The Raven
Williams, Chancellor. The Raven. New York: AMS Press, 1975.
This rather large book writes Edgar Allan Poe's life from childhood to death. It's written in sothern dialect, or what must have been dialect in Virginia. Even Poe talks in this manner speaking of his 'Pa. This is assumnably a distinction in the manner in which a person speaks as opposed to the way they write. While the tone of his words are Poeish, the language is not. While the book is written in the third person, Poe does tend to talk to himself and therefore gives off a few monologues.
The death scene in the end is more of a travel to another land than an actual death scene in a hospital. Poe was reportedly delirious in his bed. In this book, the author shows us what Poe saw those final moments of delirium.
The book contains a lot of other aspects of Poe's life that deal with the times he was living in. There's a lot of racial tension in the beginning. Looks at poverty, both Poe's and other people's, social class. A lot of the book focuses on Poe's life prior to his enterance into the literary world. There's mention of Poe's lack of sexual prowess.
A lot of focus is on the poem the Raven, and not so much on his other works, though some are quoted.