Edgar Allan Poe’s Tale of the Ragged Mountains and...

Edgar Allan Poe’s Tale of the Ragged Mountains and Lovecraft’s The Outsider Both Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft were known for their tales of horror, shocking discoveries and mysterious characters. Lovecraft was known to have mimicked Poe’s style in his popular horror stories of the early 20th century. Poe, one of the most famous writers of short stories and poems in the 19th century, amazed readers with his rich descriptions and chilling plots. Neither disappoint in two of their stories: Poe’s â€Å"Tale of the Ragged Mountains† and Lovecraft’s â€Å"The Outsider.† Although these are not the most famous of each authors’ works, scholars often debate over the meaning and themes of each story. One common theme in both the†¦show more content†¦As he was walking, he heard a drum, and then shortly a â€Å"half-naked man† ran by him, chased closely by a hyena. He wonders on, noticing a palm tree, not a usual inhabitant of the mountains of Virginia. He comes down a mountain into a strange, Middle -Eastern city, full of â€Å"minarets, shrines, and verandas.† He joins in a fight between a number of British-looking soldiers and native villagers, and, greatly outnumbered, is killed by a poisonous dart in the temple. The narrator is in some doubt, as is the doctor, since their friend is standing before them. Bedloe continues, saying that he felt nothing for a time, and then felt an enormous shock through his body. He feels like he is floating, and retraces his path back up the mountain. At the point where he remembers seeing the man and hyena, he receives another huge shock, and suddenly becomes solid, visible, and of â€Å"substance† again. He rushes home to his friends, who are waiting out of â€Å"alarm† for his arrival. (Poe) Templeton, who has been writing Bedloe’s entire story down as he recounts it, presents Bedloe with a painting, exactly of his features, but made long before Templeton knew Bedloe. Templeton explains that this is an old , deceased friend, Oldeb, whom Templeton knew in â€Å"Calcutta,† where he was a soldier with the British. He explains that the events of Bedloe’s vision did actually happen, and Oldeb was killed exactly as Bedloe imagined