Steampunk: Poe

January 1, 2012

Gr 10 Up-In this collection, Poe's words remain the same, but the vision is new. From hot-air balloons to top hats to intricate decor and architecture, these stories and poems are enhanced by steampunk illustrations. These images, replete with clockwork trimmings, bring to the classic tales a new dimension of a history that never was. The mask that Death wears in the short story "The Masque of the Red Death" and the poem "The City in the Sea" is a gas mask. The old man's pale blue eye that drives the narrator to murder in "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a mechanized contraption that adds an especially eerie dimension to the murder victim himself. And the spectacles refused by the vain narrator of the comedic "The Spectacles" become the iconic steampunk goggles. The splash of riotous red in the otherwise gloomy illustrations for "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" brings a joyful sense of mayhem to the story of the insane asylum run amok. Perhaps even the most reluctant of students might be persuaded to give these wonderfully illustrated tales a try. Poe would be pleased. Fun!-Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.