Text: Joseph Clay Neal, “[Review of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque,” The Pennsylvanian (Philadelphia, PA), vol. IX, whole no. 2551, December 6, 1839, p. 2, col. 1

[page 2, col. 1, continued:]

“TALES OF THE GROTESQUE AND ARABESQUE,” is the title of a work just published by Messrs. Lea and Blanchard. It consists of tales and sketches from the pen of Edgar A. Poe, Esq. formerly of the Southern Literary Messenger, and now one of the editors of the Gentleman's Magazine in the city, a writer who adds to extensive requirements, a remarkable vigor and originality of mind, the manifestations of which are strikingly displayed in the volumes of which we speak. These grotesque and arabesque delineations are full of variety, now irresistibly quaint and droll, and again marked with all the deep and painful interest of the German school, so that the reader, in whatever mood he may be, cannot fail to find something to suit his temper and absorb his attention. In every page, he will note matter unlike the productions of any other writer. Poe follows in nobody's track, — his imagination seems to have a domain of its own to revel in.