The Poe Shadow

出版者:Random House

作者:Matthew Pearl

页数:400

出版时间:2007-7-10

价格:USD 15.00

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780812970128

具体描述

“I present to you . . . the truth about this man’s death and my life.”

Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, and even Poe’s own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. Everyone, in fact, seems to believe this except a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who puts his own career and reputation at risk in a passionate crusade to salvage Poe’s.

As Quentin explores the puzzling circumstances of Poe’s demise, he discovers that the writer’s last days are riddled with unanswered questions the police are possibly willfully ignoring. Just when Poe’s death seems destined to remain a mystery, and forever sealing his ignominy, inspiration strikes Quentin–in the form of Poe’s own stories. The young attorney realizes that he must find the one person who can solve the strange case of Poe’s death: the real-life model for Poe’s brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection.

In short order, Quentin finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade, and the lost secrets of Poe’s final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, Quentin Clark must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe’s.

Following his phenomenal debut novel, The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl has once again crossed pitch-perfect literary history with innovative mystery to create a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense. Pearl’s groundbreaking research–featuring documented material never published before–opens a new window on the truth behind Poe’s demise, literary history’s most persistent enigma. The resulting novel is a publishing event that, through sublime craftsmanship, subtle wit, and devious twists, does honor to Poe himself

From the Hardcover edition.

读后感

1849年10月3日，侦探小说鼻祖埃德加·爱伦·坡醉死于巴尔的摩的瑞安酒馆。百余年来，世界各国的文学史教科书上均如此定论。 然而，事实真相究竟为何？爱伦·坡难道真是一个受人唾弃的好酒多徒？作者借故事主人公之身，对坡的离奇之死展开了一场改写文学史的惊人推测。 昆汀·克...

1849年10月3日，侦探小说鼻祖埃德加·爱伦·坡醉死于巴尔的摩的瑞安酒馆。百余年来，世界各国的文学史教科书上均如此定论。 然而，事实真相究竟为何？爱伦·坡难道真是一个受人唾弃的好酒多徒？作者借故事主人公之身，对坡的离奇之死展开了一场改写文学史的惊人推测。 昆汀·克...

1849年10月3日，侦探小说鼻祖埃德加·爱伦·坡醉死于巴尔的摩的瑞安酒馆。百余年来，世界各国的文学史教科书上均如此定论。 然而，事实真相究竟为何？爱伦·坡难道真是一个受人唾弃的好酒多徒？作者借故事主人公之身，对坡的离奇之死展开了一场改写文学史的惊人推测。 昆汀·克...

1849年10月3日，侦探小说鼻祖埃德加·爱伦·坡醉死于巴尔的摩的瑞安酒馆。百余年来，世界各国的文学史教科书上均如此定论。 然而，事实真相究竟为何？爱伦·坡难道真是一个受人唾弃的好酒多徒？作者借故事主人公之身，对坡的离奇之死展开了一场改写文学史的惊人推测。 昆汀·克...

1849年10月3日，侦探小说鼻祖埃德加·爱伦·坡醉死于巴尔的摩的瑞安酒馆。百余年来，世界各国的文学史教科书上均如此定论。 然而，事实真相究竟为何？爱伦·坡难道真是一个受人唾弃的好酒多徒？作者借故事主人公之身，对坡的离奇之死展开了一场改写文学史的惊人推测。 昆汀·克...

用户评价

人物塑造的深度，远超我阅读同类题材时的预期。这里的角色，没有绝对的好与坏，他们更像是在时代洪流中被裹挟、被异化的一群复杂体。那位核心人物，他的动机构建得异常复杂，你很难用简单的“英雄”或“疯子”来定义他。他的每一次选择，似乎都建立在一系列看似合理的、但最终导向毁灭性后果的推理之上。作者通过大量的内心独白和私人信件（我猜是这样，因为有些段落的语气突然变得私密而脆弱），揭示了角色的多重人格面具。我尤其对几位次要人物留下了深刻印象：那个永远笼罩在阴影中的管家，他的忠诚是否源于恐惧？那位美丽却异常聪慧的女性角色，她究竟是帮凶还是最终的救赎者？他们的对话充满了双关语和未尽之意，每一次看似简单的交流，都像是在刀尖上跳舞，暗流涌动。读完一个章节后，我常常会觉得，我好像认识这些人，甚至能闻到他们身上沾染的旧书和潮湿石头的味道，这是一种非常强大的代入感，也是区分平庸之作与杰出之作的关键所在。

这本书的封面设计简直是一场视觉盛宴，那种深沉的蓝与微弱的、仿佛烛光摇曳的黄，一下子就把人拉进了一个充满神秘与古老气息的世界。我是在一家老旧书店的角落里偶然发现它的，书脊上的烫金字迹虽然有些模糊，却透着一股不容忽视的年代感。初翻开时，那纸张的触感是粗粝而温暖的，仿佛握着一段被时间温柔打磨过的记忆。装帧的工艺看得出是下过功夫的，每一个细节，从书签的流苏到扉页的纹理，都在无声地诉说着一个关于“沉重”与“追寻”的故事。我立刻就被那种浓郁的哥特式氛围所吸引，它不像那些浮夸的商业小说那样试图用喧嚣的色彩来抓住你的眼球，而是用一种近乎哀伤的优雅，慢慢渗入你的感官。我可以想象，作者在构思这个故事时，一定浸淫在维多利亚时代的阴影中良久，才能提炼出如此精准的笔触来描绘那些雾气弥漫的街道和被历史尘封的秘密。仅仅是捧着它，就能感受到一股无形的压力，那种等待揭开真相的焦灼感，已经通过这本书的物理形态传达到了我的指尖。它不是那种读完就束之高阁的快消品，更像是一个需要你悉心对待的古董，每一次翻阅都是一次对过往的致敬。

