Tag Archives: Nineteenth-Century Science

Sonnet-to Science: Poe’s Early Ambivalence About 19th-Century Technologies

By the time that Poe started writing professionally, the Industrial Revolution had already introduced many dramatic advancements that affected the lifestyles and culture of the nineteenth-century public. For example, the literacy rate had steadily increased in the United States, and many people were able to understand most articles written in the newspaper. They could also…

Some Words About Poe’s Tale About a Mummy*

Poe’s tale, “Some Words with a Mummy” (1845) provides one of his most informative views about the value of nineteenth-century science. Although the narrator of this short story does not go anywhere special, Poe’s imagined mummy travels from ancient Egypt to the nineteenth century to reflect on the relative values of ancient and the technologies…

Conducting a Comprehensive Study of Poe’s, Eureka: A Prose Poem

    First, I am going to propose what a researcher might have to do to conduct a comprehensive study of Poe’s 1848 book, Eureka: A Prose Poem. Then, I am going to explain why I decided not to fall into the trap of attempting to evaluate Poe’s final work. As I noted in my previous…

In Being Guided by Edgar Allan Poe – A Re-Introduction to the “Poe and Science Blog”

  On Being Guided by Edgar Allan Poe—A Re-Introduction to the “Poe and Science Blog,” by Dr. Murray Ellison Most people would most likely associate Edgar Allan Poe as a writer of some of the world’s scariest horror stories. At least, some of Poe’s short fictional stories must have sent shivers up many readers’ spines…

Poe as a Popularizer of Nineteenth-Century Sceince

Poe as a Popularizer of Nineteenth-Century Science Several important modern-day science historians have conceded that their present understanding of how Industrial Age technologies affected society is limited, and some have started to focus their research on this period. Bernard Lightman argues “Scholars have barely scratched the surface in their attempts to understand the popularization of…