The narrator (unnamed) - The narrator of this story is chiefly an observer.
The Devil - Under development.
The Belfry-man - Under development.
The various inhabitants of Vondervotteimittiss - The burghers, the fraus (women), the
boys, the cats, the dogs, and the pigs.
etc. - Under development.
Setting:
Location - Under development.
Date - Under development.
Summary:
Under development.
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Reading and Reference Texts:
Reading copy:
“The Devil in the Belfry” — reading copy
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Historical Texts:
Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:
Text-01 — “[The Devil in the Belfry. An Extravaganza.]” — 1839 (There
are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition. Mabbott does not
assign a date of composition, but does suggest (T&S,
2:364) that it may have been written specifically for the Saturday Chronicle.)
Text-02 — “The Devil in the Belfry. An Extravaganza.” — 1839
Text-02a — “The Devil in the Belfry. An Extravaganza.” — 1839,
(Speculated faircopy manuscript, prepared for publication in the Saturday Chronicle. This manuscript
has not surived, as it was probably destroyed in the process of typsetting, but this version is presumably
recorded in Text-02b.)
Text-03 — “The Devil in the Belfry. An Extravaganza.” — 1839
Text-03a — “The Devil in the Belfry. An Extravaganza.” — 1839
— (speculated copy of the Saturday Chronicle with minor corrections by Poe in anticipation of
reprinting in TGA. This version is lost, but presumably reflected in text-04. Changes are extensive in
number, but very minor in nature, with even the few verbal differences being only a matter of a word or two.
It is thus possible that Poe's changes were made in proof of TGA.)
Text-03c — “The Devil in the
Belfry” — 1840 — manuscript revision in “Pedder” copy of TGA —
(Mabbott text C) (This version is a modified form of Text-03a, presented to Ann and Bessie Pedder)
Text-04b — “The Devil in the Belfry” — 1843-1845 — (This
entry is a speculative intermediary form, TGAPPB, prepared for Tales, although it was not
included in the collection, which was published on June 25, 1845. Changes from Text-04a are present in
Text-04c, but there are also additional changes in Text-04c, changes of too great a nature to have been made
purely in proof. This intermediary form does not appear to have survived, but the changes are presumably
recorded in Text-04c. It is possible that Poe made some additional changes in proof.)
Text-05a — “The Devil in the Belfry” — 1845-1849 —
(Speculated copy of the Broadway Journal with changes and corrections marked by Poe. Mabbott chooses
this text with the comment that there is “one change” which he presumes is by Poe, although he
does not specify what the change is. Most likely, it is the removal of the repetition of “— it
is” from the phrase “Min Gott, it is Dirteen o’clock!!” Perhaps a more interesting change is
that the several instances of Vondervotteimitiss where the final “s” is omitted, giving an
inconsistent spelling, are restored. The question must be if such a slight change of a quirky spelling of a
humorous non-English name might have been noticed and made by the typesetters, busily trying to set the text
for the new edition.)
“The Devil in the Belfry” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan
Poe, second series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 87-95 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856
edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
“The Devil in the Belfry”
— 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram (vol. II, pp. 299-307) (This collection
was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
“The Devil in the Belfry” — January 18, 1874 — Brooklyn Sunday
Sun (Brooklyn, NY), vol. I, no. 8, p. 2, cols. 1-3 (acknowleged as by “Edgar Allan Poe.”)
“The Devil in the Belfry” — November 9, 1900 — Geneva Gazette
(Geneva, NY), vol. LVI, no. 45, p. 1, cols. 1-3 (acknowleged as by “Edgar Allan Poe.”)
“The Devil in the Belfry” — December 3, 1900 — Fort Smith Times
(Fort Smith, Arkansas), vol. XIX, no. 104, p. 3, cols. 3-5 (acknowleged as by “Edgar Allan Poe.”)
“The Devil in the Belfry” — December 6, 1900 — Montour Falls Free
Press (Montour Falls, NY), vol. ??, no. ??, p. ?, cols. 1-3 (Poe is acknowleged as the author in a short
separate article)
“The Devil in the Belfry” — December 24, 1900 — Daily Illustrated
News (Los Angeles, CA), vol. 8, no. 97, p. 19, cols. 1-3 (printed under the general heading of “World
Famous Stories” and acknowleged as by “Edgar Allan Poe.”)
Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:
“The Devil in the Belfry”
— 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E.
Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (4:103-114) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
“The Devil in the Belfry”
— 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales II, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York:
T. Y. Crowell (3:247-257, and 3:333-335)
“The Devil in the Belfry”
— 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O.
Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:362-378)
“The Devil in the Belfry” — 1983 — Edgar Allan Poe: The Other
Side, ed. David Galloway (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 81-89 and p. 248 (annotations are minor)
“The Devil in the Belfry” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and
Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 298-306
”Le diable dans le beffroi” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
”Le diable dans le beffroi” — September 20, 1854 — Le Pays
”Le diable dans le beffroi” — 1857 — Nouvelles histoires par Edgar
Poe, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
“The Devil in the Belfry” — 2017 — Audio book (unabridged), read by Chris Aruffo
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Bibliography:
Bachinger, Katrina E., “The Aesthetics of (Not) Keeping in Step: Reading the Consumer
Mobocracy of Poe's ‘The Devil in the Belfry’ against Peacock,” Modern Language
Quarterly (1990), 51:513-533.
Eddings, Dennis W., “Poe's Tell-Tale Clocks,” Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe
Society, 1994.
Forbes, Christopher J., “Satire of Irving's A History of New York in
Poe's ‘The Devil in the Belfry’,” Studies in American Fiction (1982), 10:93-100.
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.
Lynch, James J., “The Devil in the Writings of Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe,” New
York Folklore Quarterly (Summer 1952), 8:111-113.
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.
Weber, Jean-Paul, “Edgar Poe on the Theme of the Clock,” La Nouvelle Revue
Francais (August-September 1958), 68:301-311 and 69:498-508.
Whipple, William, “Poe's Political Satire,” University of Texas Studies in
English (1956), 35:81-95.
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 - The Devil in the Belfry