Edgar Allan Poe: "In Our Time" - BBC Radio 4

 As mentioned in class when we were looking at the Gothic influences behind the opening to Dickens' Great Expectations, here is the link to the recent programme on BBC Radio 4 on the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. 

I recommend 'In Our Time', and the wonderful Melvyn Bragg for all sorts of other interesting programmes.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Poe (1809-1849), the American author who is famous for his Gothic tales of horror, madness and the dark interiors of the mind, such as The Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart. As well as tapping at our deepest fears in poems such as The Raven, Poe pioneered detective fiction with his character C. Auguste Dupin in The Murders in the Rue Morgue. After his early death, a rival rushed out a biography to try to destroy Poe's reputation but he has only become more famous over the years as a cultural icon as well as an author.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001svfv

Thomas Hardy's country folk on the roads

Following on from the last post on the gradual privatisation of England's land, and the resulting dispossession, here is the opening to Hardy's great novel 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' in which the protagonist Michael Henchard,  and his wife and child, are walking the country roads in search of seasonal work. The turnip-hoer they encounter relates how the village Weydon-Priors is on the decline, its houses being pulled down due to economic forces beyond their control. It is typical Hardy; a melancholic autumnal setting, estranged people, here an estranged couple, small dimished human activity on a backdrop of grand natural forces at work since the dawn of time. 

Here is an Arte four minute video version of The Oval Portrait. It captures something of Poe's unique atmosphere:

Edgar Allan Poe

We are studying one of Poe's many remarkable short stories in class; a lesson in how to write in compressed form! The artistry is extraordinary, it is Gothic in atmosphere, completely mysterious, full of suspense, and a reflection on the creative act. Below is the story, and below that, Charles Baudelaire's translation. It would be interesting to consider the great French poet's choices when putting Poe's writing into French.