语言的运用达到了某种诗意的境界，但并非矫揉造作的华丽辞藻堆砌，而是充满了古典的韵律感和精准的节奏感。很多句子本身就可以单独摘出来成为警句或格言。例如，当描述到“记忆如同腐蚀性的酸液，慢慢溶解了信念的基石”这类表达时，那种穿透人心的力量，让你不得不承认文字本身的重量。作者似乎对十八、十九世纪的特定词汇有着非凡的掌握，用词考究，完全没有现代口语的痕迹，这极大地增强了故事的时代沉浸感。我甚至发现自己开始留意标点符号的使用——逗号的停顿、分号的连接，都精确地控制着读者的呼吸频率和情绪波动。这本书的阅读过程，与其说是信息获取，不如说是一场听觉和视觉的交响。我发现自己会不自觉地将某些段落默读出声，去体会那种长句中蕴含的复杂情感的流动，感受文字在口腔中形成的特定共鸣。这要求读者必须放慢速度，去品味每一个词语的重量和位置，否则就会错过那些隐藏在表象之下的精妙结构。

整体而言，这本书成功地构建了一个让人不寒而栗的哲学空间，它远超出了简单的悬疑或恐怖范畴，更像是一次对人类认知边界的深入探索。它探讨的核心议题——何为真实？被遗忘的真相是否依然具有杀伤力？——这些宏大的主题被巧妙地融入到个人命运的悲剧中。阅读过程中，我时常会联想到一些更早期的经典文学作品，但这本书成功地在继承了那些深刻的悲剧内核的同时，注入了一种属于现代（尽管是架空的古典现代）的焦虑感。它没有提供廉价的答案或圆满的结局，相反，它似乎在合上书页的那一刻，将更多的疑问抛回给了读者本人。这种未竟感，正是它持久魅力的来源。我不会说这是一本“轻松”的作品，它要求你付出专注和思考，但它给予的回报是巨大的——它拓宽了你感知世界的方式，让你开始审视自己所依赖的现实基础是否也同样脆弱。我期待着在未来的很长一段时间里，这本书中的某些场景和哲思，还会不时地闯入我的梦境。

故事情节的铺陈，简直像是一场精心编排的古典音乐会，节奏的掌握令人叹为观止。开篇并非直奔主题，而是用了一段极其细腻的环境描写，如同慢镜头般缓缓拉开帷幕，让你在不知不觉中适应了那个世界的色调和气味。叙述者（我必须承认，我花了很大力气才分辨出主要叙述视角和穿插其中的回忆片段）的语气是如此的冷静和疏离，即便是面对极其恐怖或令人不安的场景，他也能保持一种近乎学术研究般的客观性，这种反差制造出了一种令人毛骨悚然的张力。我特别欣赏作者在处理悬念时所采取的“留白”艺术，他不会急于把所有线索拼凑完整，而是巧妙地抛出一些看似无关紧要的意象——比如一盏熄灭的油灯，或是一段吟唱了一半的挽歌——然后让你自己去脑补背后的关联。这种“主动参与”的阅读体验是极其难得的。我发现自己不得不时常停下来，在脑海中重构刚刚读到的信息，甚至会起身走到窗边，试图从现实世界的微光中寻找一些线索来佐证书中的逻辑。那种智力上的博弈，比单纯被情节推着走要过瘾得多。

It is a good way to read about history though most of the characters are fictional. As a novel, it is pretty good as well, I was amazed by Duponte's wit, and sad about what happened to Poe. Sometimes tragedies happen not because people's wrongdoing or bad intention, quite the opposite it is their lack of action and sympathy.

It is a good way to read about history though most of the characters are fictional. As a novel, it is pretty good as well, I was amazed by Duponte's wit, and sad about what happened to Poe. Sometimes tragedies happen not because people's wrongdoing or bad intention, quite the opposite it is their lack of action and sympathy.

It is a good way to read about history though most of the characters are fictional. As a novel, it is pretty good as well, I was amazed by Duponte's wit, and sad about what happened to Poe. Sometimes tragedies happen not because people's wrongdoing or bad intention, quite the opposite it is their lack of action and sympathy.

It is a good way to read about history though most of the characters are fictional. As a novel, it is pretty good as well, I was amazed by Duponte's wit, and sad about what happened to Poe. Sometimes tragedies happen not because people's wrongdoing or bad intention, quite the opposite it is their lack of action and sympathy.

It is a good way to read about history though most of the characters are fictional. As a novel, it is pretty good as well, I was amazed by Duponte's wit, and sad about what happened to Poe. Sometimes tragedies happen not because people's wrongdoing or bad intention, quite the opposite it is their lack of action and sympathy.