Edgar Allan Poe, Hop-Frog

Jennifer McQuillan (Independent Scholar - North America)

Ed. by Stephen E. Meats, Pittsburg State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1849

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story

Resources

Edgar Allan Poe published “Hop-Frog” in 1849 in The Flag of Our Union in an attempt to “get out of my pecuniary difficulties” (Ostrom II 1966: 425). While the connection between “Hop-Frog” and its author’s life has long been recognized, many of the critical articles written about “Hop-Frog” fall into one of two camps: in some reviews, the character is seen as Poe himself, ravaged by the effects of alcohol and sneering at the critics who had panned his work. Robert Shulman (1970: 252) argues that “Hop-Frog” was “one of modern literature’s most moving versions of the tortured, alienated artist”. Shulman finds the story to be Poe’s sad image of his own career, one in which he was oppressed by “…

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1874 words

Citation: McQuillan, Jennifer . "Hop-Frog". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 November 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35038, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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