"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" is a
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
by the American author
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
about a
mesmerist
Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was a Protoscience#Prescientific protoscience, protoscientific theory developed by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century in relation to what he claimed to be an invisible natural force (''Le ...
who puts a man in a suspended hypnotic state at the moment of death. An example of a tale of
suspense
Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being undecided, or being doubtful. In a dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the outcome of a plot or of the solution to an uncertainty, puzzle, or mystery, particularly as it aff ...
and
horror
Horror may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Genres
*Horror fiction, a genre of fiction
** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction
**Korean horror, Korean horror fiction
* Horror film, a film genre
*Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...
, it is also to a certain degree a
hoax
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
, as it was published without claiming to be fictional, and many at the time of publication (1845) took it to be a factual account. Poe admitted it to be a work of pure fiction in letters to his correspondents.
Plot
The
narrator
Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...
presents the facts of the extraordinary case of his friend Ernest Valdemar, which have incited public discussion. He is interested in
mesmerism
Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was a protoscientific theory developed by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century in relation to what he claimed to be an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all livi ...
, a
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...
involving bringing a patient into a
hypnagogic
Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep: the ''hypnagogic'' state of consciousness, during the Sleep onset, onset of sleep. Its opposite state is described as the transitional state from sleep into wakeful ...
state by the influence of
animal magnetism
Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was a protoscientific theory developed by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century in relation to what he claimed to be an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all livi ...
, a process that later developed into
hypnotism
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
. He points out that as far as he knows, no one has ever been mesmerized at the point of death, and he is curious to see what effects mesmerism would have on a dying person. He considers experimenting on Valdemar, an author whom he had previously mesmerized and who has recently been diagnosed with phthisis (
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
).
Valdemar consents to the experiment and informs the narrator by letter that his doctors expect him to die by midnight of the following evening. Valdemar's two physicians inform the narrator of their patient's poor condition. After confirming again that Valdemar is willing to be part of the experiment, the narrator comes back the next night with two nurses and a medical student as witnesses. Again, Valdemar insists he is willing to take part and asks the narrator to hurry for fear he has "deferred it for too long". Valdemar is quickly mesmerized just as both physicians return and serve as additional witnesses.
In a trance, he reports first that he is dying and then that he is dead. The narrator leaves him in a mesmeric state for seven months and checks on him daily with the help of physicians and friends. Meanwhile, Valdemar is without pulse, heartbeat, or perceptible breathing, and his skin is cold and pale.
Finally, the narrator makes attempts to awaken Valdemar by asking questions that are answered with difficulty, as Valdemar's voice emanates from his throat and lolling tongue, but his lips and jaws are frozen in death. In between trance and wakefulness, Valdemar begs the narrator to put him back to sleep quickly or to waken him. As Valdemar shouts "Dead! Dead!" repeatedly, the narrator starts to bring him out of his trance, only for his entire body to immediately decay into a "nearly liquid mass of loathsome—of detestable putrescence."
Analysis
Poe uses particularly detailed descriptions and relatively high levels of
gore
Gore may refer to:
Places Australia
* Gore, Queensland
* Gore Creek (New South Wales)
* Gore Island (Queensland)
Canada
* Gore, Nova Scotia, a rural community
* Gore, Quebec, a township municipality
* Gore Bay, Ontario, a township on Manitouli ...
in "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", displaying his own studies of medical texts.
[Stashower, Daniel. ''The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder''. New York: Dutton, 2006: 275. ] Valdemar's eyes at one point leak a "profuse outflowing of a yellowish
ichor
In Greek mythology, ichor () is the ethereal fluid that is the blood of the gods and/or immortals. The Ancient Greek word () is of uncertain etymology, and has been suggested to be a foreign word.
In classical myth
Ichor originates in Greek my ...
", for example, though Poe's imagery in the story is best summed up in its final lines: "... his whole frame at once—within the space of a single minute, or even less, shrunk—crumbled—absolutely
rotted away beneath my hands. Upon the bed, before that whole company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome—of detestable
putrescence." The disgusting imagery almost certainly inspired later fiction, including that of
H. P. Lovecraft.
[Silverman, Kenneth. ''Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance''. New York City: Harper Perennial, 1991: 294. ] These final lines incorporate shock, disgust, and uneasiness into one moment. The ending may also suggest that attempts to appropriate power over death have hideous results and are bound to be unsuccessful.
Jeffrey Meyers notes that "Valdemar" may be roughly translated as "valley of the sea", perhaps suggesting both solid and liquid states, as emphasized in the imagery deployed as Valdemar's body goes from its normal solid state to liquid in the final lines.
[Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York City: Cooper Square Press, 1992: 179. ]
Poe typically uses teeth to symbolize mortality, as with "sepulchral and disgusting" horse's teeth in "
Metzengerstein
"Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German" is a short story by American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, his first to see print. It was first published in the pages of Philadelphia's ''Saturday Courier'' magazine, in 1832. The story follo ...
