News at Eleven: Disenchantment is [Edgar Allan] Poe's intellectual

theme as well. He scorns the Transcendentalists and other American writers with their visions of transformation and possibility. He rejects ideas of moral uplift. The New World holds no promise. But the Old World, in which so many of his stories are steeped--the realm of old families, cultivated tastes and long traditions--is also corrupt and rotten.

from The New York Times: For Poe, This Has Been the Year to Die For
from The New York Times: Celebrating Poe

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