Reviews of “The Domain of Arnheim” (1847) and related work
- Spin-off: “Landor’s Cottage” (1849)
“The Domain of Arnheim” (1847
)
Edgar Allan Poe (writer).
Read in 2022.
A paradisal estate ordered built by a man who unexpectedly receives an inheritance from an ancestor who died much earlier.
A plotless idyll that would have worked better as a series of paintings. Given Poe’s biography, I assume this was primarily a fantasy of personal wealth and ease, in the same way that Dorothy L. Sayers spent the fictional Lod Peter Wimsey’s fortune “for him”. It is not very good lyricism, but the result is better than “The Island of the Fay” (1841) because it’s stripped of allegory.
text cultural landscape fiction
‣ “Landor’s Cottage” (1849)
Edgar Allan Poe (writer).
Read in 2022.