", the obsession with teeth in "
Berenice
Berenice ( grc, Βερενίκη, ''Bereníkē'') is the Ancient Macedonian form of the Attic Greek name ''Pherenikē'', which means "bearer of victory" . Berenika, priestess of Demeter in Lete ca. 350 BC, is the oldest epigraphical evidence. Th ...
", and the sound of grating teeth in "
Hop-Frog
"Hop-Frog" (originally "Hop-Frog; Or, the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs") is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character, a person with dwarfism taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a kin ...
".
Valdemar's death by
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, and the attempts to postpone his death, may have been influenced by the experiences of Poe's wife,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
.
[ At the time the story was published, she had been suffering from tuberculosis for four years.][ Poe's extreme detail in "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" may have been based on Virginia's suffering.][ Additionally, Poe may have been inspired by ]Andrew Jackson Davis
Andrew Jackson Davis (August 11, 1826January 13, 1910) was an American Spiritualist, born in Blooming Grove, New York.
Early years
Davis had little education. In 1843 he heard lectures in Poughkeepsie on animal magnetism, the precursor of hypn ...
, whose lectures on mesmerism
Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was a protoscientific theory developed by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century in relation to what he claimed to be an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all livi ...
he had attended.[ Valdemar's death, however, is not portrayed sentimentally as Poe's typical theme of " the death of a beautiful woman" portrayed in other works such as "]Ligeia
"Ligeia" () is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Wor ...
" and " Morella". In contrast, the death of this male character is brutal and sensational.
Publication history
While editor of ''The Broadway Journal
The ''Broadway Journal'' was a short-lived New York City-based newspaper founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844 and was published from January 1845 to January 1846. In its first year, the publication was bought by Edgar Allan ...
'', Poe printed a letter from a New York physician named Dr. A. Sidney Doane that recounted a surgical operation performed while a patient was "in a ''magnetic sleep''"; the letter served as inspiration for Poe's tale. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" was published simultaneously in the December 20, 1845, issue of the ''Broadway Journal
The ''Broadway Journal'' was a short-lived New York City-based newspaper founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844 and was published from January 1845 to January 1846. In its first year, the publication was bought by Edgar Allan ...
'' and the December 1845 issue of '' American Review: A Whig Journal''[Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z''. New York City: Checkmark Books, 2001: 85. ]—the latter journal used the title "The Facts of M. Valdemar's Case". It was also republished in England, first as a pamphlet edition as "Mesmerism in Articulo Mortis" and later as "The Last Days of M. Valdemar".
Reception and critical response
Many readers thought that the story was a scientific report. Robert Collyer
Robert Collyer in 1880
Robert Collyer in 1903
Robert Collyer (December 8, 1823 – November 30, 1912) was an English-born American Unitarian clergyman.
Biography
Collyer was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, England, on December 8, 1823; the fam ...
, an English magnetic healer visiting Boston, wrote to Poe saying that he himself had performed a similar act to revive a man who had been pronounced dead (in truth, the man was actually a drunken sailor who was revived by a hot bath). Collyer reported of the story's success in Boston: "Your account of M. Valdemar's case has been universally copied in this city, and has created a very great sensation." Another Englishman, Thomas South, used the story as a case study in his book ''Early Magnetism in its Higher Relations to Humanity'', published in 1846.[ A medical student, George C. Eveleth, wrote to Poe: "I have strenuously held that it was true. But I tell ''you'' that I strongly suspect it for a hoax." A Scottish reader named Archibald Ramsay wrote to Poe "as a believer in Mesmerism" asking about the story: "It details ... ''most extraordinary circumstances''", he wrote, concerned that it had been labeled a hoax. "For the sake of ... Science and of truth", he requested an answer from Poe himself. Poe's response was that "''Hoax'' is precisely the word suited. ... Some few persons believe it—but ''I'' do not—and don't you." Poe received many similar letters, and replied to one such letter from a friend: "P.S. The 'Valdemar Case' was a hoax, of course." In the ''Daily Tribune'', its editor, ]Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...
, noted "that several good matter-of-fact citizens" were tricked by the story, but "whoever thought it a veracious recital must have the bump of Faith large, very large indeed."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.
Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...
wrote to Poe about the story to commend him on his talent for "making horrible improbabilities seem near and familiar". The Virginia poet Philip Pendleton Cooke
Philip Pendleton Cooke (October 26, 1816 – January 20, 1850) was an American lawyer and minor poet from Virginia.
