Review: Mrs. Poe
Posted by Cathie on Monday, September 30, 2013. Filed under: fiction, historical fiction, published in 2013, review, reviewed in 2013
Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen
Published by: Gallery Books
Our source: ARC from the publisher
Our source: ARC from the publisher
What it’s about (from Goodreads):
It is 1845, and Frances Osgood is desperately trying to make a living as a writer in New York; not an easy task for a woman—especially one with two children and a philandering portrait painter as her husband. As Frances tries to sell her work, she finds that editors are only interested in writing similar to that of the new renegade literary sensation Edgar Allan Poe, whose poem, “The Raven” has struck a public nerve.
She meets the handsome and mysterious Poe at a literary party, and the two have an immediate connection. Poe wants Frances to meet with his wife since she claims to be an admirer of her poems, and Frances is curious to see the woman whom Edgar married.
As Frances spends more and more time with the intriguing couple, her intense attraction for Edgar brings her into dangerous territory. And Mrs. Poe, who acts like an innocent child, is actually more manipulative and threatening than she appears. As Frances and Edgar’s passionate affair escalates, Frances must decide whether she can walk away before it’s too late.
Our thoughts:
I have to admit that I'm not really up on my English literature. It has been many years, or maybe it would be more accurate to say decades since I studied it in school. All I can remember of Poe's writing is that it is very dark. An innocent person gets murdered, the body gets hidden, and the culprit goes free, only to slowly be driven mad by his own guilt.
Mrs. Poe is packed with intrigue and the romance of an adulterous affair, but also has so many references to other great literates of the 1800's such as Hans Christian Anderson, Whitman, Webster, Alcott, and Longfellow, that I found myself pausing in my reading to quickly research if it was even possible that all of these writers could have really been acquainted.
I loved this book. I found it to be very passionate, suspenseful and very well researched. Author Lynn Cullen has done a fabulous job writing Mrs. Poe.
We would recommend this to:
Fans of historical fiction, Edgar Allen Poe and romance
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