Text: Anonymous,”[Review of Tales of Mystery, Humour and Poems],” Glasgow Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), whole no. 5132, April 5, 1852, p. 3, col. 6

[page 3, column 6, continued:]

READABLE BOOKS. — London: Henry Vizetelly, Gough Square.

THE above is the general title of a new series of works meant in for the traveller by land or sea, for the man weary with work, for the idler suffering from ennui for the solitary student, or the family circle. Should the succeeding volumes of the series be at all like the one before us, the public may for a small sum become possessed of a very pretty and very portable library of very highly seasoned mental aliment. The volume before us, “Tales of Mystery, and Humour, and Poems,” is a selection from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, an American, whose life forms the first and not the least curious portion of the book. As a whole, this volume, including the story of the wild erratic life of unbridled self-indulgence of the author, and his strange haggard tales, the extravagant products of a diseased imagination must, whatever other opinion be entertained of it, be regarded as a psychological curiosity. We hope, however, that the public will have as little of such matter as possible in the series of “Readable Books,” because neither pleasure nor profit could accrue from a course of such reading. This series emanates from a house celebrated for the elegance of its publications, and this first volume will make the reputation of Mr. Vizetelly known to thousands who have never even heard his name before.