Transcript American literature
American Literature
Lecture 3
Objectives
• • • Enable the Ss to know the background, representative writers and their works of the Romantic period in American literary history; Enable the Ss to know spirit of transcendentalism by reading Emerson’s “ The American Scholar” Enable the appreciate Hawthorne’s style by a close reading of “The Minister’s Black Veil”
Teaching Materials
• • • William Cullen Bryant “To a Waterfowl” “The Yellow Violet” Emerson “ The American Scholar” Hawthorne “The Minister’s Black Veil”
Teaching Methodology
• • Lecturing Text-analysis
Chapter Three
American Romanticism (1810-1860)
General Introduction
Simply speaking,
Romanticism
is a literary movement flourished as a cultural force throughout the 19 th C and it can be divided into the early period and the late period. Also it remains powerful in contemporary literature and art.
General Introduction
Romanticism, a term that is associated with imagination and boundlessness, as contrasted with classicism, which is commonly associated with reason and restriction. A romantic attitude may be detected in literature of any period, but as an historical movement it arose in the 18th and 19th centuries, in reaction to more rational literary, philosophic, artistic, religious, and economic standards.... The most clearly defined romantic literary movement in the U. S. was Transcendentalism.
General Introduction
The representatives of the early period includes Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper , and William Cullen Bryant and those of the late period contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.
Its origins may be traced to :
the economic rise of the middle class, struggling to free itself from feudal and monarchical restrictions;
the individualism of the Renaissance;
the Reformation, which was based on the belief in an immediate relationship between man and God;
the scientific deism(
自然神论
), which emphasized the deity ’ s(
上帝
) benevolence;
the psychology of Locke, Hartley, and others, who contended that minds are formed by environmental conditions, thus seeming to be indicate that all men are created equal and may be improved by environmental changes;
the optimistic humanitarianism of Shaftsbury;
the writings of Rousseau who contended that man is natural good, institutions also having made him wicked
.
Romantic Attitudes
1. Appeals to imagination; use of the "willing suspension of disbelief."
2. Stress on emotion rather than reason; optimism, geniality(
和蔼
,
亲切
).
3. Subjectivity: in form and meaning
.
1. Time Range
From the beginning of the 19th century through the outbreak of the Civil War.
2. Ideals: Ideals: nation.
Democracy political equality
and became the ideals of the new
3. Social Background
Economic boom:
Industrialism Westward expansion optimism Immigration people and among
Radical changes came about in the political life of the country. Parties began to squabble and scramble for power, and a new system was in the making.
A nation bursting into new life cried for literary expression. The buoyant mood of the nation and the spirit of the times seem in some measure responsible for the spectacular outburst of romantic feeling in the first half of the nineteenth century. The literary milieu proved fertile and conducive to the imagination as well.
Foreign influences added incentive to the growth of romanticism in America. The Romantic movement which had flourished earlier in the century both in England and Europe proved to be a decisive influence without which the upsurge of American romanticism would hardly have been possible.
Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Byron, Robert Burns and many other English and European masters of poetry and prose all made a stimulating impact on the different departments of the country’s literature.
The influence of Sir Walter Scott was powerful and enduring. Scott’s Waverly novels were models for American historical romance, and his
The Lady of the Lake
, together with Byron’s Oriental romances, helped toward the development of American Indian romance.
The Gothic tradition, and the cult of solitude and of gloom came through interest in the works of writers like Mrs. Radcliffe, James Thomson and the “graveyard” poets.
Byron and Robert Burns both inspired and spurred the American imagination for lyrics of love and passion and despair. The impact of
Lyrical Ballads
of Wordsworth and Coleridge added to some extent, to the nation’s singing strength. Thus American romanticism was in a way derivative: American romantic writing was some of them modeled on English and European works.
4. Features
1. American Puritanism as a cultural heritage 2. “The newness” of the American as a nation
American Romanticism was both imitative and independent .
Imitative Independent English and European Romanticists Emerson and Whitman
5. Themes:
Imitative
home, family, nature, children and idealized love, etc.
