Tales of Mystery & Imagination - Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe – Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1993)
Short Stories – 420 pages – my copy (paperback; 1993) bought for £2 from the Notting Hill Music & Goods Exchange during 2008
- 4 nods out of 5 -



Tales of mystery, of suspense, and all things that go bump in the night; Mr Poe is the undisputed narrator that has inspired and frightened generations of readers since the mid-nineteenth century. And quite right, too! He has given us stories of madness, of death, of mystery, of crime, and well as the down right silly.

This is the second encounter the Worm has had with Edgar Allan Poe: back in June 2011 he came across magnificent The Raven (a bona fide 4 nodder; click on the link below). Tales of Mystery & Imagination is a collection of short stories – and it is the short story that Poe is best known – ranging from the classic (‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and ‘The Pit and Pendulum’ being two notables), with the maddening (‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’), along with adventuring solving tales (such as the book’s opener ‘The Gold Bug’; or as the contents page of the book refers to: ‘The Gold Buf’?!). All in all, Poe is seen by many as the inventor of shock, of the supernatural, of detective fiction, as well as dabbling in an early form of Science-Fiction; quite a CV for a man who married his cousin and died at the young age of forty.

The earlier stories, of crime-solving of the Sherlock Holmes variety (although written fifty years before Holmes’ inception, it must be remembered), are not Poe at his best. Although there is a soft spot for detective C. Auguste Dupin, the shock and the horror that Poe is famed for is absent. The book slowly moves towards darker material, whilst keeping that spirit of suspense alive.

Poe’s art has been discussed and analysed heavily in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’; with its hidden messages behind the gothic description. The idea of the “living dead” crops up in many of the stories, including ‘The Premature Burial'; whilst the idea that your past and conscience cannot be put to rest are explored fantastically in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’. Undoubtedly Poe had an eye for the majestic and descriptive, as affirmed in the beating of the murdered man’s heart beneath the floorboards, driving the killer beyond sanity.

It is shame for those who gathered the stories together to miss what the Worm considers his favourite Poe short-story: 'William Wilson'. Think a nineteenth-century version of Fight Club, and you’ll be on the right track! Another absentee is the darkly philosophical ‘The Imp of the Perverse’. But that would be picking a fight with those who collated the stories together – yes, you editors at Penguin Classics! – rather than with Poe himself. The writer has left a treasure trove of quality stories to read; some are 5 nod gold standard, others of the weaker nodder variety. But nobody, and the Worm means NOBODY, forgets Poe once they’ve read one of his stories.

Buy it here:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Mystery-Imagination-Edgar-Allan/dp/0861366522/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323257658&sr=1-11

Read the Worm’s review on The Raven:http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.com/2011/06/raven-edgar-allan-poe.html)

A good website about Poe’s work:http://www.poestories.com/

The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities & Politics - David Starkey

David Starkey - The Reign of Henry VIII: Personalities & Politics (1985)
History – 150 pages - my copy (paperback; 2002) borrowed from the University of Plymouth library during November 2011
- 2 nods out of 5 -



In 1509 Henry VIII became the new king of England. Thomas More wrote on this significant occasion: ‘This day is the end of our slavery, the fount of our liberty; the end of sadness, the beginning of joy.’ Little did More know that his very own end would come by the hand of Henry, and that the ‘fount of liberty’ would run dry.

David Starkey is known today as one of the eminent historians on the Tudor period. This small, compact book – a mere 150 pages – is one of Starkey’s very first. It is a glimpse into the major personalities of Henry’s court, from the start of ‘A New Age’ to his end when he became ‘Egg-shaped’ in features, and a ‘Humpty-Dumpty of a nightmare’.

The major points of his reign are referenced and discussed, including the dynamism of the early years, the war with France, leading to the peace of France and later chaos brought about by the divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Starkey doesn’t attempt to paint a panoramic picture of England in this time, contenting himself to the chief figures in the royal court. We are given a run-down of Henry’s “minion’s”, of Thomas Cromwell, and Anne Boleyn herself. The greatest importance is reserved for Cardinal Wolsey, a man who held great sway for close to fifteen years. Starkey labels him ‘one of the most famous statesmen in English history – second only to perhaps Churchill’. Whilst he sums up such a statement by commenting: ‘Being famous for five minutes is one thing; being famous for 450 years is quite another.’