Early and family life
Cooke was born on October 26, 1816,Trent, William Peterfield. ''Southern Writers: Selections in Prose and ...
also wrote to Poe, calling the story "the most damnable, vraisemblable, horrible, hair-lifting, shocking, ingenious chapter of fiction that any brain ever conceived or hand traced. That gelatinous, viscous sound of man's voice! there never was such an idea before." George Edward Woodberry
George Edward Woodberry, Litt. D., LL. D. (May 12, 1855 – January 2, 1930) was an American literary critic and poet.''The Book Buyer'', Volume 8, p.7, (1892) Charles Scribner's Sons, New Yor/ref>
Biography Education
Woodberry was born in Bev ...
wrote that the story, "for mere physical disgust and foul horror, has no rival in literature." James M. Hutchisson refers to the story as "probably Poe's most gruesome tale".
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
, an admirer of Poe, references "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" in his story "In the House of Suddhoo
"In the House of Suddhoo" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling. The story was published in the ''Civil and Military Gazette'' on April 30, 1886 under the title "Section 420, I.P.C." (Indian Penal Code). (Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code of 1860 ...
", which suggests the disastrous results of the sorcery used by a man trying to save his sick son's life. One spell requires the head of a dead baby, which seems to speak. The narrator says, "Read Poe's account of the voice that came from the mesmerised dying man, and you will realise less than one half of the horror of that head's voice."
Adaptations
The short story "Omega
Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value of 800. The wo ...
" (1932) by Amelia Reynolds Long
Amelia Reynolds Long ( – ) was an American detective fiction writer, novelist, and a pioneer woman writer for the early science fiction magazines of the 1930s.
Biography
A resident of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she was the author of a number of ...
is a science fiction adaptation. The short movie '' Il caso Valdemar'' was produced in Italy in 1936 by directors Gianni Hoepli and Ubaldo Magnaghi. The radio drama show ''The Weird Circle
''The Weird Circle'' was a syndicated radio drama series produced in New York and originally broadcast between 1943 and 1945.
Production background
The series was a Ziv Production, produced at RCA's New York studios and licensed by the Mutual ...
'' aired an adaptation "The Case of Monsieur Valdemar" in 1943. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" was adapted into film in Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
in 1960 as a segment of ''Masterpieces of Horror'', first shown in the United States in 1965. It was also the last one of the three Poe-inspired segments in the 1962 Roger Corman
Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
film ''Tales of Terror
''Tales of Terror'' is a 1962 American International Pictures horror film in colour and Panavision, produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, and Roger Corman, who also directed. The screenplay was written by Richard Matheson, and th ...
''.[ ]Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (also known as Chicho Ibáñez Serrador or Luis Peñafiel; 4 July 1935 – 7 June 2019) was a Spanish film, television and theater director, actor and screenwriter.
Biography
Serrador was born in 1935 in Montevideo a ...
included an adaption into his ''Historias para no dormir
''Historias para no dormir'' () is a Spanish horror anthology television series written and directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, produced by Televisión Española and broadcast on its flagship Primera Cadena network from 1966 to 1982.
Hist ...
'' (''Tales not to sleep'') in 1966, which he remade sixteen years later with the same actors, this time in color. It was later adapted by George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...
in ''Two Evil Eyes
''Two Evil Eyes'' (Italian: ''Due occhi diabolici'') is a 1990 anthology horror film written and directed by George A. Romero and Dario Argento. An international co-production of Italy and the United States, ''Two Evil Eyes'' is split into two se ...
'' (1990). The radio drama series ''Radio Tales
''Radio Tales'' is an American series of radio drama which premiered on National Public Radio on October 29, 1996. This series adapted classic works of American and world literature such as ''The War of the Worlds'', ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Un ...
'' produced an adaptation of the story entitled "Edgar Allan Poe's Valdemar" (2000) for National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
. The story was also loosely adapted into the black comedy ''The Mesmerist'' (2002). In the BBC docudrama ''Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
'', author Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
meets a fictionalized Poe on his tour of the United States. Poe takes him to witness a man held at the door of death by hypnotism and, when the man begs to be released so he can die, he turns into a pile of maggots. A theatrical adaptation was written by Lance Tait
Lance Tait is an American playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and composer. Tait has written over forty full length and one act plays, including seventeen plays based on short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. He has also published two books of comedy ...
in 2005 and directed by Erica Raymos at the DR2 Theatre in New York.[Tait, Lance. The Black Cat and Other Plays Adapted From Stories By Edgar Allan Poe. Theatre Metropole Books, Los Angeles. 2013. ] The story is also adapted in the animated anthology film of Poe tales, ''Extraordinary Tales'' (Raul Garcia, 2015), narrated by .
References
External links
*
*
Publication in ''The Broadway Journal'', December 20, 1845. Susan Jaffe Tane Collection.
"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" with annotated vocabulary
at PoeStories.com
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The
1845 short stories
Short stories adapted into films
Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe
Works originally published in The American Review: A Whig Journal
Written fiction presented as fact