Good storytellers are rare these days; Paul Harvey, Charles Kuralt, and Andy Rooney are just a few that come to mind. Add to this illustrious list Eliot Engel, a most remarkable professor. The tumultuous life of Edgar Allan Poe is brought to life in a stunning presentation that doesn't use whizzy graphics to supplement Professor Engel's mesmerization of us for fifty minutes. He uses a captivating mixture of humor, drama, and pathos to introduce us to an author most of us know only through his works, but whose life is just as morbid and fascinating as anything he wrote on paper. Engel tells us of Poe's mother, a stunning beauty who became a celebrated stage actress by the age of ten. Her greatest role was that of Juliet in Shakespeare's tragedy and Edgar was forced to watch his mother ‘die' eight times a week before she finally died of consumption. This debilitating disease was to claim the lives of all of the women close to Poe, including his teenage wife, and left him with an indelible image of death, women, beauty, and re-birth that resonated in all his work. Poe, himself, was rejected by both his father and his step-father and seemed to be doomed to obscurity until a chance meeting with Charles Dickens launched his career. Ultimately, Poe was a far better writer than he was a businessman and he never was able to enjoy the fruits of being a celebrity. The events surrounding his death in Baltimore were fittingly tragic and mirrored the excess of bad luck that plagued him throughout his life. However, he remains one of the most important figures in English literature and his story deserves to be told with the respect and detail that Eliot Engel provides. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Also available: the immensely entertaining William Shakespeare: A Light and Enlightening Look. Aud: H, C, P. (J. Carlson)
Edgar Allan Poe: A Light & Enlightening Look
(1996) 52 min. $39.95. Media Consultants. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 11, Issue 6
Edgar Allan Poe: A Light & Enlightening Look
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: