Publisher's Synopsis
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - In Five Volumes - The Raven Edition - Volume 1 - by Edgar Allan Poe - Mr. Poe had that indescribable something which men have agreed to call genius. No man could ever tell us precisely what it is, and yet there is none who is not inevitably aware of its presence and its power. Let talent writhe and contort itself as it may, it has no such magnetism. Larger of bone and sinew it may be, but the wings are wanting. Talent sticks fast to earth, and its most perfect works have still one foot of clay. Genius claims kindred with the very workings of Nature herself, so that a sunset shall seem like a quotation from Dante, and if Shakespeare be read in the very presence of the sea itself, his verses shall but seem nobler for the sublime criticism of ocean. Talent may make friends for itself, but only genius can give to its creations the divine power of winning love and veneration. Enthusiasm cannot cling to what itself is unenthusiastic, nor will he ever have disciples who has not himself impulsive zeal enough to be a disciple. Great wits are allied to madness only inasmuch as they are possessed and carried away by their demon, While talent keeps him, as Paracelsus did, securely prisoned in the pommel of his sword. To the eye of genius, the veil of the spiritual world is ever rent asunder that it may perceive the ministers of good and evil who throng continually around it. No man of mere talent ever flung his inkstand at the devil. CONTENTS EDGAR ALLAN POE - DEATH OF EDGAR A. POE - THE UNPARALLELED ADVENTURES OF ONE HANS PFAAL - THE GOLD-BUG - FOUR BEASTS IN ONE-THE HOMO-CAMELEOPARD - THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE - THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET.(*1) - THE BALLOON-HOAX - MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE - THE OVAL PORTRAIT
