The Visionary (The Assignation)

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Visionary was originally published in 1834.

A rather convoluted but beautifully-written story set in Venice, The Visionary is a disturbing tale that is sure to appeal to lovers of the short story form and fans of Poe’s seminal work. This tale was also published under the title The Assignation

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author, editor, poet, and critic. Most famous for his stories of mystery and horror, he was one of the first American short story writers, and is widely considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre.

We are republishing this vintage text, The Visionary, in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Extract from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Visionary:

Rich draperies in every part of the room trembled to the vibration of low melancholy music, whose unseen origin undoubtedly lay in the recesses of the red coral trellice-work which tapestried the ceiling. The senses were oppressed by mingled and conflicting perfumes, reeking up from strange Arabesque censers which seemed actually endued with a monstrous vitality as their particoloured fires writhed up and down, and around about their extravagant proportions. The rays of the rising sun poured in upon the whole, through windows formed each of a single huge pane of crimson-tinted glass, and glancing to and fro in a thousand reflections from curtains which rolled from their cornices like streams of molten silver, mingled at length, fitfully with the artificial light, and lay weltering and subdued upon a carpet of rich, liquid-looking cloth of gold.

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Here, at edgarallanpoe.co.uk, you can find the best of this fantastic author’s novels, short stories, essays, and poems.

You can also find a biography of Edgar Allan Poe, along with some of his most famous quotes and loved poems.

Through republishing works such as ‘The Visionary’, it is hoped that the writing of this author of mystery and the macabre, can continue to delight – almost two centuries after its initial publication.

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