Eureka : Alma Classics

Initially composed by Poe as a public lecture towards the end of his career and considered by him the culmination of all his life 's work, Eureka is an extended treatise about the creation, existence and the ultimate end of the world. An idiosyncratic blend of creative writing and scientific discourse, with unexpected forays into comedy and wordplay, this self-styled prose poem is a genre-defying masterpiece.

Although it baffled the reading public of its time, Eureka found many prominent admirers, from Charles Baudelaire to W.H. Auden, and has since assembled an audience receptive to its unique appeal as a compendium of European thought that anticipated many current theories and discoveries while also pioneering many elements of science-fiction aesthetics.

About the Author

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. Born Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809; he was informally adopted by the Allans of Richmond after his parents' death. He attended the University of Virginia and briefly attempted a military career, before embarking on a literary career.

After publishing an anonymous collection of poems in 1827, Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals. He married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, in 1835, who died in 1842 not long after publishing his famous poem 'The Raven'. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), but died in 1849 before being able to see it produced.