Text: Anonymous, “[Review of Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque],” Boston Notion (Boston, MA), vol. I, no. 11, December 14, 1839, p. 3, col. 7

[page 3, column 7, continued:]

Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque; by EDGAR A. POE. Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard; Boston, James Munroe Co. We have read a goodly number of these tales, and verily must say that they fall below the average of newspaper trash. They seem to be the offspring of a distempered, unregulated imagination, which needs a sedative, rather than “an ounce of civet.” They consist of a wild, unmeaning, pointless, aimless set of stories, outraging all manner of probability, and without any thing of chastened fancy or fine humor to redeem them. The style is slip-shod, though the author says he has elaborated it carefully; and the congregation of nonsense is merely carricature [[caricature]] run mad. But if any one is pleased with such stuff, it lies not in our humor to prevent it. Degustibas, &c.