for reasons unknown.

It's not a spoiler to state that Clark winds up accused of a murder; that's given on the first page of the book. And I don't think it's a spoiler to say that that's about when the book started to lose me. Halfway through the book, not the first page. Clark's need to exonerate Poe grows to a state in which he can do nothing else; he loses his practice, and, through her family, his fiancee, and shortly is in danger of losing the home he inherited from his parents as his aunt brings a case against him stating he has lost his sanity. Between simply being a little fed up with a man who would sacrifice everything without even a thought - and not even so much the fact of the sacrifice as the pain it caused his family and beloved Hattie - and behaving in a thoroughly unreasonable manner in pursuit of a noble goal; and being more than a little fed up with the prospects of an International Conspiracy (I hate International Conspiracy as Tolkien despised allegory: "I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence") - the book started to lose me, and never really got me back. I finished it - but it was a long slog. I read a review that referred to Clark as an unreliable narrator: quite right. While he doesn't necessarily intentionally lie to the reader, he makes wild assumptions, changes his mind, and becomes somewhat unhinged. That reviewer had a time of it with the mid-19th century language; I didn't find that nearly as difficult as I often do (it's usually harder to read pseudo-19th-century than the real thing, I find). That was the least of my problems with the book.

On the whole, I'm glad I read it. I learned a good deal - for one thing, I'm going to try very hard to avoid referring to Poe as "Edgar Allan Poe", as he hated it, with good reason. (Or he might not have; I'm told that's a myth. Which calls into question every single other thing put forward as fact in the novel. Which is troubling.) For another, it took the taste of that other Poe/Barnum book out of my mouth; there's a certain irony in this book rehabilitating the name of Poe for me as Clark fought to do in Baltimore. And I'm going to read Poe, soon. But I don't think this will come up for a reread very soon. It felt disjointed in places, and as though Pearl lost the reins for a while and was a passenger in a runaway carriage: as if Pearl's research into Poe and his death created in him much the same condition as he describes in Clark. Method writing? Maybe. The Poe Shadow both explained and created allure about Poe, and raised Poe in my estimation while, sadly, lowering Pearl a notch or two. But this didn't kill my respect; on the contrary. I did love Dante; I do respect the tremendous amount of work that went into making The Poe Shadow - and his third, latest book is The Last Dickens (Drood!). I look forward to it. I hope it's more like the first book than the second ... ~Stewartry ...more

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Jul 26, 2019 Becky Wright rated it liked it · review of another edition

I'm going for a tentative 3 stars, I wanted to give this more...but I just couldn't finish it, which is unlike me.

It was nothing to do with the writing, it's well crafted and researched, the author certainly has a district voice, and the story plot had me hooked straight from the cover. Unformataly, it just didn't grab me enough much past the first hundred pages with were hard going. Though I wish it had, I wanted to love it.

It may just be me. I seem to have a personal issue with male writers of ...more

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Mar 11, 2019 Chad rated it liked it · review of another edition

The Poe Shadow was an interesting read. I found the concept of the investigation to be compelling and the characters dynamic and interesting. I was impressed with the historical accuracy of the descriptions of the period, it made it very easy to insert myself into the setting right alongside the characters.

My one issue with The Poe Shadow was with the ending. It seemed like Pearl needed to fulfill a length requirement before finishing. Right when it seemed like things were sufficiently wrapped ...more

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Apr 13, 2019 Keith Taylor rated it liked it · review of another edition

I didn't love this book, but I did admire the ambition of it. And Pearl's other books, trying to make a popular audience for all the old figures of literature. But the best thing about this book is that it took me back to a couple of Poe stories -- which were great! Here's a thing I wrote:

https://annarborobserver.com/articles...

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Aug 17, 2007 Sarah Sammis rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: released

My final review for June is The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl, a book I bought last year because I liked the cover and the title. It's the same superficial reason I used for Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann and for the most part, my intuition paid off for both.

Edgar Allen Poe showed up unexpected and in a confused state to the Washington College Hospital in Baltimore. He died there on October 3, 1849. Before his death he called out for a person named Reynolds and a letter was sent to a Dr. ...more

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About Matthew Pearl

Matthew Pearl

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Note from the author:Hi everyone. My newest novel is The Dante Chamber, out May 29, 2018. It's a follow-up to my debut novel, The Dante Club, but you do not have to read one before the other, each stands on its own two feet. Hope you'll enjoy any of books you choose to pick up.

Matthew Pearl's novels have been international and New York Times bestsellers translated into more than 30 languages. His ...more