Darkness Becomes Bright

“Engaging . . . Ogden is both incisive and eloquent.” —The New York Times Book Review

A fascinating and intimate inquiry into Edgar Allan Poe’s shadowy life and horrifyingly compelling work—and why we are drawn to darkness in art

Since Edgar Allan Poe’s mysterious death in 1849, his stories and poems have captivated millions of readers around the world. Nearly two centuries later, why do we continue to descend into the darkness of his imagination—and of the genres, from horror to crime, that he pioneered?

In this spellbinding and singular book, Guggenheim Fellow and Whiting grant recipient Emily Ogden plumbs the darkness within Poe and enters it alongside him. She interweaves stories from his mysterious and tragic life—from his strange disappearances and tortured romances to his nearly fatal use of opium—with those of his most famous readers and translators, including poet Charles Baudelaire, writer Julio Cortázar, and psychoanalyst Marie Bonaparte, a descendant of Napoleon and a patient of Sigmund Freud.

Tracing their passionate attachments to Poe—and Ogden’s own, unexpectedly sparked when she taught an introductory Poe course at the University of Virginia, where Poe himself was once a student—Darkness Becomes Bright makes a different case for literature from the one we most often hear. This exquisite volume shows how Poe’s vision echoes across the generations, allowing us to make peace with our own flawed humanity.