Independent
major problems of American life, like the westward expansion and democracy and equality, etc.
1. Washington Irving (1783--1859)
“
Father of American Imaginative literature”
“Father of the American short story”
1) Works
a) A History of New York
written by Diedrich Knickerbocker from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty
《纽约外史》
b)
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent
“ Rip Van Winkle” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 《见 闻札 记》 《瑞 普 · 凡 · 温克 尔》 《睡谷的 传说》
《布雷斯
c) d)
布里奇庄 园》
Bracebridge Hall 1822 Life of Goldsmith 1840 e) Life of Washington 1855 1859
《哥尔德 斯密斯》 《华盛顿传》
2
）
Life
Irving was born into a wealthy New York merchant family. From a very early age, he began to read widely and write juvenile poems, essays and plays.
Later, he studied law.
His first book A History of New York, written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker popularity.
, was a great success and won him wide
In 1815, he went to England to take care of his family business there, and when it failed, had to write to support himself.
With the publication of The Sketch Book, he won a measure of international recognition.
Knickerbocker Rip Van Winkle
In 1826, as an American diplomatic attaché, he was sent to Spain, where he gathered material for his writing.
From 1829 to 1832, he was secretary of the U.S Legation in London.
Then when he was fifty, he returned to America and bought “ Sunnyside ” , his famous home. There he spent the rest of his life, living a life of leisure and comfort, except for a period of four years (1842--1846), when he was Minister to Spain.
View of Sunnyside
3
）
Evaluation
Washington Irving was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.
The short story as a genre in American literature began with Irving’s The Sketch Book.
The Sketch Book also marked the
beginning of American Romanticism.
2. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
He was a prolific writer, wrote more than thirty novels.
His Major Works.
In his life Cooper wrote over thirty novels which can be divided into frontier novels, detective novels and reference novels. He considered
The Pathfinder
(1840) and
The Deerslayer
(1841) his best works.
The unifying thread of the five novels collectively known as the
Leather-Stocking Tales
is the life of Natty Bumppo. Cooper’s finest achievement, they constitute4 a vast prose epic with the North American continent as setting. Indian tribes as Characters, and great wars and westward migration as social background. The novels bring to life frontier America from 1740 to 1804.
His Major Works
1)
The Pioneers(
1823
)
: Natty Bumppo first appears as a seasoned scout in advancing years, with the dying Chingachgook, the old Indian chief and his faithful comrade, as the eastern forest frontier begins to disappear and Chingachgook dies
.
Leatherstocking Tales
2) The Last of the Mohicans(1826): An adventure of the French and Indian Wars in the Lake George county.
His Major Works
3) The Prairie(1827): Set in the new frontier where the Leatherstocking dies.
4) The Pathfinder(1840): Continuing the same border warfare in the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario county.
5) The Deerslayer(1841): Early adventures with the hostile Hurons on Lake Otsego, NY.
Contributions of Cooper
The creation of the famous Leatherstocking saga has cemented his position as our first great national novelist and his influence pervades American literature. In his thirty-two years (1820-1851) of authorship, Cooper produced twenty-nine other long works of fiction and fifteen books - enough to fill forty-eight volumes in the new definitive edition of his
Works
. Among his achievements: 1) The first successful American historical romance in the vein of Sir Walter Scott (
The Spy
, 1821). 2) The first sea novel (
The Pilot
, 1824). 3) The first attempt at a fully researched historical novel (
Lionel Lincoln
, 1825).
Contributions of Cooper
4) 5) 6) 7) The first full-scale History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839).
The first American international novel of manners (Homeward Bound and Home as Found, 1838).
The first trilogy in American fiction (Satanstoe, 1845; The Chainbearer, 1845; and The Redskins, 1846).
The first and only five-volume epic romance to carry its mythic hero - Natty Bumppo - from youth to old age.
His Skills
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) He is good at making plots.
All his novels are full of myths.
He had never been to the frontier and among the Indians and yet could write five huge epic books about them is an eloquent proof of the richness of his imagination. He created the first Indians to appear in American fiction and probably the first group of noble savages. He hit upon the native subject of frontier and wilderness, and helped to introduce the “Western” tradition into American literature.
