A Predicament

Signora Zenobia #2

by Edgar Allan Poe

Signora Psyche Zenobia is out for a stroll in the goodly city of Edina in Scotland. Accompanied by her miniature poodle, Diana, and her elderly slave, Pompey, only three feet in height. She suddenly confronts a gothic cathedral of immense proportions with a steeple "which towered into the sky."

The signora was seized with an uncontrollable desire to enter the cathedral, and to climb to the top of the steeple to look at the city from above. Which the three do. Stair by stair, round and round, up and up.

Humourous, yes, but be prepared for science fiction and horror too. It's Edgar Allan Poe at his best.

Librarian's note: an earlier name for the story was Scythe of Time.

Librarian's note #2: there are two volumes in the Signora Zenobia series, 1. How to Write a Blackwood Article (1838), and 2. A Predicament (1838). Both have their own entries on GR.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Horror, Fiction, Humor, Literature, 19th Century

20 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 1838

About the author

The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.

The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...

Reviews

[Majenta · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dogs they danced. DANCED! Could it then be possible? Alas, thought I, my dancing days are over! Thus it is ever."

"IF! Distressing monosyllable! what world of mystery, and meaning, and doubt, and uncertainty is there involved in thy two letters!"

"And presently they took to dancing the Mazurka, and I think it was the figure V. who performed the most to my satisfaction. She was evidently a lady of breeding."

4 1/2 "What the...?!" stars!

[Francesc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Segunda parte del relato titulado "Como escribir un artículo en Blackwood".

-----------------------

Second part of the story entitled ‘How to write a Blackwood article’.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sequal to "How to Write a Blackwood Article."

My neighbors may think I'm nuts because this had me cackling like a madman. Poe is amazing.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a second part of a two parter that started with “How To Write A Blackwood Article”. Hold onto your seats while reading or listening to this one.

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite the gruesome tale..dark and morbid with a few twists of irony thrown in.

[Jack Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars. Bizarre to say the least. Horror and science fiction in Poe's inimitable style. The lead character and narrator is a woman with the strange name of Psyche Zenobia. But an enjoyable read if you can deal with the bizarre. There's a little display of Poe's disposition to adorn the early pages with exotic synonyms signifying nothing. He does digress into other languages without translation in a few places - his need to exhibit his skills isn't completely hidden. This came out in 1838 and racism glaringly surfaces. Psyche has a black, elderly man of short stature, Pompey, in her retinue, possibly a slave - although the story takes place in Edina, an older name for Edinburgh at about the time the 1834 Abolition of Slavery Act for the UK and the Empire including Canada was coming into force. Out for a walk, she, her dog and Pompey, her order of listing, climb the stairs of the steeple in one of the city's Gothic cathedrals (11th to 15th centuries). There's a small peephole in the clock at the top through which she can observe the city. Without giving it away, keep an eye on that clock! She didn't. Neither did Pompey nor Diana the poodle. (Fe2023/De2025)

[Plateresca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was too quirky for me; so this is not my favourite Poe story, but I still think these are great lines:
'Vanny Buren, tan escondida
Query no te senty venny
Pork and pleasure, delly morry
Nommy, torny, darry, widdy!'

(It so happened that I knew the lines before I read the story; and this is something I say to myself when the going gets tough. Vanny Buren, pork and pleasure).

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars rounded up to 5 Stars
"Although treated as two separate stories A Predicament and How To Write A Blackwood Article were originally published together with A Predicament originally titled A Scythe of Time [Believe me this makes a lot more sense] and offered as an example of a Blackwood article produced by following the directions in the companion piece. The combined works contain Poe's only use of a female narrator. As a parody of the typical Blackwood tale, [a British magazine which aside from essays also printed a good deal of horror fiction] uses psychological mannerisms to elaborate a great show of learning, and is centered on a protagonist isolated by a bizarre turn of events." Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z : the essential reference to his life and work. New York: Checkmark Books. (200) An unbelievably silly parody that reached its mark masterfully.

[Ivana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a bit too dramatic and it annoyed me.

[Michael Kress · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading A Predicament, I felt like I needed more information to write a good review. I read some of the Goodreads reviews, looked up the Wikipedia article on the story, and visited the story again, this time on audiobook. It turns out that I failed to retain a lot of what the story contained. I had previously read How To Write A Blackwood Article, but didn't realize A Predicament was its sequel. I still can't make any real connections between the two other than they are both bizarre and absurd in a dark comedic way. Perhaps Blackwood explains why A Predicament is written the way it is.

