Today, Edgar Allan Poe has become a name synonymous with horror. But there was much more to the man beyond swinging pendulums, hideously beating hearts and fluttering black raven’s wings.
Though Poe’s writings often center on the fantastical, phantasmagoric and gruesome, Poe’s poetry and prose have also touched on topics of the sublime, such as dreams, visions, eternal love and paradise.
Even over a century and a half after his death, it is apparent that the terrifying and transcendent works of this ingenious though strange man continue to hold interminable power. It is a special type of power that allows his words to access and, in some instances, awaken that secret and sleepy realm of the subliminal.
Whether terrific or terrifying, Poe’s territory has always been that of the subconscious. And by reading his poems and stories, we eagerly invite him to tamper with our minds, unlock hidden boxes filled with fantasies and nightmares alike, angels and demons we never knew existed until we turned the page and found them there, waiting for us, real, like we always suspected.
And so, before you begin, I’d like to offer you a fair warning in regards to reading Poe, one which the characters of Nevermore will learn the hard way.
Open this book and, no matter what, you’ll never close it.