I had such high hopes for Mrs. Poe, but I just couldn't finish it and ended up skimming the last few chapters so I could say I made it to the end. Edgar Allen Poe is one of my favorite authors, and I was intrigued by this rumor of a possible affair between Poe and Frances Osgood. The idea that an affair between these two notable authors would drive Poe's young, possibly psychotic, wife into a string of jealousy inspired vicious actions sounded like a plot out of Poe's own repertoire. Unfortunately, aside from the idea, the author creates an uninterested plot and a series of uninspiring/unlikable characters.
Not knowing who Frances Osgood actually was I ended up using Wikipedia to get a nutshell idea about the facts that Cullen is basing this story on, which was actually very interesting. However what I couldn't understand was why someone who was described as "one of the most popular female poets of her time" was living in her friends house, scrounging for money. Yes, I know her husband was a cad who spent most of the time seducing the women he painted and spending more and more time away from his family, but still. The situation, though extremely tragic, did not make sense to me. Throughout the story it is constantly emphasized just how poor and struggling Mrs. Osgood was. The other thing that I just couldn't shake was how terribly devoted Poe was to his wife in real life. In this story shes like a specter of his bad decisions and just can't seem to shake her. At one point Mrs. Poe calls herself his own William Wilson, a play on a story about a man haunted by a supernatural evil twin. The story hinges around Poe and Frances just waiting for Virginia Poe to die of consumption.
I will quickly admit that I'm a huge animal lover and apparently Poe had a fondness for cats. At one point in the book Poe rescues a small kitten from some rough boys and gives it to Frances Osgood and her children. When Mrs. Poe finds out about the kitten, she doesn't seem pleased and as more and more violent actions seem to befall the women that Poe spends time with, I couldn't help thinking that this poor little kitten was headed for a bad end. I just couldn't deal with it. I have a hard time dealing with stories where animals are just tortured for no reason, and this kitten was just added to the story as a particularly cruel plot point in my opinion. This is where I decided I just couldn't wait any longer to find out if Mrs. Poe kills the cat and decided to just skim the last handful of chapters. I never found out what happens, but in my mind I neatly avoided an actuality where I know I would have been deeply upset and happily reside in a Schroedinger's paradox.
As one of my coworkers pointed out there seems to be a recent spate of fictional stories about real people: Mrs. Poe, Z, The Aviator's Wife, Freud's Mistress, etc. Perhaps this style is running its course or maybe it was just this author's writing style, but when I find a Wikipedia article more entertaining than the novel I'm reading there is a problem.
*This blog is part of a grant Medfield has been awarded through the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Library and Services Technology Act administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