I did find that visiting the story the second time was more enjoyable than the first. This was because I had a better understanding of what was going on. I even had a little chuckle this time when Pompey refused to save Zenobia because of her name-calling. The fact that Zenobia remains conscious after being decapitated stays true to Poe's bizarre narrative. Her eyeballs popping out and decapitation are some of the gory details Poe is known for. However, my experience has been that his more well-known stories are generally better and that his "deep-cuts" are not always as great.

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a follow up to the Blackwood Articles. This time the narrator follows her editors advice and tries to create her own death.

[Benjamin Irwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's entirely possible I didn't "get" A Predicament (I didn't realize, for instance, it is the sequel to How to Write a Blackwood Article, and apparently, neither did many of the other reviewers here). It didn't grab me, which is much less than I'd want to say about a Poe story, but it ended up being true about a distressing lot of them. I appreciate Poe's dark-comedic sense of humor, his sinister prose, and his tortured window into the troubled psyche. But I found as I undertook to read his entire bibliography of work that his well-known stories are, for the most part, his only truly great works. He has a few obscure ones I really like (such as his Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, but THAT falls apart in the last act), but a lot of his "deep cuts" did not pay off for me. Stick to the greatest hits. Sorry, Edgar.

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For · Rating 2 out of 5]

A direct follow-up to "How to Write a Blackwood Article", this short story displays, yet again, the failure of Poe's humor to translate well to modern times (I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that it worked better when originally written). The "heroine" (and I use the term loosely) from Blackwood puts herself into a life-threatening predicament and describes her own death in some detail.

[Knigoqdec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Мисля, че може да се зачете като хорър, в който участва напълно не с всичкия си идиот, който е послушал съвет от напушен писател xD
Госпожа Психея дава всичко от себе си да спази инструкциите за постигане на хубав разказ за "Блакуд". Дава ама наистина всичко...

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny story by Poe, but you really need to read an "How to Write a Blackwood Article " to appreciate it's references.

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:

"Meandrous frills
Leave a tale with no substance.
A chick with no head."

[Allison Faught · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm. Odd concept of being conscious after being decapitated, however, amusing nonetheless. Bizarre story to say the least.

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story. A sequel to Poe's How to Write a Blackwood Article. Amusing.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 3 out of 5]

You said the dogs did WHAT???

[Pierre Dantes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written Blackwood article

[Samuel Beard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh dear.

Having read through the ‘serious’ Poe up until now, these comedies have the air of an unhinged man cackling wildly.

More preposterous rambling and self-deprecating digs at writing.

I don’t feel massively positive about this, but I did grin stupidly and laugh a fair bit.

[Federico DN · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

It was ok, but not worth reviewing.

For the moment at least.

It’s public domain. You can find it HERE.

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1838] [20p] [Horror] [2.5] [Not Recommendable]
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Meh.

Estuvo ok, pero no vale la pena reseñarlo.

Al menos por ahora.

Es dominio público, lo pueden encontrar ACA.

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[1838] [20p] [Horror] [2.5] [No Recomendable]
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[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Zenobia takes all of the advice from "How to Write a Blackwood Article" and applies it liberally.

I know that it's supposed to be funny and the 1-star is not for the writing. The writing was quite engaging, I could hardly tear my eyes away.

No, the 1-star is because this disturbed me on a deep level. I don't want to give away any of the story, I went in not knowing anything about it and I believe that is best. Like The Black Cat this Poe story is going to stick with me, and not in a good way.

Some people found it funny, but I just didn't. It was too descriptive and horrific for me to laugh.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read HOW TO WRITE A BLACKWOOD ARTICLE before you read this story!

This was hands-down the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. I don’t remember the last time a story made me laugh out loud but it happened with this EA Poe gem. I’m fairly certain I’ll be revisiting Blackwood Article & Predicament many times in the future.

Spoiler: the joke is that it’s absurd on purpose, he’s satirizing contemporary horror literature.

[Faith Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a horrifying and hilarious read. I listened to this short story on librivox.org and found myself playing it over again. The story is completely satirical, but you can't help but wonder if the mind does go through a whirlwind of absurdity and deep thought while facing death.

[Lee Foust · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only funny, I imagine, if read in concert with Poe's other tale "How to Write a Blackwood Article," which explains how it is done, this being the result of the doing. I found it very amusing. I found Psyche Zenobia a winning character!

[Safae · Rating 5 out of 5]

good riddance

[Arleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy but nice.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A PREDICAMENT
Following up from ‘Blackwood Article” this is full-on. What the heck? Morbid sarcasm… again! (3 stars)

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morbidly and absurdly hilarious.