A review by vodaas
The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder by Daniel Stashower
3.0
The Beautiful Cigar Girl was an enlightening read of sorts. I have picked up non-fiction in the past but mostly novelized memoirs. The writing was engaging enough, but required a sort of attention that needed all of my brain span to follow along. The language was lyrical in its' own right.
I found Poe's life to be a fascinating if not sad one. He was destined to prove his genius only after death, and to live a life of destitution in the interim. His idea of ratiocination was a fascinating one, and his influence over fellow writers regarding detective stories after his death is one to marvel over.
If I were to take any sort of issue with this book it was that it had too much going on at times, especially when it put a lot of the focus on the media and newspaper moguls of that era. The story of course needed some of this information, as it played a large role in Poe's life and that of the death of Mary Rogers, but as a reader, I felt that some of the information did not lend any real weight to to the story overall.
While I was hesitant to dive headlong into this novel, I am surprised that I found it fascinating in its own right and saddened that Mary Rogers had such a short life with no resolution to be gained surrounding her death.
In closing, I will leave this small quote pulled from the book. It is just a snippet of Poe's brilliance and I admire the use of the written language in such an eloquent way:
"A crow thieves; a fox cheats; a weasel outwits; a man diddles,” Poe observed. “To diddle is his destiny…Diddling, rightly considered, is a compound, of which the ingredients are minuteness, interest, perseverance, ingenuity, audacity, nonchalance, originality, impertinence, and grin.”
I found Poe's life to be a fascinating if not sad one. He was destined to prove his genius only after death, and to live a life of destitution in the interim. His idea of ratiocination was a fascinating one, and his influence over fellow writers regarding detective stories after his death is one to marvel over.
If I were to take any sort of issue with this book it was that it had too much going on at times, especially when it put a lot of the focus on the media and newspaper moguls of that era. The story of course needed some of this information, as it played a large role in Poe's life and that of the death of Mary Rogers, but as a reader, I felt that some of the information did not lend any real weight to to the story overall.
While I was hesitant to dive headlong into this novel, I am surprised that I found it fascinating in its own right and saddened that Mary Rogers had such a short life with no resolution to be gained surrounding her death.
In closing, I will leave this small quote pulled from the book. It is just a snippet of Poe's brilliance and I admire the use of the written language in such an eloquent way:
"A crow thieves; a fox cheats; a weasel outwits; a man diddles,” Poe observed. “To diddle is his destiny…Diddling, rightly considered, is a compound, of which the ingredients are minuteness, interest, perseverance, ingenuity, audacity, nonchalance, originality, impertinence, and grin.”