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From Holliday's A History of Southern Literature, 1906
As a writer of fiction [Poe] must be recognized as one of the world's great masters. His field is narrow; but within that field his creative powers are so original, so startling that we may indeed consider him as its discoverer. And what is his field? Simply the short story--more particularly the short story dealing with human ingenuity.
In the very form of literature in which Americans have shown the most originality--humor--Poe is most deficient. Not that the man himself was devoid of the trait; for those who knew him best have described him as a genial man fond of a laughable tale, while at least on deed of his shows him to us of today as a lover of the practical joke. When a very young man he published a statement in a Baltimore paper declaring that on a certain date he would make a trip in his lately invented flying machine, and he cordially invited the public to be present. The day came, and a great crowd waited patiently for s simply chose strange but not infrequent phases and portrayed them for all time. Under this general character of his work we may perceive, perhaps, four divisions into which his stories may fall: first, the Problem Story--such as The Gold Bug--where a logical explanation of an intricate puzzle is given; second, the Realistic Story of Adventure--such as The Descent into the Maelstrom--where sickening fear is most evident; third, the story based on the Fascination of Terror--such as The Fall of the House of Usher--where the reader is held as by the charm of a snake; and, fourth, the story founded on the Interest in the Horrible--such as The Masque of the Red Death--where that rather morbid yet universal itching to know the details of a repulsive incident is catered to. Is not all this but another outgrowth of the weird and grotesque-loving Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century?
In spite of the uncanny subjects and treatments chosen by Poe, he proves interesting to many classes and conditions of readers. It has been said that he is thoroughly cosmopolitan; but if he be cosmopolitan it is not because he is of the earth, but rather because, turning away from the world, he builds from his imagination, and from it alone, his fantastic structures. And thus he appeals to the universal man. When The Murders in the Rue Morgue appeared, Dickens wrote him a letter of praise, while the Revue des Deux Mondes gave a most flattering criticism. Brander Matthews has declared that at the end of the nineteenth century the works of Poe were the only American writings read eagerly in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. It would seem from the fact that these stories are enjoyed in so many translations that their form cannot be the main source of their attractiveness. The tales are in general character highly artistic, and indeed perfection of narrative style is often approached; but beyond these traits are the power of the theme, the fascinating search into mystery, the constantly evolving plot, and the ever-present appeal to the universal characteristics of superstition, dread, and horror. And yet after all is said, the eternal quality of his fiction is its intensity; it is written with grim, unrelenting, demonic earnestness.
