The Angel of the Odd

Infobox short story |
name = The Angel of the Odd
title_orig = The Angel of the Odd: An Extravaganza
translator =
author = Edgar Allan Poe
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Satire, Humor
published_in =
publisher = "Columbian Magazine"
media_type =
pub_date = October 1844
english_pub_date =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Angel of the Odd" is an 1844 short story written by 19th century author Edgar Allan Poe. It is written as a satire.

Plot summary

The story follows an unnamed narrator who reads a story about a man who died after accidentally sucking a needle down his throat. He rages at the gullibility of humanity for believing a hoax. He vows to never fall for such odd stories. Just then, a strange-looking creature made of a keg and wine bottles appears. The creature announces in a heavy accent that he is the Angel of the Odd - and that he is responsible for causing such strange events.

The man, unconvinced, drives the angel away and takes an alcohol-induced nap. Instead of a 25-minute nap, he wakes up two hours later, having missed an appointment to renew his fire insurance. Ironically, his house has caught fire and his only escape is out a window using a ladder the crowd below has provided for him. As he steps down, a hog brushes against the ladder, causing the narrator to fall and fracture his arm.

Later, the narrator's attempts at wooing a rich woman to be his wife end in failure when she realizes he is wearing a wig which he must wear since the fire in his apartment singed off his hair. Then, he tried to woo another woman who also leaves him when she scoffs him for ignoring her as she passes by. In reality, a particle had gotten into his eye, blinding him, just as she passed him.

Finally, the narrator decides his ill fortune is cause for him to end his life. He decides to commit suicide by drowning himself in a river after removing his clothes ("for this is no reason why we cannot die as we were born," he says). However, a crow runs off with "the most indispensable portion" of his clothes and chases after it. As he is running, he runs off a cliff, only realizing too late. He grabs on to the long rope of a hot air balloon as it happens to be floating by. The Angel of the Odd reappears to him and makes him admit that the bizarre really can happen. The narrator agrees, but is unable to physically perform the pledge that the Angel of the Odd demands because of his fractured arm. The Angel then cuts the rope and the man falls down onto his newly-rebuilt house through the chimney and into the dining room. The man then realizes this was his punishment. "Thus revenged himself the Angel of the Odd."

Allusions

The introductory paragraph of the story alludes (by last name only) to several authors, particularly Glover and Wilkie. He also refers to "Curiosities of Literature" by Rufus Wilmot Griswold and "Isabel, or Sicily, a Pilgrimage" by Henry Theodore Tuckerman. [Bittner, William. "Poe: A Biography". Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962: 199.]

Analysis

The story is especially interesting as it was published only six months before Poe's own great hoax, "The Balloon-Hoax," which many believed to be true despite its elements of the odd.

The angel speaks with an unusual dialect, which Poe biographer Arthur Hobson Quinn said "was not spoken anywhere on the globe." [Quinn, Arthur Hobson. "Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography". Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998: 421. ISBN 0801857309]

Publication History

"The Angel of the Odd" was first published in "Columbian Magazine" in April of 1844. Its original full title was "The Angel of the Odd: An Extravaganza." [Sova, Dawn B. "Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z". New York: Checkmark Books, 2001: 11. ISBN 081604161X]

References

External links

*gutenberg|no=2150|name=The Angel of the Odd