and a look of deep intelligence and deeper exhaustion in his dark, sunken eyes.

凹陷眼窩中的深色眼睛，看似智慧高深和疲憊不堪。

Edgar Allan Poe's image is not just instantly recognizable –

愛倫坡的形象不只可以馬上認出，

it's perfectly suited to his reputation.

也十分符合他的名聲。

From the prisoner strapped under a descending pendulum blade,

從犯人被綁在不斷下降的擺片刀下，

to a raven who refuses to leave the narrator's chamber,

到不願離開敘事者房間的烏鴉。

Poe's macabre and innovative stories of gothic horror

愛倫坡的哥德式恐怖故事，常與死亡相關且富有新意，

have left a timeless mark on literature.

在文學上留下永恆的影響

But just what is it that makes Edgar Allan Poe

但究竟是什麼原因，讓愛倫坡什麼成為

one of the greatest American authors?

美國最偉大的作家之一？

After all, horror was a popular genre of the period,

畢竟，恐怖題材在當時非常流行，

with many practitioners.

有很多人也在寫。

Yet Poe stood out thanks to his careful attention to form and style.

然而，由於愛倫坡對形式和風格特別注重，所以才能脫穎而出。

As a literary critic,

身為文學評論家，

he identified two cardinal rules for the short story form:

他知道短篇故事的形式，有兩條主要規則：

it must be short enough to read in one sitting,

必須要夠短，才能在坐一下的時間內就讀完，

and every word must contribute to its purpose.

每個字都要符合故事的目的。

By mastering these rules,

因為精通這兩點規則，

Poe commands the reader's attention

愛倫坡可以操控讀者的注意力，

and rewards them with an intense and singular experience

帶給讀者的回報就是強烈又非凡的經驗 –

what Poe called the unity of effect.

愛倫坡稱此為「效果統一」。

Though often frightening, this effect goes far beyond fear.

雖然這種效果通常很嚇人，但能超越恐懼。

Poe's stories use violence and horror to explore the paradoxes and mysteries of love, grief, and guilt,

愛倫坡的故事以暴力和恐怖來探索愛、悲傷，及罪惡裡的矛盾和神祕，

while resisting simple interpretations or clear moral messages.

堅持不用簡單的詮釋或明確的道德訊息。

And while they often hint at supernatural elements,

故事中也常有超自然元素的暗示，

the true darkness they explore is the human mind

但它們真正在探索的黑暗是人心

and its propensity for self-destruction.

以及人心自我毀滅的傾向。

In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” a ghastly murder

在《告密的心》中，一樁恐怖的謀殺案，

is juxtaposed with the killer's tender empathy towards the victim –

搭配著兇手對受害者的溫柔同情心 –

a connection that soon returns to haunt him.

這連結很快就回來困擾著他。

The title character of "Ligeia" returns from the dead through the corpse of her husband's second wife –

《麗姬亞》裡的書名角色，透過她先生第二任妻子的屍體起死回生 –

or at least the opium-addicted narrator thinks she does.

至少敘事者是這麼認為，不過他有鴉片成癮。

And when the protagonist of “William Wilson”

而《威廉·威爾森》的主角

violently confronts a man he believes has been following him,

堅信有人在跟蹤自己，進而與他激烈對質，

he might just be staring at his own image in a mirror.

他可能只是在瞪著自己鏡中的影像。

Through his pioneering use of unreliable narrators,

愛倫坡採取前衛的作法，使用不可靠的敘事者，

Poe turns readers into active participants

他把讀者變成主動參與者，

who must decide when a storyteller might be misinterpreting

要自己決定敘事者有沒有說錯，

or even lying about the events they're relating.

或是對自己相關的事件說謊。

Although he's best known for his short horror stories,

儘管愛倫坡最知名的是短篇恐怖小說，

Poe was actually one of the most versatile and experimental writers of the nineteenth century.

他其實也是 19 世紀中最多才多藝的實驗作家之一。

He invented the detective story as we know it,

我們知道的偵探小說，其實就是他所發明的，

with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,”

他寫了《莫爾格街兇殺案》，

followed by “The Mystery of Marie Roget”and “The Purloined Letter.”

之後又寫了《瑪麗羅傑奇案》，還有 《失竊的信》。

All three feature the original armchair detective, C. Auguste Dupin,

這三部作品的特色是，以一位無實際經驗的原創偵探 C. 奧古斯特杜邦作為主角，

who uses his genius and unusual powers of observation and deduction

運用他的天分和非凡的觀察推理能力，

to solve crimes that baffle the police.

來解決警方束手無策的犯罪事件。

Poe also wrote satires of social and literary trends,

愛倫坡也寫社會與文學趨勢相關的諷刺作品，

and hoaxes that in some cases anticipated science fiction.

還有一些玩笑，在某些情況下，以科幻的方式呈現。

Those included an account of a balloon voyage to the moon,

那些作品包括氣球航行到月球，

and a report of a dying patient put into a hypnotic trance

還有彌留之際的病人進入催眠狀態時，

so he could speak from the other side.

就能從另一個世界說話。

Poe even wrote an adventure novel about a voyage to the South Pole

愛倫坡甚至寫了到南極圈旅行的冒險小說，

and a treatise on astrophysics,

以及天體物理學的論文，

all while he worked as an editor,

都是在他當編輯時寫得，

producing hundreds of pages of book reviews and literary theory.

他那時寫出了幾百頁的書評及文學理論。

An appreciation of Poe's career wouldn't be complete without his poetry:

愛倫坡生涯中該讚頌的，絕對不能忘了他的詩：

haunting and hypnotic.

縈繞於心頭且具催眠效果。

His best-known poems are songs of grief, or in his words,

他最知名的詩都是悲哀之歌，或是以他的說法：

“mournful and never-ending remembrance.”

「無法忘去的悲傷記憶」。

“The Raven,” in which the speaker projects his grief onto a bird

〈烏雅〉的敘事者將自己的悲傷投射到一隻烏鴉上，

who merely repeats a single sound,

而牠只會重複一個音，

made Poe famous.

此詩讓愛倫坡一舉成名。

But despite his literary success,

但儘管他在文學上很成功，

Poe lived in poverty throughout his career,

愛倫坡整個生涯都過著貧窮的日子，

and his personal life was often as dark as his writing.

他的個人生活如同他的寫作一樣黑暗。

He was haunted by the loss of his mother and his wife,

他因失去母親和妻子，經常感到焦慮不安，

who both died of tuberculosis at the age of 24.

他們兩人都在 24 歲時因肺結核去世。

Poe struggled with alcoholism

愛倫坡無法擺脫酒精中毒，

and frequently antagonized other popular writers.

還要經常對抗其他知名作家。

Much of his fame came from posthumous – and very loose – adaptations of his work.

他大部分的聲望都來自，死後才出版的作品 – 非常鬆散的改編版。

And yet, if he could've known how much pleasure and inspiration

然而，要是他能知道他的作品可以帶給，

his writing would bring to generations of readers and writers alike,

後世的讀者和作家，如此多樂趣與啟發，

perhaps it may have brought a smile to that famously brooding visage.

也許可以在那知名的沉思面容添上一抹微笑。