The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe

Name: The Oval Portrait
Author: Edgar Allan Poe

The Oval Portrait is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842. It tells the story of a young man who discovers a mysterious painting in an old chateau. The painting is of a beautiful woman, and the young man is captivated by her beauty. He soon discovers that the painting is of a woman who was once the chateau's mistress, and that her husband had commissioned the painting shortly before her death. The young man is so taken with the painting that he decides to stay in the chateau and study it. As he does so, he discovers that the painting is not only a portrait of the woman, but also a record of her life. He reads the story of her life, and discovers that she was a passionate and devoted wife, but that her husband was a cruel and jealous man. He eventually drove her to her death, and the painting is a testament to her suffering. The young man is moved by the story, and decides to take the painting with him when he leaves the chateau. He hopes that by displaying the painting, he can honor the woman's memory and show the world the tragedy of her life.

By Edgar Allan Poe · First published 1842 · Genre: Gothic Fiction, Romanticism, Horror · 1,293 words

First lines

The chateau into which my valet had ventured to make forcible entrance, rather than permit me, in my desperately wounded condition, to pass a night in the open air, was one of those piles of commingled gloom and grandeur which have so long frowned among the Appennines, not less in fact than in the fancy of Mrs. Radcliffe. To all appearance it had been temporarily and very lately abandoned. We established ourselves in one of the smallest and least sumptuously furnished apartments. It lay in a remote turret of the building. Its decorations were rich, yet tattered and antique. Its walls were hung with tapestry and bedecked with manifold and multiform armorial trophies, together with an unusually great number of very spirited modern paintings in frames of rich golden arabesque. In these paintings, which depended from the walls not only in their main surfaces, but in very many nooks which the bizarre architecture of the chateau rendered necessary--in these paintings my incipient delirium, perhaps, had caused me to take deep interest; so that I bade Pedro to close the heavy shutters of the room--since it was already night--to light the tongues of a tall candelabrum which stood by the head of my bed--and to throw open far and wide the fringed curtains of black velvet which enveloped the bed itself. I wished all this done that I might resign myself, if not to sleep, at least alternately to the contemplation of these pictures, and the perusal of a small volume which had been found upon the pillow, and which purported to criticise and describe them.

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The Oval Portrait is listed on Textopian as a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, dated 1842 CE.

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Work type: Short story
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Date: 1842 CE
Language: English
Genres: Gothic Fiction, Romanticism, Horror, Mystery, Fantasy
Length: 1,293 words
Structure: 1 section, 35 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)

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Genres

Gothic Fiction — The Oval Portrait is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, a renowned author of Gothic fiction. The story follows a young man who discovers a mysterious painting of a woman in a castle and is filled with suspense and horror, which are common elements of Gothic fiction.
Romanticism — The Oval Portrait is a romantic story that explores the power of art and beauty. It is filled with imagery and symbolism, which are common elements of Romanticism, and the story has a melancholic and dreamlike atmosphere.
Horror — The Oval Portrait is a horror story that follows a young man who discovers a mysterious painting of a woman in a castle. The story is filled with suspense and horror, which are common elements of horror fiction.
Mystery — The Oval Portrait is a mystery story that follows a young man who discovers a mysterious painting of a woman in a castle. The story is filled with suspense and mystery, which are common elements of mystery fiction.