Evaluation
Leatherstocking Tales is a series of five novels about the frontier of American settlers.
The Pioneers was probably the first true romance of the frontier in American literature.
Anyhow, Cooper did help to introduce the “western tradition” into American literature.
3. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
the first American lyric poet of distinction
1) Works
a) Poems 1821 b) The Fountain 1842 《诗选》 《泉》
《白蹄鹿》
His Major Works
c) The White-Footed Deer 1844 d) A Forest Hymn 1860 e) The Flood of Years 1878 《似水流年》 《森林赋 》
《致水鸟》
His Major Works
f) “To a Waterfowl” 1815 g) “Thanatopsis” 1817 h) “The Yellow Violet” 1814
《死亡随想》 《黄色堇香花》
4. New England Transcendentalism
------ the summit of American Romanticism
Transcendentalism
It is a 19th-century movement of writers and philosophers in New England who were loosely bound together by adherence to an idealistic system of thought.
The overall movement shared similar philosophies. These philosophies rested on the Lockian concept of Idealism and Kant's belief in intuition. Emerson defined it as “idealism” simply. In reality it was far more complex collection of beliefs: that the spark of divinity lies within man; that everything in the world is a microcosm of existence; that the individual soul is identical to the world soul, or Over-Soul. By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty and goodness and truth.
Transcendentalism
In application, American transcendentalism urged a reform in society, and that such a reform may be reached if individuals resist customs and social codes, and rely rather on reason to learn what is right. Ultimately, transcendentalists believed that one should transcend society's code of ethics and rely on personal intuition in order to reach absolute goodness, or Absolute Truth.
It was indebted to the dual heritage of American Puritanism. That is to say, it was in actuality romanticism on the puritan soil. Transcendentalism dominated the thinking of the American Renaissance, and its resonance reverberated through American life well into the 20th century. In one way or another American most creative minds were drawn into its thrall, attracted not only to its practicable messages of confident self-identity, spiritual progress and social justice, but also by its aesthetics, which celebrated, in landscape and mindscape, the immense grandeur of the American soul
Representative Writers
I. The Essayists 1) Ralph Waldo Emerson 2) Henry David Thoreau
Representative Writers
II. The Poets The Boston Brahmins refer to the patrician, Harvard-educated class, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson
The Concept
1) 2) 3) It also called the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic movement, came of age as an expression of a national spirit.
New England Renaissance
period from The literary scene of the period was dominated by a group of New England writers, the “Brahmins”. They were aristocrats, steeped in foreign culture, active as professors at Harvard College, and interested in creating a genteel American literature based on foreign models. One of the most important influences in the period was that of the Transcendentalists, including Emerson, Thoreau and so on.
The Concept
4) 5) The Transcendentalists contributed to the founding of a new national culture based on native elements. They advocated reforms in church, state, and society, contributing to the rise of free religion and the abolition movement and to the formation of various utopian communities, such as Brook Farm. The abolition movement was also bolstered by other New England writers, including the Quaker poet Whittier and the novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose
Uncle Tom's Cabin
(1852) dramatized the plight of the black slave.
Apart from the Transcendentalists, there emerged during this period great imaginative writers —Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman literature —whose novels and poetry left a permanent imprint on American literature. Contemporary with these writers but outside the New England circle was the Southern genius Edgar Allan Poe, who later in the century had a strong impact on European
Leading writers
Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau
Manifesto
In 1836 the publication of
Nature
by Emerson pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism.
Nature
is regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism.
It says in the book:
• • “The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul.” “Spirit is present everywhere.”
About
Transcendentalism
Club: Transcendentalist Club Transcendentalist journal:
The Dial
Sources: ---German Idealism, ---German Transcendentalism ---American Puritanism.
Definition by Emerson
“What is probably called Transcendentalism among us is idealism; idealism as appears in 1842.” Transcendental: Whatever belongs to the class of intuitive ( 直 觉的 ) thought
Main Ideas (Features) of N.E.T.
