Ligeia

"Ligeia" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in The American Museum in 1838. It was revised and reprinted many times during Poe's lifetime.

The story tells of an unnamed narrator's beautiful wife Ligeia. She composes the poem "The Conqueror Worm" before dying. The narrator then marries the Lady Rowena. She shortly sickens and dies. The narrator stays with her body overnight. She comes back from the dead as Ligeia.

Criticism was positive. Charles Eames of The New World wrote, "The force and boldness of the conception and the high artistic skill, with which the writer's purpose is wrought out, are equally admirable."Thomas, Dwight & David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: p. 502.  Thomas Dunn English wrote in October 1845 that "Ligeia" was "the most extraordinary, of its kind, of his productions".Thomas, Dwight & David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 586–587. 

In 1964, director Roger Corman adapted the story to a movie, The Tomb of Ligeia, starring Vincent Price.

 References  

Category:1830s short stories
Category:Horror stories
Category:Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe