Edgar Allan Poe — “The Duc de L’Omelette”

Reading copy:

• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1831 (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
• Text-02 — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1831
  • Text-02a — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1831 (Speculated faircopy manuscript submitted, as one of five, to the Saturday Courier for the contest. Although Poe did not win, several of his stories were printed in that periodical. This manuscript has not survived, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b.)
  • Text-02b — “The Duke de L’Omelette” — March 3, 1832 — Saturday Courier — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1835-1840
  • Text-03a — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1835, presumed heavily revised version of the tale, either with revisions made on a copy of the Saturday Courier, or written out as a new manuscript. This copy has not survived (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-04)
  • Text-03b — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — February 1836 — Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text B) (These pages in the Duane copy of the Southern Literary Messenger show no sign of changes. The version published in TGA shows such minor changes that an intermediary form is not necessarily suggested, although it is possible. If so, Poe would have to have made changes in a copy other than those which were ultimately owned by Duane, and those copies have not been located and possibly have not survived. Poe appears to have attempted to erase his changes in the Duane copies, and it is possible that a copy exists in which these erased changes have been overlooked.)
  • Text-03c — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1840 — TGA — (Mabbott text C)
• Text-04 — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1842-1845
  • Text-04a — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1842 — manuscript punctuation revisions in  TGAPP — (Mabbott text D)  (This version is a modified form of Text-05)
  • Text-04b — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1842-1845 — (This entry is a speculative intermediary form.)
  • Text-04c — “The Duc de L’Omelette” — October 11, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text E) (For Griswold's 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)

Reprints:

• “The Duke de L’Omelette” — March 10, 1832 — Baltimore Minerva (reprint from Text-02)
• “The Duke de L’Omelette” — March 24, 1832 — Albany Literary Gazette (reprint from Text-02)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — October 10, 1840 — Bentley's Miscellany (reprint from Text-05)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette in the Shades” — October 31, 1840 — Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction (London, UK), vol. XXXVI, whole no. 103, pp. 278-279 (Poe's name is not mentioned, and the story is slightly abridged, and omits the ending and Poe's footnote. The devil is rendered as Sathanas.) (It is stated as reprinted from Bentley's Miscellany)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1850 — WORKS — (Mabbott text F — This is Mabbott's copy-text) (Griswold reprints Text-08)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, second series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 51-54 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram (vol. II, pp. 261-264) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (4:3-8)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales I, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (2:197-202, and 2:373-375)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:31-41)
• “The Duc De L’Omelette” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 143-146

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — Comparative Text (Saturday Courier and SLM)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — Comparative Text (SLM and TGA)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — Study Text (TGAPP)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — Comparative Text (TGAPP and BJ)
• “The Duc de L’Omelette” — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Le duc de l”omelette” — 1885 — Oeuvres Choisies d‘Edgar Pöe, Paris: A. Hennuyer  (French translation by William L. Hughes)
• “Le Duc de L’Omelette” — 1887 — Edgar Poë: Derniers Contes, Paris: Albert Savine  (French translation by Félix Rabbe)
• ”Le Duc de L’Omelette” — 1950 — Histories grotesques et sérieuse par Edgar Poe, Paris: Classiques Garnier  (French translation by Léon Lemonnier)

• Carson, David L. “Ortolans and Geese: Origin of Poe's ‘Duc de L’Omelette’,” College Language Association Journal (Morgan State College) (March 1965), 8:277-283.
• Clifton, Michael, “Down Hecate's Chain: Infernal Inspiration in Three of Poe's Tales,” Nineteenth-Century Fiction (1986), 41:217-227.
• Daughrity, K. L., “Poe's Quiz on Willis,” American Literature (March 1933), 5:55-62.
• Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
• Hirsch, David, “Another Source for Poe's ‘The Duc de L’Omelette’,” American Literature (January 1967), 38:532-536.
• Hirsch, David, “ ‘The Duc de L:‘Omelette’ as Anti-Visionary Tale,” Poe Studies (1978), 10:36-39.
• Hudson, Ruth Leigh, “Poe and Disraeli,” American Literature (January 1937), 8:402-416.
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vols 2-3 Tales and Sketches), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978.
• Wyllie, John Cooke, “A List of the Texts of Poe's Tales,” Humanistic Studies in Honor of John Calvin Metcalf, Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1941, pp. 322-338.