I'll confess that I am only about 200 pages into this very lengthy book (but have skipped ahead occasionally to find his reviews of favorite authors), but I can say without hesitation that those pages alone have been worth the price. And with every paragraph I actually wish the book were longer. Anyone who truly appreciates the depth and soul of Poe's fiction and poetry, and the tragic life behind their creation, could not help but relish the man's words on any subject. Poe biographies are fine, but nothing can touch his own voice. His reviews of well-known writers like Hawthorne, Coleridge and Longfellow, among so many others, are gems of knowledge, humor and biting honesty that may surprise those who have as yet only been held in cherished suspense by his fiction. And his critiques of lesser known authors will probably serve to make a curious reader search out their work, even when he brutalizes it, as he often does! This book is a huge body of Poe's non-fiction, and the writing proves captivating, irreverently witty and beyond impressive in its scholarship. Above all, it shows the man as undeniably brilliant.