I would like background information about Poe's story The Pit and the Pendulum.

-- Anonymous, September 04, 2003

Answers

I think Poedecoder.com does. At www.eapoe.org their Poe Studies articles Volume II, nuuber 2 leads with an article. Also the Poe Studies website past issues has one close to the top. The first ending as with the Gospel of Mark and the Book of Job and Poe's novel Pym is not only grim but unsatisfying to most readers, hence the seemingly tacked on happy ending theory. On the other hand Poe makes his dratic climax and main point with the triumph of the will faced with inevitable defeat so strong that the reward of rescue is not even up to the level of anticlimactic. Poe tried also to be faithful to the appearance of genuine first person narration in letting his hnarrator or a record survive. In that sense he had written himself into a corner, nor was he willing to give in to total pessimism if the hero is both good and smart. Crazy or flawed is another matter, calling for the tragic treatment. Note that the narrator teeters always on the edge of sanity and loses it at times.

But not to get too distracted by the conclusion, the process is Poe at his best in manipulation of growing sense and living deprivation, time and space shrinking, the war of the mind figured in the environment.

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2003

I would suggest online article services through your library depending on the quality of their database subscriptions. These are free but you may need their password to get them. Unfortunately my library "upgraded" their offerings to grade school pablum or I would get them and e-mail you some. Pay services have various quality of articles ranging from basic term paper(plagiarism bait) stuff to entire scholarly books such as www.questia.com. It depends what you need and what you will pay. I am a scavenger for the freebies myself.

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2003