The Poe Shadow: Summary and book reviews of The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl, plus links to an excerpt from The Poe Shadow and a biography of Matthew Pearl.
The Poe Shadow
by Matthew Pearl
Hardcover: May 2006,
384 pages.
Paperback: Jul 2007,
384 pages.
“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.
Good but not great. Towards the middle, when the plot rambled a little, I recollect thinking that I hoped it would be worth it - and overall it was - but it wasn't a book that kept me up at night! (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Publisher's Weekly
While Clark remains a little enigmatic, the exciting plot, numerous twists and convincing period detail could help land this on bestseller lists as well.
Booklist
(A) masterful blend of historical and fictional figures, meticulous research, and nineteenth-century literary style.
Library Journal
Clark is a bit of a bumbler, and the various denouements tend to be ponderous. Still, this literary historical mystery should please fans.
Edgar Allan Poe was born Edgar Poe in 1809 to Elizabeth and David Poe, both
actors. They died when he was three and he was taken in by John Allan, a tobacco
merchant living in Virginia. He became estranged from his foster father in
the mid to late 1820s and joined the US Army under the name Edgar Perry - he
served for two years before being discharged with the rank of Sergeant in 1829.
During this time he published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems.
His foster-mother's deathbed wish was that he would reconcile with his
foster-father, who arranged for him to attend the military academy at West
Point, but while there he deliberately disobeyed orders and was dismissed - and
was promptly disowned by his foster-father again.
Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, writing
fiction to support himself. In 1836 he married his first cousin, Virginia,
who was just 13-years-old.
Over the next few years he established a reputation as a critic and a writer -The
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