Mrs. Poe Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00F3KEVL6 | Format: PDF
Mrs. Poe Description
A writer and his demons. A woman and her desires. A wife and her revenge . . .
Inspired by literature's most haunting love triangle, award-winning author Lynn Cullen delivers a pitch-perfect rendering of Edgar Allan Poe, his mistress's tantalizing confession, and his wife's frightening obsession . . . in this "intelligent, sexy, and utterly addictive" (M. J. Rose) new masterpiece of historical fiction.
1845: New York City is a sprawling warren of gaslit streets and crowded avenues, bustling with new immigrants and old money, optimism and opportunity, poverty and crime. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is all the rage - the success of which a struggling poet like Frances Osgood can only dream. As a mother trying to support two young children after her husband's cruel betrayal, Frances jumps at the chance to meet the illustrious Mr. Poe at a small literary gathering, if only to help her fledgling career. Although not a great fan of Poe's writing, she is nonetheless overwhelmed by his magnetic presence - and the surprising revelation that he admires her work.
What follows is a flirtation, then a seduction, then an illicit affair . . . and with each clandestine encounter, Frances finds herself falling slowly and inexorably under the spell of her mysterious, complicated lover. But when Edgar's frail wife Virginia insists on befriending Frances as well, the relationship becomes as dark and twisted as one of Poe's tales. And like those gothic heroines whose fates are forever sealed, Frances begins to fear that deceiving Mrs. Poe may be as impossible as cheating death itself. . . .
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 12 hours and 1 minute
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: October 1, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00F3KEVL6
Mrs. Poe - by Lynn Cullen
The title of this book can be a bit misleading. Yes, Virginia Poe is one of the main characters in the novel, but the main thrust of this book is the relationship of Edgar Alan Poe and Frances Sargent Osgood. As Mr. Poe is now in the spot light from "The Raven" which is making a big splash on the literary scene. We see some of the back story where Mrs. Poe revels in the new found notoriety and how it interacts with the people as the magnetic personality of Poe seems to work.
Frances Sargent Osgood (née Locke) (June 18, 1811 - May 12, 1850) was an American poet and one of the most popular women writers during her time. Nicknamed "Fanny," she was also famous for her exchange of romantic poems with Edgar Allan Poe. Osgood was a prolific writer and contributed to most of the leading periodicals of the time. She was one of the most admired women poets during the mid-1840s. Osgood was very open and personal in her writings, often discussing the relationships she had with others, despite her shy personality. A large portion of her body of work is love poetry but she also addresses poems to her mother, her sister, her husband, and several friends. The poems written to her children are not sentimental, but literary historian Emily Stipes Watts wrote that they "are honest attempts to express thoughts and emotions never so fully expressed before by women in poetry" depicting a sincere concern for their development and well-being.
In February 1845, Poe gave a lecture in New York in which he criticized American poetry, especially that of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He made special mention, however, of Osgood, saying she had "a rosy future" in literature.
I don't think I would have ordered this book if I'd realized that it's
an historical romance, not an historical novel. Frances Osgood was a
(real) poet, who was quite popular in the New York literary society of
the 1840s. Horace Greeley, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, Elizabeth Ellet,
and Margaret Fuller, among many others notables, feature in the book. Osgood's connection with Poe was a major scandal, as they were both married, although Frances' husband had left her to dally with some of his portrait subjects. Poe and Frances Osgood wrote anonymous but
apparently quite obvious flirtatious poems to each other, published in
Poe's literary journal. The author works from these facts to invent
the details of both their relationship with each other, and the
relationship between Frances and Poe's wife and his mother-in-law.
These are all very dramatic, overwrought people, as the author draws them.
One aspect of the book that I particularly enjoyed was the friendship
between Frances and her friend Eliza Bartlett, who has taken Frances
and her two young daughters into her home after Frances is thrown out
of the Astor House hotel when her husband left behind a few months of
unpaid bills. The friendship and loyalty between the two women was
delightful. The servants were also real people and part of the story. Another nice thing was that the clothes were not described
constantly in great detail, as in many historical romances.
Frances seemed ambivalent to Poe -- she seemed too quick to accept
others' attempts to portray him as evil and dangerous. Mrs Poe and
her mother seem a bit mad and quite unpleasant.
The book was a fairly easy and exciting read, although it got a bit
repetitive.
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