• 1. placing emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe --- a new way of looking at the world • 2. stressing the importance of the individual. --- a new way of looking at man • 3. offering a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of Spirit or God
• New England Transcendentalism was, in actuality, Romanticism in Puritan soil.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The American Scholar---
Intellectual Declaration of Independence
Nature
---
the Bible of New England Transcendentalis m
• • • Emerson’s aesthetics brought about a revolution in American literature in general and in American poetry in particular.
It marked the birth of true American poetry and true American poets such as Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.
He embodied a new nation’s desire and struggle to assert its own identity in its formative period.
Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)
•
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
•
Walden
---a prophet of individualism in American literature
• • • He was one of the three great American authors of the last century who had no contemporary readers and yet became great in this century. Herman Melville Emily Dickinson.
Questions
• 1. What, in Emerson’s view, are the main influence upon the mind of the scholar? (P297) • 2. What is your understanding of the part dealing with the value and use of books in “The American Scholar”?
Assignment
• Read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Minister’s Black Veil” and be ready to answer the questions afterwards.
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
His life represents: one of the greatest tragedies in the North American literary history, one of the greatest losses to American literature, one of the most disgraceful episodes of critical stupidity in the United States
Works
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Redburn Typee Omoo Moby Dick Mardi 1849 1846 1874 1851 1849 White Jacket 1850 Pierre 1852 Billy Budd 1924
Themes of Moby Dick
• 1. Search for truth The story deals with the human pursuit of truth and the meaning of existence.
2. Conflict between Good and Evil.
3. Conflict between Man and Nature.
4. Isolation between man and man; man and nature; man and society.
5. Solipsism.
Symbols
• 1) The Pequod The Pequod is a symbol of doom. It is painted a gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones, literally bristling with the mementos of violent death. It is, in fact, marked for death. Adorned like a primitive coffin, the becomes one. ) Pequod
2) Moby Dick Moby Dick possesses various symbolic meanings for various individuals.
1) Symbol of nature for human beings, because it is mysterious, powerful, unknown.
2) Symbol of evil for the Captain Ahab.
3) Symbol of good and purity because of its whiteness.
3) Voyage of the Pequod Symbol of the pursuit of ideals, adventure, and the hunt in the vast wilderness.
4) Ahab Symbol of solipsism, revenge and then evil.
5) Sea Symbol of vastness, loneliness, and isolation.
Evaluation
• • Moby Dick is, critics have agreed, one of the world’s greatest masterpieces. To get to know the 19th century American mind and America itself, one has to read this book.
One of the classics of American Literature and even world literature.
• Moby Dick is an encyclopedia of everything, history, philosophy, religion, etc. in addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry.
6. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
a) b) c)
Collections of short stories
Works
《故事 重述》
Twice-Told Tales 1837 Mosses from an Old Manse The Scarlet Letter 1850 1843
《古宅青苔》 《红字 》
d) The House of the Seven Gables 1851
《七个尖角阁的房子》
e) The Blithedale Romance 1852 d) The Marble Faun 1860
《福谷传奇》 《大理石雕像》
g) h)
“
Young Goodman Brown” “The Minister’s Black Veil”
《 好小伙 儿布朗》
g) “Dr. Rappacini’s Daughter
” 《教长的 黑面纱》 《拉普齐 尼博士的 女儿》
Life
Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachusetts.
Some of his ancestors were men of prominence (
突出
)in the Puritan theocracy of seventeenth-century New England. One of them was a colonial magistrate, notorious for his part in the persecution of the Quakers, and another was a judge at the Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692.
When Nathaniel was four, his father died on a voyage in Surinam, Dutch Guinea, but maternal
（母系的）
relatives recognized his literary talent and financed his education at Bowdoin College.
Among his classmates were many of the important literary and political figures of the day: writer Horatio Bridge, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and future President Franklin Pierce. These prominent friends supplied Hawthorne with government employment in the lean times, allowing him time to bloom as an author.
Like James Fenimore Cooper, Hawthorne was extremely concerned with conventionality
传统
; his first pseudonymously published short stories imitated Sir Walter Scott, as did his 1828 self published Fanshawe.
