“Almighty God!-no,no! They heard!-they suspected!-they knew!-they were making a mockery of my horror!-this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die!-and now-again!-hark! Louder! Louder! Louder! LOUDER!”
“Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!-tear up the planks!-here, here!-it is the beating of his hideous heart!” – Edgar Allan Poe, January 1843.
The ending of “The Tell-Tale Heart” will be forever ingrained in my memory after reading it in grade school. The vulture eye and the loss of sanity beg the questions: Did Poe know his literary talent? Or was he only expressing his internal and external feelings through words? An eye as a catalyst for murder; how it caused so much madness over one’s acute senses.
“The vulture eye always closed, not the old man who vexed me but his Evil Eye.”
“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a confession of the narrator’s guilt, his conscience at tug-of-war, and the nature of his unvanquished perception; all while keeping you on the edge of your seat as you witness his internal struggle.
Author of a recent title, Edgar Allan Poe:The Master of Macabre, Levi Lionel Leland is an expert on Poe’s Providence. Levi wrote a biography on the literary legend, and offers tours covering the gothic poet Poe and his brief fiancée, Sarah Helen Whitman. Whitman was also a poet of roses, seances, romance, and booze; these lovers’ spirits are said to still roam the grounds of Rhode Island today.
KM: What was your inspiration for writing the biography Edgar Allan Poe: Master of Macabre?
LL: Since my introduction to Poe at the age of 12, I had a biography — my own perspective of his life and works — written in my head. I’m 30 now, and it was only by chance that I was given this incredible opportunity to put 18 years of passion into book form. The publisher was scouting for a Poe expert to author this “Pocket Portrait” biography, and they just happened to find me through my tours and website. They liked my writing style and approach to Poe, and emailed me with the offer to author this book. I was ecstatic!
KM: Can you compare your theme in writing The Master of Macabre versus Poe’s in “The Tell-Tale Heart?”
LL: Stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart” are great pieces to analyze Poe as a writer and a man. While he was tapping into the deep recesses of the human psyche, I was tapping into the deep recesses of Poe’s psyche. To understand Poe is to know when his works were a reflection of his own thoughts and feelings, and when they were simple products of his imagination. Many people like to place Poe in the same category as his insane narrators, but Poe was actually a pretty normal guy. He wrote fiction that would sell because he desperately needed money to feed his little family. And the horror sold.
KM: Do you consider Poe’s writing to be gothic fiction? What is your definition of gothic fiction, and do you see a difference between the classic and modern varieties?
LL: I think Poe’s works are a fair blend of gothic fiction and psychological horror. Believe it or not, he wrote more satirical stories than he did horror. He also wrote what are considered early examples of science fiction, and he’s credited with inventing the detective genre. He also wrote poetry, criticism, and essays covering a broad range of topics. But, of course, he’s mostly known for his horror stories. I always associate gothic fiction with Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stoker’s Dracula, and while Poe covered many themes of gothic fiction (like horror, mystery, romance, and even the supernatural) in his works, his monsters didn’t live in castles, have fangs, or suck people’s blood. His monsters were your everyday madmen: your neighbor, your roommate, your spouse — capable of murdering you in your own bed. I think we see a lot of this in not just modern gothic fiction, but in nonfiction media, too. We are a society that oddly loves true crime.
KM: What is the strangest or most surprising thing you researched for this book?
LL: One of the strangest facts about Poe is his mysterious death. He was found in Baltimore, incoherent, wearing clothes that didn’t belong to him. He was completely delirious. Many assumed he was drunk, given his history with alcohol, but evidence tells us that it was unlikely the problem in this situation. Something was very seriously, medically wrong with him. After being taken to Washington College Hospital, he died four days later without ever being able to explain why he was in the condition he was in. The night before he died, it was reported by hospital staff that he repeatedly called out the name Reynolds until he uttered his final words, “Lord help my poor soul,” and died. He was 40 years old. The inventor of detective fiction left us with one of his greatest real-life mysteries.
Levi Lionel Leland is a native Rhode Islander from Coventry, an independent scholar, and author. Leland visited every Poe museum and historic site in the US before centering his research on Poe’s time in Rhode Island. He runs edgarallanpoeri.com, a comprehensive resource on Poe and Whitman, and leads A Walking Tour of Poe’s Providence, a 1.5-mile guided tour of sites tied to their 1848 courtship.