Isabella Bruschi

A cura di I. Bruschi 
 
 Six short stories having the world of the supernatural as their main theme.
 Disquieting and mysterious presences, suspense, the atavic fear of the unknown are the characteristic ingredients of these stories.
 They were written in a pre-freudian time where the irrational was still unknown and therefore enigmatic and threatening. Taken from top-level authors – E. A. Poe, J. K. Jerome, E. G. Swain, E. F. Benson, M. R. James, J. G. Lang – they are accompanied by inserts on supernatural entities and on cultural and historical aspects related to the contents of the tales. 
 
 Teacher's Resources available online: Answer Key - Transcripts - Summing-up Activities
 
 Sei racconti che hanno come tematica il mondo del soprannaturale.
 Presenze inquietanti e misteriose e la paura atavica dell’ignoto sono gli ingredienti di queste storie in cui, in un’epoca pre-freudiana, l’irrazionale risulta completamente sconosciuto e minaccioso.
 Tratte da autori di grande livello – E. A. Poe, J. K. Jerome, E. G. Swain, E. F. Benson, M. R. James, J. G. Lang – sono corredate dalle biografie degli autori, da schede sulle "short stories" e "ghost stories" e su aspetti storico-culturali collegati ai contenuti dei racconti.

Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe

Ligeia

Extension: A film director who loved Poe

Montague Rhodes James

The Rose Garden

Extension: What’s in a rose

Jerome Klapka Jerome

A Ghost Story

Extension: Supernatural company

John George Lang

The Ghost upon the Rail

Extension: Transportation to Australia

Edmund Gill Swain

Bone to his Bone

Extension: Ghosts, spirits or human imagination?

Edward Frederick Benson

The Confession of Charles Linkworth

Extension: The death penalty in the U.K.

Summing-up activities

The author Edgar Allan Poe Best known for his poems and short fiction, Edgar Allan Poe (born in Boston, January 19, 1809, died in Baltimore, October 7, 1849) deserves more credit than any other writer for the transformation of the short story from anecdote to art. He virtually created the detective story and perfected the psychological thriller. He also produced some of the most influential literary criticism of his time   important theoretical statements on poetry and the short story   and has had a worldwide influence on literature. Poe s parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins, were touring actors; both died before he was 3 years old, and he was taken into the home of John Allan, a prosperous merchant in Richmond, Virginia, and baptized Edgar Allan Poe. His childhood was uneventful1, even though2 he studied for 5 years (1815-20) in England. In 1826 he entered the University of Virginia but stayed for only one year. In fact, in spite of being a good student, he had to leave university because of gambling3 debts that Allan refused to pay. Allan didn t allow his return to the university and broke off Poe s engagement to Sarah Elmira Royster, his Richmond fiancée. Lacking any means of support, Poe enlisted4 in the army. He had, however, already written and printed (at his own expense) his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), verses written in the manner of Byron. Temporarily reconciled, Allan secured Poe s admission to West Point Military Academy but refused to provide financial support. After 6 months Poe was court-martialled and dismissed from West Point for disobedience of orders. His fellow cadets, however, contributed the funds for the publication of Poems by Edgar A. Poe, Second Edition (1831). This volume contained the famous To Helen and Israfel, poems that show the calculated musical effects of language that would characterize his poetry. Poe took up residence in Baltimore with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, and turned to fiction as a way to 1. uneventful: ordinario, tranquillo. 2. even though: sebbene, anche se. 3. gambling: gioco d azzardo. 4. enlist: arruolarsi. 8 

support himself. In 1832 the Philadelphia Saturday Courier published five of his stories   all comic or satiric   and in 1833, MS. Found in a Bottle won a $50 prize given by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. Poe, his aunt, and Virginia moved to Richmond in 1835, and he became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and married Virginia, his cousin, who was not yet 14 years old. Poe published fiction, one of his most horrifying tales, Berenice, in the Messenger, but most of his contributions were serious, analytical, and critical reviews5 that earned him respect as a critic. He praised the young Dickens and a few other contemporaries but devoted most of his attention to devastating reviews of popular contemporary authors. His contributions undoubtedly increased the magazine s circulation, but they offended its owner, who also criticized Poe s drinking. The January 1837 issue of the Messenger announced Poe s dismissal as editor but also included the first instalment6 of his long prose tale, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, five of his reviews, and two of his poems. This was the paradoxical pattern for Poe s career: success as an artist and editor but failure to satisfy his employers and to secure an income. First in New York City (1837), then in Philadelphia (1838-44), and again in New York (1844-49), Poe tried to establish himself as a force in literary journalism, but with only moderate success. He succeeded, however, in formulating influential literary theories and in demonstrating mastery of the forms he favoured   highly musical poems and short prose narratives. Both forms, he argued, should aim at  a certain unique or single effect . His theory of short fiction is best exemplified in Ligeia (1838), the tale Poe considered his finest, and The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), which would become one of his most famous stories; both tales belong to the collection Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque. The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) is sometimes considered the first detective story. Exemplary among his musical verses are The Raven (1845) and The Bells (1849). Virginia s death, caused by tuberculosis in January 1847, was a heavy blow, but Poe continued to write and lecture. In the summer of 1849 he revisited Richmond, lectured, and was accepted again by the fiancée he had lost in 1826. After his return he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street and died shortly after being taken to hospital. In a brief obituary7 the Baltimore Clipper reported that Poe had died of  congestion of the brain , even though the real cause of his death remains unknown. 5. review: recensione. 6. instalment: puntata, episodio. 7. obituary: necrologio. 9 

Sei racconti gotici con atmosfere inquietanti e figure misteriose da autori come E. A. Poe, J. K. Jerome, E. G. Swain, E. F. Benson, M. R. James e J.

Tales of The Supernatural - Collana Rainbows

Level B2 • Intermediate - Collana RAINBOWS

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