[Gutenberg 43624] • My Friend Annabel Lee

Published in 1903, this selection of dialogues by Mary MacLane entails a mystery of wondering who she is speaking with. Is it the statue she describes at first? Is it an imaginary friend? Is it the author’s alter-ego? Or perhaps, is it a friend she knows in-the-flesh whom the author wished no one to recognize the identity of? These questions are never truly answered for how could a statue send word by postal mail or know some of the deeper vulnerabilities of the author without her knowing them herself? In these talks between herself and Annabel Lee come glimmerings of another time, discussions in the whimsy of personal stories, happenings in the neighbourhood, and the reflections in the deeper meaning of life as well as the bonds of friendship.