Ligeia (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: Edgar Allan Poe
- First Published: 1838
- Type of Work: Short Story
- Genres: Short fiction, Fantasy, Gothic fiction
- Subjects: Wives, Memory, Love or romance, Immortality, Supernatural, Nineteenth century, Marriage, Obsession, Substance abuse, England or English people, Death or dying, Drug addiction or addicts, Remarriage, Bereavement or grief, Germany or German people, Opium, Moths
- Locales: England, Germany
Like Poe’s other short fiction, “LIGEIA” is told by a first-person narrator. The tale opens with an account of this narrator’s marriage to his first wife, Ligeia, a woman from an ancient European family. Possessed with “great intensity,” “fierce energy,” and “immense” knowledge, Ligeia tutors her husband in arcane studies dealing with topics such as reincarnation and transcendentalism. Eventually Ligeia falls ill and dies with the words of Joseph Glanville, which also serve as the motto of the tale, on her lips: “’Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto...
[The entire page is 604 words long]
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