Hawthorne later formally withdrew most of this early work, discounting it as the work of inexperienced youth. From 1836 to 1844 the Boston-centered Transcendentalist movement, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, was an important force in New England intellectual circles.
Hawthorne's fiancée Sophia Peabody drew him into "the newness," and in 1841 Hawthorne invested $1500 in the Brook Farm Utopian Community, leaving disillusioned within a year.
His later works show some Transcendentalist influence, including a belief in individual choice and consequence, and an emphasis on symbolism.
As America's first true psychological novel, The Scarlet Letter would convey these ideals; contrasting puritan morality with passion and individualism .
Influences on Hawthorne
Salem - early childhood, later work at the Custom House.
Puritan family background - one of his forefathers was Judge Hathorne, who presided over the Salem witchcraft trials, 1692.
Belief in the existence of the devil.
Belief in determinism.
Major Themes in Hawthorne's Fiction
Alienation
（疏远）
- a character is in a state of isolation because of self-cause, or societal cause, or a combination of both.
Initiation
（创始）
- involves the attempts of an alienated character to get rid of his isolated condition.
Problem of Guilt -a character's sense of guilt forced by the puritanical heritage or by society; also guilt vs. innocence.
Pride - Hawthorne treats pride as evil. He illustrates the following aspects of pride in various characters: physical pride (Robin), spiritual pride (Goodman Brown, Ethan Brand), and intellectual pride (Rappaccini).
Puritan New England - used as a background and setting in many tales.
Italian background - especially in The Marble Faun.
Allegory
（寓言）
- Hawthorne ‘ s writing is allegorical, didactic
（说教）
and moralistic.
（道德说教的）
Other themes include
：
individual vs. society, self-fulfillment vs. frustration, hypocrisy vs. integrity, love vs. hate, exploitation
（利用，剥削）
vs. hurting, fate vs. free will.
Features of his works
setting Puritan New England
themes Evil & sin Idea “black vision” toward human beings
Feature
technique Ambiguity symbolism
The Scarlet Letter
Hester
Chillingworth
Dimmesdale
Pearl Sin evil A dultery A bility A ngel
The Scarlet Letter represents the height of Hawthorne‘s literary genius; dense with terse
（用词简练的）
descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme (secret sin).
The Minister’s Black Veil
Questions to answer: 1. What happened at the morning service? What was the effect of the black veil upon the villagers? What was the subject of the sermon?
1. Key: Mr. Hooper wore a black veil. The second Paragraph in P302. The 16 th line in Paragraph 3 in P302.
2. What happened in the afternoon? Do you think Mr. Hooper had anything to do with the young maiden’s death? Why or why not?
2. Key: In Paragraph 1 in P304.
3. What happened on that night?
3. Key: In the last Paragraph in P304 and 1 st Paragraph in P305.
4. What happened the next day?
4. Key: In the second Paragraph in P305 and 1 st Paragraph in P306. The villagers were talking about the black veil.
They sent deputation to talk with Mr. Hooper.
5. What cause did Mr. Hooper give Elizabeth not to take off the black veil?
5. Key: In the second Paragraph from the bottom in P307 and 2 nd Paragraph in P308.
6. What happened at the death-bed of Mr. Hooper?
6. Key: In the 1 st Paragraph in P311 and the sixth Paragraph in P312
7. Why did Mr. Hooper persist in wearing the black veil until his death?
7. Key: In the last Paragraph in P312.
Technique
Symbolism Psychological insight
Hawthorne as a Literary Artist
First professional writer - college educated, familiar with the great European writers, and influenced by puritan writers like Cotton Mather
.
Hawthorne displayed a love for allegory and symbol. He dealt with tensions involving: light versus dark; warmth versus cold; faith versus doubt; heart versus mind; internal versus external worlds.
Reasons for Hawthorne's Current Popularity
Hawthorne's use of psychological analysis (pre Freudian) is of interest today.
