Text: Anonymous, “[Review of Ingram's edition of ‘The Raven’],” Academy (London, UK), vol. 29, whole no. 720, February 20, 1886, p. 127, cols. 2-3

[page 127, column 2, continued:]

The Raven. By Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe. With Literary and Historical Commentary, by John H. Ingram. (George Redway.) Mr. Ingram, whose name is associated with that of Poe — at least in this country — in somewhat the same way as the name of Lord Houghton is associated with that of Keats, has here collected in a handsome volume a quantity of curious information regarding Poe's acknowledged masterpiece. If we abandon — as we probably must — the poet's own story of the genesis of the poem, it is a legitimate speculation to consider what suggestions he may have received from external sources. That the stanza form, the conception of the refrain, and even some of the images came from Mrs. Browning is certain. But we cannot admit that the claim here set up on several grounds for indebtedness to an American rhymer of the name of Pike is anything more than an ingenious hypothesis. Mr. Ingram has added specimens of the most accepted translations of The Raven into French and German, and account of some absurd fabrications [column 3:] to which a popular work seems ever to be exposed, a few of the best parodies, and a brief bibliography. We regret that he has also found a place, in a book that is otherwise attractive, for a doggrel [[doggerel]] Latin version, which is made almost unintelligible by transposition of the stanzas and by an abundant crop of misprints. Here is an example literation of what Mr. Ingram has had the courage to reproduce: