Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen

On Monday, August 1st, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen.  Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

• One interesting thing about historical fiction is its ability to educate while telling a story. It seems that most of our group did some amount of research on Poe and Osgood. We googled Poe and Osgood, read some non-fiction and some (like me) became a little obsessed.
• Sadly we all knew before reading the book the sad outcome for Poe and Virginia but what was really tragic was the death of Fanny Osgood’s children along with Fanny herself.
• One of our members mentioned that from a literature class she took in college she knew Poe idolized Dickens. So she was a little put off by the book when they mentioned that Poe did not like Dickens style of writing.
• We thought it was a fast read and very well written and if you didn’t forget that it was fiction, you were able to enjoy the book.
• We were impressed with Cullen’s description of New York during that time period. We enjoyed hearing about the development of the city, Central Park and even the area that became Brooklyn.

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.