BOOK REVIEW: Poe – Stories and Poems, a Graphic Novel Adaptation by Gareth Hinds

Stephanie O'Connell | 14 January 2018 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: Poe – Stories and Poems, a Graphic Novel Adaptation by Gareth Hinds

Candlewick Press
August 2017
Hardcover, $29.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

Graphic Novel / Classics / Poetry / Anthology

8/10

It is true that I am nervous. But why will you say that I am mad?

In storied and poems written well over a century ago, Edgar Allan Poe established himself as the original American master of gothic horror. Now, acclaimed artist-adapter Gareth Hinds translates Poe’s dark genius into the graphic novel format for Poe fans new and old.

Blood, bones, and flickering firelight set the mood for Hinds’s vision of Poe’s macabre and tragic worlds. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” a man takes a terrifying revenge on a friend who has insulted him. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” a prince hosts a party in his abbey stronghold while plague spreads outside. A prisoner finds himself in the sadistic clutches of the Spanish Inquisition in “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” a single milky eye incites madness and murder.

Alongside the tales are visual interpretations of three iconic poems – “The Raven,” “The Bells,” and Poe’s poignant elegy to lost love, “Annabel Lee.” Taken together, these seven concise graphic narratives both amplify and honor a timeless legacy.

In this new collection, Gareth Hinds adds Poe to his stable of classics-turned-graphic-novels. Poe joins the ranks of The Odyssey, Beowulf, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and King Lear.

The poems and stories within this collection give a taste of Poe’s range, as well as harking back on the classics we all know and love.

The illustrations pair wonderfully with the writing, and it seems Hinds really has got the “flavour” of Poe right, making this a great addition to the collection of any Poe lover, as well as an introduction for those who are not as familiar with Poe and would like to test the waters.

Hinds is definitely an illustrator to keep an eye out for!