Poe's Lighthouse

Various authors were given the task to take a little-known, unfinished story fragment written by Edgar Allan Poe near the end of his life and finish it, using Poe's language, images, and ideas.

From Publishers Weekly

Conlon asked 23 top authors to complete Poe's story fragment "The Lighthouse," and the mixed results suggest that Poe and his posthumous collaborators probably work best independent of one another. A few entries are Poe homages, including John Shirley's "Blind Eye," which capably echoes Poe's old-fashioned gothic prose, though its plot is frankly modern. George Clayton Johnson's "A Literary Forgery" resurrects Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin in a caper that hints creatively at the origins of several Poe story plots, while Paul Di Filippo's "Days of Other Light" is an interplanetary adventure that commands sympathy for a tortured Poe-like artist underappreciated by his extraterrestrial culture. Most of the contributors try to work Poe's prose into their narratives, but their stories show little interest in his concerns as a writer. The book ends with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's witty "A New Interpretation of the Liggerzun Text," a tale of a future society's misinterpretation of Poe that unintentionally critiques most of this volume's contents. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Found among Edgar Allan Poe's papers after he died (at 40, all too young) was an untitled story fragment with an intriguing preamble. Consisting of three short diary entries by a newly indentured lighthouse keeper, the fragment affords few clues about Poe's plot intentions. The assignment for the 23 contributors to this unique collection was to finish the tale by using Poe's language, themes, and predilection for curdling the blood. The results range from stylistically faithful narratives to improbable yarns that use Poe's introduction as a springboard for the author's own vision. In one entry, the diary pieces make up an ancient artifact viewed by an archivist in a future civilization. In another, the journal is inspected by detective Auguste Dupin, a figure familiar from such Poe classics as "The Purloined Letter." Perhaps the most outstanding entry is John Shirley's masterly continuation, in perfect faux-Poe fashion, of the diary to disclose the lighthouse keeper discovering a macabre use for his polished lantern. Must reading for Poe enthusiasts, in particular. Carl HaysCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Reviews

News