Edgar Allen Poe

　　I. Life

　　II. Works

　　1.short stories

　　（1）ratiocinative stories

　　a. Ms Found in a Bottle

　　b. The Murders in the Rue Morgue

　　c. The Purloined Letter

　　（2）Revenge, death and rebirth

　　a. The Fall of the House of Usher

　　b. Ligeia

　　c. The Masque of the Red Death

　　（3）Literary theory

　　a. The Philosophy of Composition

　　b. The Poetic Principle

　　c. Review of Hawthorne＊s Twice-told Tales

　　III.    Themes

　　1.death 每 predominant theme in Poe＊s writing

　　※Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe＊s writings is dead.§

　　2.disintegration （separation） of life

　　3.horror

　　4.negative thoughts of science

　　IV.     Aesthetic ideas

　　1.The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.

　　2.The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.

　　V.  Style 每 traditional, but not easy to read

　　VI.     Reputation: ※the jingle man§ （Emerson）

　　VII.  His influences