In themes and style, Hawthorne's writings look ahead to Henry James, William Faulkner, and Robert Penn Warren
7. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Longfellow was early fond of reading Washington Irving's Sketch-Book was his favorite Among Longfellow's classmates at Bowdoin College was Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom he helped later reviewing warmly his Twice-Told Tales. In 1836 Longfellow began teaching in Harvard Longfellow settled in Cambridge, where he remained for the rest of his life Queen Victoria, who was his great admirer, invited him to tea
The poet's 70th birthday in 1877 was celebrated around the country
Longfellow died in Cambridge on March 24, 1882. In London his marble image is seen in Westminster Abbey, in the Poet's Corner
Works of Longfellow
Voices of the Night
1839 《夜籁集》
Ballads and other Poems
1841 《歌谣 及其他》
The Belfry of Bruges and other Poems
《布鲁茨的钟楼及其他》
Evangeline: a Tale of Acadie
1847 《伊凡吉林》
The Song of Hiawatha
《海华沙之歌》
Tales of a Wayside Inn
1863, 1872, 1873 《路边酒肆的故事》
Poetic Features
His reputation as a major American Poet declined between the two wars for the gentleness and sweetness, and the common subjects He is lacking in passion and high imagination His style and subjects are conventional compared with modern poets He made a great contribution to "the flowering of New England Americans owe a great debt to Longfellow because he was among the first of American writers to use native themes
8. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
father of modern short story father of detective story father of psychoanalytic criticism
a) b)
1) Works
《奇异怪 诞故事集 》 Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque “MS. Found in a Bottle” 《瓶子里发 现的手稿》 C) “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” 《毛格街杀人案 》
d) e) f) 《厄舍古屋的 倒塌》 “ The Fall of the House of Usher” “The Masque of the Red Death” “The Cask of Amontillado” 《一桶酒的 故事》 《红色死亡的 化妆舞会》
g) h) i) j) The Raven Annabel Lee To Helen 《致海伦 》 《安娜贝尔
•
李》 《乌鸦》
《
原理》 k) l) The Poetic Principle The Philosophy of Composition 《创作 哲学》
2) Life
•
Famous American Poet, short-story writer and critic.
致海伦 海伦，你的美在我的眼里， 有如往日尼西亚的三桅船 船行在飘香的海上，悠悠地 把已倦于漂泊的困乏船员 送回他故乡的海岸。
早已习惯于在怒海上飘荡， 你典雅的脸庞，你的鬈发， 你水神般的风姿带我返航， 返回那往时的希腊和罗马， 返回那往时的壮丽和辉煌。 看哪！壁龛似的明亮窗户里， 我看见你站着，多像尊雕像， 一盏玛瑙的灯你拿在手上！ 塞姬女神哪，神圣的土地 才是你家乡！
这首诗据坡自己说是为中学一位同学的年轻 母亲斯丹娜夫人而作，写的是“我的灵魂的 第一次纯洁、理想的爱”。从诗里提到的地 理、历史背景来看，对斯丹娜夫人的爱慕和 对古希腊史诗《伊利亚特》中的绝世美人海 伦的景仰合二为一。而在最后一节里，对不 可企及的美人的倾倒又升华为对艺术 —— 甚 至是对真、善、美的无穷无尽的追求。因为 在西文人心中，古代的希腊和罗马已成为一 种理想的境界，那里的一切似乎都是至美与 至善的。
4) Evaluation
• Poe remained the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.
• Emerson dismissed him in three words “the jingle man” ， Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable. And Whitman was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in 1875.
• • Ironically, it was in Europe that Poe enjoyed respect and welcome. Bernard Shaw said: “Poe was ‘the greatest journalistic critic of his time; his poetry is exquisitely refined; and his tales are “complete works of art”.
• Poe’s reputation was first made in France. Charles Baudelaire said that “Edgar Poe, who isn’t much in America, must become a great man in France.”
• Today, Poe’s particular power has ensured his position among the greatest writers of the world. The majority of critics today, in America as well as in the world, have recognized the real, unique importance of Poe as a great writer of fiction, a poet of the first rank, and a critic of acumen and insight. His works are read the world over. His influence in world wide in modern literature.