Illustrating Poe

Aubrey Beardsley is one of my favourite illustrators (neck-and-neck with Edward Gorey) and one of the first editions of Poe I owned was one for which he did the illustrations. And what illustrations they were! I don't think there's anyone who could have captured Poe's combination of obsessive, excessive morbidity and sensual romanticism like Beardsley.

Look at this illustration for "The Black Cat":

There's so much character there. The cat is deformed to the point where it looks more like a grotesque imp, and somehow, despite the fact that the dead woman is bright white against the black background, the cat still draws the eye and commands the picture.



Here's his illustration of Roderick Usher:

There's so much passivity, so much resignation in the picture. We're drawn to the curtain, and the possibilities of what's on the other side, rather than to the man. The question mark on the left side of the picture is stronger than the man on the right.

And his take on Poe the man:

I wonder what those two thought of each other.

While I was looking for Beardsley's illustrations, I came across some by an artist named Harry Clarke, which are almost as masterful as Beardsley's. Here's his illustration for "The Masque of the Red Death":

It's extra-diegetic (whose head is that?) but it perfectly captures the body-horror, the abject in the story. I particularly like the bandages. Beardsley is more focused on the decadent fin-de-siecle hedonism; his picture emphasises the sinister and sensual: 

The little masked imp-figure appears in several of his pictures, and I think it's a self-portrait. He was a thin, little, sickly man. 

Here's Clarke's illustration for "The Premature Burial":

Gorgeous. He uses black space in the same way Beardsley uses white space: giving breadth and grandeur to the picture, and using curved lines to direct the eye where he wants.

Finally, here is Clarke's "Cask of Amontillado":

It's my favourite of Clarke's drawings. I think it captures the moment when the truth about Montresor finally begins to penetrate Fortunato's booze-sozzled brain. Look at the madness in Montresor's eyes. He's a terrifying figure: an absolutely precise, calculating, rational brain, unhinged. I love all the nitre too. So much nitre! Poe does have Montresor go on and on about it.

You can see more of Clarke's pictures here.

I've been listening a bit to the Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination while doing this week's readings. It's pretty progtastic. Here's "Amontillado" and "Usher". I also rediscovered "Who is She?" by I, Monster thanks to one of the discussions of the Coursera forums. It's based on She by H. Rider Haggard and it's an amazing song.