Text: John L. Carey, “[Review of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque],” American and Commercial Advertiser (Baltimore, MD), December 14, 1839, p. 2, col. 5

[page 2, column 5, continued:]

“Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque,” by Edgar A. Poe — 2 vols. The Tales comprising this series have before appeared from time to time in different periodicals; they are now given to the world in a more durable form. We know not many effusions of the imaginative class that better deserve such preservation. The impress of genius is marked upon them all — of genius erratic, it may be, but nevertheless of true quality. The several stories as they came forth singly were received with commendations by the press generally. The following will be recognized as familiar names — “The Fall of the House of Usher;’ “Bon Bon,” “Mss. found in a Bottle,” “William Wilson;” “Hans Phaall,” &c. &c. — Without particularizing others we will observe of the story entitled “William Wilson,” that it contains a profounder meaning than will be gathered from regarding it as a mere fanciful invention.