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The Raven

edgar allan poe

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Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary... - thus begins perhaps the most-quoted poem ever written in the English Language. Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven is illustrated with Alen James Robinson's masterful etchings and wood engravings.

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 29,1845

This edition

Format
40 pages, Paperback
Published
July 1, 2007 by Moyer Bell and its subsidiaries
ISBN
9781559211789
ASIN
1559211784
Language
English

More editions

About the author

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edgar allan poe

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The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer's oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America's first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe's reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

Just as the bizarre characters in Poe's stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author's name.

The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe's sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls' school. Within three years of Poe's birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe's siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe's handwriting on the backs of Allan's ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 97 votes)
5 stars
36(37%)
4 stars
39(40%)
3 stars
22(23%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
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97 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Chan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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n  And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!n  
n  
n  
n    n   
n  
n

Themes such as loss and relentless melancholy - nothing foreign to Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) - combined with a repetitive rhythm that gives it a unique and gradually oppressive musicality resulted in one of the best literary works of all time, The Raven.

This edition, first published in 1844, includes the steel-plate engravings by renowned French artist Gustave Doré (1832–1883), who died shortly after completing the series.

This is the second time I read Poe's masterpiece and it was an entirely different experience. After several poetry collections, I was able to appreciate his creative genius and connect with his words on another level, something I couldn't do many years ago.

The following excerpt is part of the Introduction. In few words, Poe's haunting Raven was portrayed with utmost perfection.

The Mirror's editor, Nathaniel P. Willis included a short preface to "The Raven", in which he wrote:

In our opinion, it is the most effective single example of "fugitive poetry" ever published in this country, and unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent sustaining of imaginative lift...
n



July 23,18
* Also on my blog.
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liviz-library
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Both reads I've done have been rather quick: and both for research purposes. Difficult to get a handle on it but both times it's been a nice ride. At some point I will definitely write a proper review. At some point.
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zlello
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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No pronunciaba nada más, no movía una pluma, hasta que comencé a murmurar débilmente "Otros amigos ya han volado lejos de mí: hacia la mañana, también él me abandonará como mis antiguas esperanzas". El pájaro dijo entonces "¡Nunca más!"

Últimamente me he adentrado al género gótico, y estoy fascinada con la narración de Edgar Allan Poe, siempre tan poética, compleja, concisa y sin miramientos. En El cuervo nos muestra un lado obscuro y lúgubre, sin mención del nombre del protagonista, lo que nos hace preguntarnos, ¿será el propio Edgar Allan Poe?

A pesar de que contiene una muy notoria ausencia de diálogos, explicaciones y quizás nudos, mantiene una constante intriga que muchas historias largas carecen.

n  Recomiendo esta pequeña historia a los amantes del suspenso, de aquellos libros que te dejan reflexionando al terminarlos y, por supuesto, a quienes quieran adentrarse a la literatura gótica.n
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AjwadMohtasim
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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„Гарванът“ е брилянтна мрачна поема и несъмнено най-великата творба на големия Едгар Алън По! Откакто я прочетох за пръв път, съм пленен завинаги от нейната загадъчна готическа атмосфера, и думите ми все не достигат, за да изразя колко силно успява да ме впечатли при всяко четене... Българският превод на Георги Михайлов също е прекрасен!



„О! — извиках, в страх обземан. — Птица, ил дух на Демон,
ти предсказваш! — О, кажи ми, гост, дошъл от друг простор,
в тоя дом на ад превърнат, дом от ужаса обгърнат,
дето радостта посърна и погасна моят взор,
в Галаад утеха нявга ще ли види моят взор?“
Той предсказа: „Nevermore!“
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ZangBang
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Changing my rating from 3 to 5 stars after reread.

#1/148

Recently I joined a Poe reading challenge on Goodreads for a classic book club and what an interesting challenge it is. I can not thank much to the moderators coz it is gonna be a hell of a ride.

I'm of course a big fan of poems and that too Edgar Allan Poe yes, yes, yes.

Sorry Poe for rating it so low before. But the naive 4 years younger me could not see beyond words, could not see the pain and sadness that slowly starts building with Raven and reach a paramount of agony. That simpleton is long gone though.

What you have here is your admirer who will try to look beyond bounds of the mere words, of the sorrow you are trying to convey.

"Deep into that
darkness peering,
long I stood there
wondering, fearing
Doubting, dreaming
dreams no mortal
ever dared to dream before…"



And that is how a poem is written. With melody and the rhythm, the subtle alliteration. Poe is so well versed with his words that he drags one by holding hands firm and drops them into an eerie world which he paints so eloquently. Simply brilliant. Jumping to another one.

Happy reading!!!
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NoraVanguard
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I'm not big fan of poetry but I really loved this one. Maybe it's because I listened to version read by Christopher Lee (you can find it on youtube), and it's universal rule that everything is better when heard in voice of Christopher Lee, but this is my favorite work of Poe so far.
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ngocnemayban
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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One freezing December evening, a man in his room, dozing over his book, thought of Lenore, his now-deceased sweetheart.
But noise at her door knocked her out of her reverie. After making several hypotheses and finally making up its mind, it opens up and, despite its inactivity, to a majestic crow. Amused but intrigued, he stupidly asks her name. The raven then responds, "Never again." The narrator questions himself and asks other questions.
But the crow responds every time, Never again.
Paralyzed, the man realizes that he is under the influence of the raven until the next day, which only repeats "never again."
The somewhat magical atmosphere is veiled when the raven arrives, making the narrator sink into a paralyzing madness.
That's a bird-filled room with its shadow, which never refrains more.
The poetic writing makes the narration tenser. How can a simple crow be so scary?
Also, I couldn't do this review without mentioning The Simpsons, who directed it for their first Simpson Horror Show. Even thanks to them, I heard the raven when I was little.
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posseslayer17
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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The Raven is a poem that can be appreciated on several levels, not the least of which is construction. One of the most perfectly constructed alliterative poems ever penned, who has not thrilled to "and the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain"? It trips off the tongue and at the same time it calls up a perfect image of a Gothic library with heavy curtains that should not, but do, rustle.

It is a study in loneliness, mourning, stress and madness. As the narrator tells us the tale of the raven's visit, he gradually degrades from someone who is attempting to find logical explanations for this event to someone who completely believes in the supernatural nature of the bird. He can no longer think rationally, because he asks repeated questions for which he hopes to get a positive answer but which can only get the one word response that the bird is able to give, "nevermore".

Whatever hope he may have had of recovering from the loss of his love or gaining some relief from his suffering, even in the next life, is vanquished by the repeated denials of the bird. His attempts to forget his loss and his love are seen as impossible. In the progress of the poem, we witness a man sink from loss to loss to hopelessness. In the end, he no longer clings to any remnant of his sanity. For him, the bird, "bird or devil", is something far more than an earthly creature, and it remains forever, just as his memory does, before his eyes, impossible to avoid.
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