Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe by Ogden, Emily
Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe by Ogden, Emily

Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe

"Engaging . . . Ogden is both incisive and eloquent." --The New York Times Book Review A...
$36.00 USD
$36.00 USD
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Author: Emily Ogden
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $36.00
Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe by Ogden, Emily

Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe

$36.00
Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe by Ogden, Emily

Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe

$36.00
Author: Emily Ogden
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Description
"Engaging . . . Ogden is both incisive and eloquent." --The New York Times Book Review

A fascinating and intimate inquiry into Edgar Allan Poe's shadowy life and horrifyingly compelling work--and why we are drawn to darkness in art

Since Edgar Allan Poe's mysterious death in 1849, his stories and poems have captivated millions of readers around the world. Nearly two centuries later, why do we continue to descend into the darkness of his imagination--and of the genres, from horror to crime, that he pioneered?

In this spellbinding and singular book, Guggenheim Fellow and Whiting grant recipient Emily Ogden plumbs the darkness within Poe and enters it alongside him. She interweaves stories from his mysterious and tragic life--from his strange disappearances and tortured romances to his nearly fatal use of opium--with those of his most famous readers and translators, including poet Charles Baudelaire, writer Julio Cortázar, and psychoanalyst Marie Bonaparte, a descendant of Napoleon and a patient of Sigmund Freud.

Tracing their passionate attachments to Poe--and Ogden's own, unexpectedly sparked when she taught an introductory Poe course at the University of Virginia, where Poe himself was once a student--Darkness Becomes Bright makes a different case for literature from the one we most often hear. This exquisite volume shows how Poe's vision echoes across the generations, allowing us to make peace with our own flawed humanity.

Author: Emily Ogden
Publisher: Viking
Published: 09/29/2026
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 8.23h x 6.16w x 0.89d
ISBN: 9780593832509


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/29/2026
Library Journal 08/01/2026 pg. 80
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2026

About the Author
Emily Ogden is the author of On Not Knowing: How to Love and Other Essays and Credulity: A Cultural History of US Mesmerism. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, and a Mellon Fellowship in the Columbia Society of Fellows, she is a professor of English at the University of Virginia.
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