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Austen and Poe: 10 Things They Have in Common

7/18/2017

Image of Jane Austen with curls peeking out from under a bonnet

Image of Poe with dark curls, brows, and mustache

On the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death today, I was struck by the similarities between her and Edgar Allan Poe, inspiration for The Tell-Tale Tarte, my latest mystery.

1. Mark Twain dissed them both, and in a single sentence. Twain said of Poe: “To me his prose is unreadable—like Jane Austen’s.”

2. Both are honored with action figures, as is Shakespeare, but not Mark Twain (only a bobble head).

3. Both died young: Austen at 41, Poe at 40.

4. Both published in the first half of the 19th century: Jane Austen’s major works came out in the 1810s, Poe’s in the 1830s and 1840s.

5. Both had difficulty getting published and earning a living from their writing. Poe needed money more desperately than Austen, whose poverty was genteel.

Poe action figure with raven on his shoulder and Austen action figure with a book in one hand and a quill pen in the other

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Poe Museum in Richmond

6/23/2017

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Postcard illustration of the stone building housing the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia

Edgar Allan Poe’s spirit hovers over the Mid-Atlantic. If you fly over the region at night, you can see a string of lights connecting places where Poe lived and worked: Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York. Each has a Poe museum. Looking forward to the publication of my Poe-themed mystery, The Tell-Tale Tarte, I visited the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond last weekend. What a treasure trove!

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Austen and Poe: 10 Things They Have in Common

Poe Museum in Richmond

Maya Corrigan

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