Narrator (unnamed) - The narrator in this story is chiefly an observer, but integral
to connecting the two parts of the story as he outlives his wife.
Morella - The main protagonist, the wife of the narrator.
Morella - The daughter of Morella and the narrator. She is named only years after her
mother has died.
Setting:
Location - Under development.
Date - Under development.
Summary:
Under development.
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Reading and Reference Texts:
Reading copy:
“Morella” — reading copy
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Historical Texts:
Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:
Text-01 — “Morella” — 1835 — (There are no known draft
manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
Text-02 — “Morella” — about April
1835 — unfinished “Simmons” manuscript — (Mabbott text A — This is
Mabbott's copy-text for this early version) (In his edition of Poe's Tales and Sketches [2:224], Mabbott dates the manuscript as about 1835 in the bibliography
and 1834 or 1835 in the introductory text. In his edition of Poe's Poems [1:217], Mabbott dates the manuscript as about 1833, but probably in
error. The Poe Log, p. 126, following J. H. Whitty
[Poems, 1911, p. 214], assigns the date of 1832-1833.)
Text-03a — “Morella” — early May 1835 — (Speculated
faircopy manuscript Poe prepared for publication. This manuscript has not survived, but this version is
presumably recorded in Text-03b.)
Text-03b — “Morella” — April
1835 — Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text B) (The April 1835 issue was late,
and available by about May 14, 1835)
Text-04a — “Morella” — about 1839 — (although these pages
in the Duane copy of the Southern Literary Messenger show no sign of changes, the version published in
TGA shows numerous modifications, which suggests an intermediary form. It is likely, therefore, that
Poe made changes in copies other than those which were ultimately owned by Duane, and that 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. This
missing text is presumably reflected in text-05.)
Text-04b — “Morella” — late
1839 — TGA (1840) — (Mabbott text C) (Although the imprint date is 1840, this
book was available by early December 1839. Although it appeared after Text-06, it presumably represents a
slightly earlier form.)
Text-04c — “Morella” —
November 1839 — Burton's — (Mabbott text D) (The text in Burton's
specifically states that it is extracted from TGA, noted as forthcoming, although Poe clearly made a
number of mostly minor changes.)
Text-05a — “Morella” — 1842
— TGAPP — (Mabbott text E) (This version is a modified form of Text-05)
Text-05b — “Morella” — 1844-1845 — TGAPPB —
(Speculated revised version of pages from TGA, but not the Phantasy Pieces as the next printed
text shows many changes that are not marked in TGAPP and are too extensive to have been made in proof.
This material has not survived, but is presumably reflected in Text-09.)
Text-05c — “Morella” — June
21, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text F) (For Griswold's 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)
Text-05d — “Morella” — about
October 1848 — one manuscript revision in Whitman copy of Broadway Journal — (Mabbott
text G — This is Mabbott's copy-text for the final version)
Reprints:
“Morella” — 1850 —
WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-09 (Mabbott text H)
“Morella” — 1852 — Tales and Sketches: to which is added The Raven:
A Poem, London, George Routledge & Co, pp. 187-191 (This tale is not included in Tales of Mystery and
Imagination and Humour; and Poems, London: Henry Vizetelly, printed in England about the same time)
“Morella: A Mystery” — January 8, 1857 — Burlington Weekly
Sentinel (Burlington, VT), vol. 57, no. 2, p. 1 (Information for this entry was provided to the Poe Society
by Ton Fafianie in an e-mail dated May 14, 2019)
“Morella” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, first series
(New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 469-474 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's
Works. It was reprinted several times.)
“Morella” — 1874
— Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 388-393 (This collection was
subsequently reprinted in various forms) (Although Ingram did not yet have the copies of the Broadway
Journal with Poe's minor change for this story, Ingram is the first to editorially correct the spelling
of “Hinnom” in the third paragraph, which is the only change marked by Poe. Consequently,
Ingram's 1884 printing of the tale is not included in this bibliography as it provides no new text.)
“Morella” — July 19, 1929 — Evening Star (Washington, DC),
whole no. 31,125, p. 23, cols. 1-2
Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:
“Morella” — 1894-1895
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Tales, ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone
and Kimball (1:174-181)
“Morella” — 1902
— The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales I, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell
(2:27-34, and 2:318-323)
“Morella” — 1978
— The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott,
Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:221-237)
“Morella” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed.
Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 234-239
“Morella” — 2015 — The Annotated Poe, ed. Kevin J. Hayes
(Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press), pp. 59-64
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Comparative and Study Texts:
Instream Comparative and Study Texts:
“Morella” — Comparative Text
(unfinished “Simmons” manuscript and SLM)
“Morella” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
“Morella” — November 14-15, 1853 — Paris
“Morella” — Part I (November 14, 1853)
“Morella” — Part II (November 15, 1853)
“Morella” — September 18, 1854 — Le Pays
“Morella” — 1856 — Histoires extraordinaires, Paris: Michel
Lévy frères
“Morella” — 1969 — a reading by Martin Donegan as part of volume III
of Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe, issued on the CMS Records label (CMS-567)
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Bibliography:
Dumoulié, Camille, “Des signes d‘inquiétante
étrangeté,” Nouvelle revue francaise, 1994, 493:71-79 and 494:102-110
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.
Holt, Palmer C., “Poe and H. N. Coleridge's Greek Classic Poets:
‘Pinakidia,’ ‘Politian’ and ‘Morella’ Sources, American Literature,
March 1962, 34:8-30
Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, “The Source of the Title of Poe's
‘Morella’,” Notes & Queries, January 9, 1937, 172:26-27
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.
Neale, Walter G., “The Source of Poe's ‘Morella’,” American
Literature, May 1937, 9:237-239
Richmond, Lee J., “Edgar Allan Poe's ‘Morella’: Vampire of
Volition,” Studies in Short Fiction, Winter 1972, 9:93-95
Sandler, S. Gerald, “Poe's Indebtedness to Locke's An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding,” Bucknell University Studies in English, Summer 1961, 5:107-121
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.
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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Tales - Morella