A Review of Allan Poe’s Career as a Short Story Writer and Critic
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DOI: 10.25236/icess.2019.327
Corresponding Author
Binshi Wang
Abstract
The art of short stories finds mature expression in Allan Poe’s stories and theories. Poe’s 70 stories can be clearly identified their publication, which are the fruits of his deliberate practice of his artistic theory. The years between 1837 and 1840 were Poe’s first productive period and he got 14 short stories published; from 1841 to 1847, another prolific period, Poe published four refined detective stories and, of course, other well-known horror tales. In his four critical articles he systematically advocates four principles for literary creation: Originality, Totality, Brevity and Single Effect. It’s neither necessary nor possible to draw definite lines among so-called Poe’s four categories of short stories. Poe’s abundant fruits of short stories give great credit to the workableness of his writing theories. A review of Poe’s career as a short story writer and critic contributes to better appreciation of Poe’s art of short stories and better regard for Poe.
Keywords
Allan poe, Short story writer, Critic, Review