What’s not to like when an historical novel is written by a lawyer and the main character happens to be a lawyer? I pick up a copy of Matthew Pearl’s The Poe Shadow because of its intriguing premise—it dares to solve the mystery surrounding writer Edgar Allan Poe’s death at the age of 40 in Baltimore. Was he murdered? Killed in a bar fight? Drunk and suffering from alcohol poisoning? Ultimately, Poe may have met an end—albeit too soon—he himself would find fitting. The author of macabre works like “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Raven,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” died in 1849 in a hallucinatory state after being found in a gutter wearing clothes not his own on election day in a city he had no plans to be in.
Readers have been wondering what really happened ever since. Matthew Pearl serves us his own Poe theory in the guise of a mystery novel replete with rascals, election fraud, and grift.
A Lawyer in the Poe Shadow
Poe, a widower, an alleged alcoholic, and a frequent debtor, somehow managed to die in Baltimore after falling sick at a polling site. A fan of Poe, narrator and fictional lawyer Quentin Clark by happenstance observes the writer’s small funeral service. From there, Clark embarks on a quest to determine what went wrong on the author’s last day.
In an adventure that brings to mind the style and imagery of director Guy Ritchie’s 2009 film Sherlock Holmes (the Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law version), Clark ditches his longtime love and his law practice to follow clues to post-revolutionary France, which is not long from barricaded streets in Paris. On his quest, Clark is kind of kidnapped and meets all sorts of unsavory characters who may or may not know more than they are saying about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Edgar Allan Poe.
Along the way readers encounter a fearless female who may also be a foe, all manner of ruffians, and, most formidably, a disgruntled elderly aunt or two. Our fictional lawyer-sleuth also brushes up against the realities of the slave trade at the time.
A Long, Futile Love Chase?
The quest to find out how Poe ended up dead at age 40 reminds readers how well-suited lawyers are for investigations, although this particular inquiry requires a measure of ratiocination (reasoning) not all may be up for. In Quentin Clark, author Matthew Pearl creates a well-read protagonist knowledgeable about the works of Poe as well as other authors of the era. A George Sand novel accompanies Clark on his voyage to France.
That our narrator happens to be a lawyer is, as he might say, assuredly a sign that fortune is on his side.
What sort of lawyer does Quentin Clark turn out to be? He himself acknowledges two types: those who view “the intricacies of the rules of the law as profound and unshakable idols of worship” and more carnivorous ones who treat “rules as the principal barriers to success.” Perhaps every attorney might belong to more than one category on any given day. Later, a third category appears: a nonpracticing lawyer, one admitted to the bar but who finds other things to do with his time.
You Say ‘Reasoning,’ Clark Says ‘Ratiocination’
Poe Shadow author Matthew Pearl charmingly includes period details that might keep a reader close to a search engine. One character drinks a cocktail popular at the time but not well-known today: a sherry cobbler, a mix of sherry, sugar, and water. Pedestrians use walking sticks. Readers also learn how post offices worked at a time when letters were sent to travelers and forwarded to those travelers’ intended destinations.
I like that Pearl peppers into his book words and phrases of the time: a sweetheart losing interest might “give you the mitten,” our lawyer does some research not at a library but at an athenaeum, a carriage for hire is called a fiacre or a hackney. Clark’s misadventures include an inopportune stakeout in a dumbwaiter shaft and a foot chase where his pursuers “trimmed the distance” and surely would tackle him “within a few rods.”
Edgar Allan Poe Death Theories
Pearl, who attended Harvard University and Yale Law School, has used his own impressive research skills to uncover true-to-life facts about Poe’s death never before revealed. Deftly mixing real-world events with theories about Poe’s premature ending, Pearl also treats readers to a cameo by Elizabeth Patterson, a Baltimore belle in a brief marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother (during which they managed to stop at Keeler Tavern in Ridgefield, CT, a visit still noted today).
Ultimately, Pearl explains what is fact and what is fiction in an historical note.
Lori Tripoli is the editor and publisher of LawyersMakeHistory. She earned a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Contact her at Lori@LoriTripoli.com.