Ligeia
Sign in to save"Ligeia" () is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Worm", and quotes lines attributed to Joseph Glanvill (which suggest that life is sustainable only through willpower) shortly before dying.
Book · Open Library
- Author
- Edgar Allan Poe
- First published
- 2004
- Editions
- 55
- Subjects
- Fiction, general
via Open Library
Key facts
- Short story.name
- Ligeia
- Short story.image
- Ligeia-Clarke.jpg
- Short story.caption
- Illustration of "Ligeia" by Harry Clarke, 1919.
- Short story.author
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Short story.country
- United States
- Short story.language
- English
- Short story.genre
- Gothic romance
- Short story.publisher
- The American Museum
- Short story.media_type
- Print (journal)
- Short story.pub_date
- September 1838
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- literary work
- Author
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Genre
- horror literature
- Country of origin
- United States
- Image
- Poe's Tales of Mystery-Rackham-228.jpg
Show 10 more facts
- Commons category
- Ligeia
- publication date
- 1838-00-00
- published in
- Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
- language of work or name
- American English
- inception
- 1838-00-00
- first line
- I cannot, for my soul, remember how, when, or even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia.
- last line
- “Here then, at least,” I shrieked aloud, “can I never—can I never be mistaken—these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes—of my lost love—of the Lady—of the Lady Ligeia.”
- copyright status
- public domain
- form of creative work
- short story
- title
- Лигеја
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
9 sectionsContents
- Plot summary
- Publication history
- Critical reception
- Analysis
- As satire
- Major themes
- Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- References
- External links
"Ligeia" () is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Worm", and quotes lines attributed to Joseph Glanvill (which suggest that life is sustainable only through willpower) shortly before dying.
After her death, the narrator marries the Lady Rowena. Rowena becomes ill, and she dies as well. The distraught narrator stays with her body overnight and watches as Rowena slowly comes back from the dead – though she has transformed into Ligeia. The story may be the narrator's opium-induced hallucination, and there is debate whether the story was a satire. After the story's first publication in The American Museum, it was heavily revised and reprinted throughout Poe's life.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ligeia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.