For those who wish to know more about Henry VIII, don’t begin with Starkey’s book. It is a read with little illumination, and sparse on excitement. Perhaps it was written in a time before Starkey built up that pompous wit and attacking tongue he is known for; the Worm is unsure to which Starkey he prefers.

Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reign-Henry-VIII-Personalities-Politics/dp/0099445107/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323257713&sr=1-1

Henry VI: Part Three - William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare - Henry VI: Part Three (1591)
Play – read on the fantastic Shakespeare iPhone app during November 2011
- 4 nods out of 5 -

We’ve mulled over Part One; we’ve discussed and rejoiced over Part Two; now here comes the third instalment: Henry VI, Part Three! That’s right, three plays centring on a failed and almost forgotten king. Perhaps this would seem a tad excessive to the modern reader; but to Mr Shakespeare, the reign of Henry VI was momentous in providing the fall of honour and chivalry, of the Wars of the Roses, and the eventual triumph of the Tudors and seeming redemption of England.

With Henry having lost all the French lands (Part One), and then his most trusted advisors (Part Two); all out war is declared between his house (Lancaster, the Red Rose) and that of York (the White Rose). The ever scheming Duke of York is on the march, his fortunes rising and receding with the changing of the seasons and the movement of the sun. The Duke has plotted for two whole plays, and is now eager to wear the English crown: ‘Why do we linger thus? I cannot rest / Until the white rose that I wear be dy’d / Even in the lukewarm blood of Henry’s heart.’

With the death and carnage of the previous plays, there are vendettas and revengeful killings to be had. Clifford is out to avenge his father’s death: ‘The sight of any of the house of York / Is as a fury to torment my soul; / And until I root out their accursed line, / And leave not one alive, I live in hell.’ Clifford finds satisfaction in the killing of one of York’s innocent youthful sons, before stabbing his sword into the Duke himself. Defeated and in torment, a paper crown is placed upon his head, as he dies at the feet of Clifford and Queen Margaret:

‘Off with his head, and set it on York gates,
So York may overlook the town of York.’

Whilst the death toll mounts as high as a Die Hard movie, King Henry finally comes into his own, philosophising over the civil war that has ripped his family, friends and country apart:

‘The battle fares like the morning’s war,
When dying clouds contend with growing light,
What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,
Can neither call it perfect day nor night.
Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea
Forc’d to retire by fury of the wind.
Sometime the flood prevails, and then the wind;
Now one the better, then another best;
Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast,
Yet neither conqueror nor conquered;
So is the equal poise of this fell war.’

It is a homily to rival that of Hamlet or Richard III; and it is clear to see how Shakespeare made his name in this line of plays on Henry VI. As our ill-fated King continues on hearing of suffering:

‘O piteous spectacle! O bloody times!
Whiles lions war and battle for their dens,
Poor harmless lambs abide their enmity.
Weep, wretched man; I’ll aid thee tear for tear,
And let our hearts and eyes, like civil war,
Be blind with tears, and break o’ercharg’d with grief.’

Such words are in contrast to the previous two plays, when Henry is nothing more than a lame duck, watching chaos descend all around him and unable to do anything; he is a mere spectator to events, and his commentary on the state of affairs is not heard nor anywhere to be seen. Perhaps this is Shakespeare’s evolution of Henry’s character, from mere boy king, to naïve ruler of factional squabbles, to become the philosopher king on the ruin of his country. But alas, the time is too late to merely discuss; and this is the reason for Henry’s demise at the hands of York’s sons.

The Duke of York’s son, Edward, becomes king; but soon faces an almighty coalition in the form of Queen Margaret, Warwick (“the Kingmaker”), and the Duke of Clarence, Edward’s very own brother. But they are no match for these sons of York, and the sheer weight of Richard, whose sun is now burning bright. Clarence double deals with his brothers, whilst Warwick dies; leaving Henry to lament: ‘Farewell, my Hector, and my Troy’s true hope’

The house of Lancaster is snuffed out, and the house and sun – indeed, the sons – of York prevail with Edward defending his throne. But fitting for an end of one of Shakespeare’s plays, all is not well. The King’s brother, the spiteful Richard, lets in the reader to his secret: to covet the crown himself. The ominous ending, as with the previous plays of Henry VI, lead to the mayhem and disaster that befalls in Shakespeare’s Richard III. The Worm reads on, in search of the final redemption and justice of the house of York.