The Lighthouse at the End of the World

by Stephen Marlowe

Book Overview

The author of The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus turns the life of Edgar Allan Poe into a provocative blend of fantasy, adventure, and mystery tale, featuring Poe's legendary detective, August Dupin.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452275563
• ISBN13: 9780452275560
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A dream within a dream

I'm surprised that none of the other reviewers seem to have gotten the same sense that I did from this book -- that it is the (fictional, of course) narrative of what passed through Edgar Allan Poe's mind as he lay dying. You know how they say when you're dying, your life flashes before your eyes? Well, this is what I think could have possibly gone through Poe's mind in those four days between the time he was found, delirious, on a Baltimore street, and when he died in the hospital. Of course it doesn't make sense and it's not linear. It's like those dreams you have in which someone from your high school thirty years ago appears side by side with a guy you met yesterday. I thought it was a brilliant, nightmarish story.

Labyrinth of mystery and the surreal

Anyone familiar with the work of Edgar Allan Poe or the unforgiving world of slander, misfortune, and ultimate tragedy that his actual life took place in will immediately recognize a labor of love and compassion for this tragic artist of the macabre in Marlowe's powerhouse work of historical fiction. This puzzling and enigmatic mindf**k employs every single tactic to give Poe the man a more substantial face and soul, two attributes he has sorely lacked for over a century now. While I still can't claim to have understood the entire narrative, this is undeniably the sort of creative fiction which is absolutely impossible to put down. There is not one character, one attribute of Poe's work or life that is not worked into a drama, whether real or imaginary (often it is hard to tell the difference.) C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's predecessor to Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, smokes meerschaum and wears a pair of emerald green glasses while trying to decide whether his most prized subject--Poe himself--is merely delusional or correct in his assessment of the cosmos' potential destruction at the hands of a tribe called "the Yaneek". One single shard of a kaleidoscope broken at the hands of the author himself as a child may or may not determine, along with this tribe, the fate of humanity, so invested is it with the power of imagination and enlightenment. The death of Poe's only true love, Virginia, is given full and at times unbearably heartwrenching treatment by Marlowe. Poe's subsequent madness and (seeming) death by cholera is given equally moving and horribly realistic treatment. I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to try to explain this book; I can only say that I would like it somehow to be the first and last word on it's subject, since a million annoying biographies filled with monotonous statistics and dates could never communicate the haunted greatness of Poe as this book does.

Surreal mystery novel about Edgar Allan Poe

The late Stephen Marlowe made a name for himself as a pulp fiction writer. Later in life, Marlowe forayed into literary fiction, penning artful biographical fiction. Lighthouse at the End of the World, is one of Marlowe's finest, most intellectually-challenging books. It is a fantasy fiction portrait of Edgar Allan Poe revolving around the yet-unsolved mystery of Poe's death. In the first 200 pages of the novel, Marlowe combines historical fiction and fictional biography with fantasy and mystery. Interspersed in an account of Poe's life, narrated in a fairly linear and cohesive fashion by Poe himself, are surreal, fantasy episodes narrated by Poe doppelgangers. In the final third of the book, there is a sharp break in the already fractured, multi-layered narrative. Fantasy takes over completely as Poe descends into the alcohol, opium and exposure-induced encephalothopy that killed him. C. Aguste Dupin emerges out of the blue to investigate Poe's disappearance and strange illness. Although this book is inordinately difficult to follow, Marlowe's writing is very beautiful and unique (the adjectives "kaleidoscopic" and "shimmering" come to mind). This book has an overall feel to it which is reminiscent of a Jean Cocteau film. The intrigue and beauty of Marlowe's writing manage to carry the reader through the difficult parts to the final three chapters where Marlowe ties the story together. The ending, by the way, is quite bizarre and surprising. The most fascinating aspect of this novel, by far, is the metamorphosis in Marlowe's writing between the first few chapters and the end of the book. As the story proceeds, Poe starts to become very much like his own fictional characters. Poe alternately becomes a kind of William Wilson, Arthur Gordon Pym and Roderick Usher. All the while, Marlowe's writing slowly, subtly but surely takes on Poe's distinctive style, complete with elipses, italics, anachronisms and footnotes where the narrator directly addresses the reader. It is very unnerving and effective. Marlowe's masterfully-crafted writing earns this novel a five-star rating in spite of the difficult and complex plot.

slow at first, but very intrigueing .

Great book. A bit slow at first, hard to get into I think. As you read it more though, the book begins to develop around you and draw you in. I enjoyed it greatly. Being able to walk in Poe's footsteps, see through his eyes, you begin to wonder and imagine that you are Poe. The sheer historical and visual aspect of it is enough to capture the imagination and intrigue of anyone.

Mesmerizing, confusing, poetic prose, historical.

I found the book hard to follow, and yet by the end I was strangely drawn to it - its bewildering account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe. I plan to hang on to my copy and reread it later, if anything, just to figure out the plot(s).