Okay, so Edgar Allan Poe always seemed like a cool
guy, but I never read many of his work pieces. Sure, he was popular, and I had
heard so much of “The Raven,” and I had often meant to read his stuff, but I never
did. So when I found out we would be reading a number of his stories, I was
pretty excited.
It wasn’t so much of a letdown as it was a sad
realization. I had such high hopes for Poe, and when I read “The Fall of the
House of Usher,” I was not as drawn in as I hoped. To be quite honest, I was
bored and the story was dragging. Like really dragging. It was bit of a torture
to read; Poe took his description a bit too serious, and I felt we weren’t getting
to the action of the story quickly enough. Literally, the real action of the
story didn’t take place until about the last page or so of the story, while it
occupied about seventeen. I jumped into “The Fall of the House of Usher”
expecting it to be as good as I had heard “The Raven” was. But was I read it,
it felt dread and weariness. Needless to say, it was not my cup of tea.
“The Raven” went much better; as I read it, I kept a rhythm
in my head that added to the creepiness, and the “action” was continuous. It was
pretty good, and I realized why “The Raven” was arguably Poe’s most famous
work. It was definitely better, in my opinion, than “The Fall of the House of
Usher,” and because it was short, it didn’t drag the details across 17 pages.
Of course, I would have to read a wider range of Poe’s
works to fully develop an opinion on him, but as of right now, I am wearier of all
the praise he receives. Though there is no doubt that he has a real talent of
having hidden messages or double meanings behind his words, or even that he
chooses his words wisely to hint at those messages, probing the reader to think
deeper.
