A Quiet Madness is a fictionalized biographical novel of the life of Edgar Allen Poe. It offers an interesting background from the time of his birth to his demise. It has some more risky, attention grabbing parts, but all in all a unique glimpse into his muse and writing inspirations. Full of drama and surprises, this book kept me enthralled from beginning to end. As most are probably well aware, Edgar Allen Poe's life is full of turmoil and tragedies and this book provides the imagery as if you were there, experiencing it all yourself. Overall, a very well written story and the author's talent really encourages exploration of some of his other novels.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

An autobiographical rendition of Edgar Allen Poe's life, loves and of course - his writing. An enjoyable read and I learned a little bit more about Poe.

3.75☆

Edgar Allen Poe is most known for his dark poetry of the 1800s. In A Quiet Madness, Jones tells Poe's tragic story about his rise to fame and fall to madness.

Told as a story, with a few facts sprinkled in, A Quiet Madness is not your usual Biography. Jones took creative liberty with dialog and characters and dates, to give it a story vibe. It was easy to tell which characters actually existed, and which were made up for benefit of the story line.
I've always enjoyed Poe's storys and poems, and wanted to finally learn more about the man. Reading this book gave me a few bits of information I didnt know about him. Edgar Poe was born in a funeral home. His biological parents died when he was younger and he was then fostered by the Allen's. Thats where we get his final name of Edgar Allen Poe.
Edgar feel in love with his twelve year old cousin, Virginia, when he was in his twenties. She is the muse for Annabel Lee. I always thought Lenore was his wife, but she was just a drug addled fling that he was obsessed with.
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his gloomy prose and stories of love lost. A Quiet Madness gives us a timeline for his creativity and facts behind his work. Jones did a great job telling his story, but I did feel that a lot of his dialog was unnecessary. With more story and less chat, this book could have been even better.

I love reading stories about Poe. This take on things was absolutely amazing. The characters were raw and real in how they lived life. He was an amazing poet and story teller. The author spun a tale that I couldn’t put down.

<i>A Quiet Madness</i> is a well balance historical novel that focuses on the man and not just his problems. When it came to writing, Edgar Allen Poe was as brilliant as he was ambitious. <i>A Quiet Madness</i>, was written by John Isaac Jones who is the author of eight novels, two short story collections and five novellas.

Poe was born in stormy weather and in the midst of a stormy relationship between his mother and father. It appears as though this foreshadowed his entire life. He was an ambitious man when it came to his writing. He was forced into various occupations but always felt he should make his living by writing. Whenever given the opportunity he was very productive and wrote many well-known short stories poems. He was also somewhat of a performer which lead to the increased fame of his writings, particularly his poem “the Raven”. His love life was complex but very interesting.

Jones does a brilliant job of bringing Poe into our homes. Many of us know and have followed Poe’s literature for some time. However, this book lets us know about the man. I imagine it is somewhat fictionalized but it is based on Jones research of Poe’s correspondence so I expect we are getting a fairly clear picture of who Poe was.

Jones writing is every clear and direct. The dialogue is strange and somewhat out of step with the times, but the storyline was highly entertaining and well worth the read.

I would like to ask the author why he chooses to change some events in Poe’s lifeline. Particularly the fact that Poe’s nemesis, Griswold, dies before Poe in the book. Isn’t documented that Griswold wrote a defamatory biography about Poe after he died? This account was thought to be true for close to a century before many of the facts were shown to be untrue. It seems to me, depicting Griswold in this light elevates the importance of this account.

I recommend this book everyone likes a free flowing and easy to read biography. I give it a 4 on 5. I want to thank NetGalley and the author, John Isaac Jones, for providing me with a digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was not quiet what I was expecting. It is dark because of course it is Poe. But I just wanted more from the book.

A Quiet Madness is a fictionalized retelling of the events in Edgar Allan Poe's life. The author has a clear passion for the poet, and a keen eye for detail in the research he must have done for this novel. Every page is full of drama and definitely keeps every moment of his life intense. Any fan of Edgar Allan Poe, would be well suited to read this. It's nice that, at the end of the novel, the author tells you what he's changed to tell this story. The problem with the novel is that every part reads the same. The characters all bend to Poe's life, while also being talking heads the entire novel. Because every moment is so dramatic, it's all flat. The moments of his life are all there. Every single one, but without any through line. It never feels like Edgar learns anything, just that he moves on to the next moment. The cuts between scenes of these talking heads also adds to that feeling. The author could've told an excellent, dramatic story if he had found a solid through line and toned down the melodrama. The passion is there, but the only quiet madness found here is that of a bored reader.

First sentence: In the city by the River Charles, the winter of 1808 proved to be one of the most brutal in its history. While October and November had been relatively mild, two savage nor’easters had blown through in late December and dumped more than nine feet of snow on hapless residents in less than a week.

Premise/plot: A Quiet Madness is a biographical novel (aka fictionalized) of Edgar Allen Poe. It opens with his birth--in a funeral parlor--and ends soon after his death. It is always dramatic, sometimes melodramatic, never ever boring. At its best, it shows Poe as he is inspired and in the act of writing his poems and short stories. For example, readers "witness" Poe's very act of creating The Raven, perhaps his best known poem. At its worst, it is a bit graphic in depicting Poe's sex life.

My thoughts: It was a quick read for actually being close to four hundred pages. Perhaps this is due to all the melodrama and drama. It keeps you turning pages--even if it's more like watching a train accident. (The train accident not being necessarily the author's writing style, technique, or craft--but the events unfolding in Poe's life.) That being said, I think the dialogue was probably the weakest aspect of this one. There were times the dialogue just got to be so off-putting because it was unnatural. It didn't feel appropriate to his times...or appropriate to our times. Still, there were moments of great interest. So I don't regret spending time with this one.

One thing I didn't realize before reading this one was his marriage to his TWELVE YEAR OLD first cousin. It's unimaginable to me to think that twelve is young enough and mature enough--physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically for marriage. And the narrative does its best--in my opinion--to make this as normal and ordinary as possible. Another instance is when a fifteen year old Poe is seduced (he is quite quite willing) by his best friend's mother--an adult.

Poe's life--as I hinted at earlier--was full of tragedies, semi-failures, and missed opportunities.

i really enjoyed the use of a biographical novel, I really enjoyed the story and getting to know Mr. Poe more.

To read a story about the master of macabre is a real treat. We all know that Poe had a troubled life, but until now we have never had the opportunity to see it first hand in such a well written format. This is a well written book, full of engaging characters. You will breeze right through it and then want to settle in with a volume of Poe's complete tales and poems. Make some tea and enjoy this one.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have always been intrigued by Edgar Allan Poe so this book was super interesting to me. I know it was half fiction, but it was still enjoyable!

Brings the gothic writer alive!

When I first began reading this novel, I thought I’d wandered into a YA book by mistake. The language is simple, especially the dialogue.

But I soon realised that this light touch is deceptive. Drawing on the facts, but overlaying his own interpretation, the author conveys the complex man that was Edgar Allan Poe with empathy: his makeshift childhood, his troubled relationship with his foster father (who verged on the sociopathic) and his unconventional relationships with women, his rise to fame, and the highs and lows of his writing career including becoming the dupe of a very plausible manager.

There are some stand-out moments, such as the public reading of ‘The Raven’. I’d always considered the poem rather mawkish, but I realise now that its impact on a contemporary audience was dramatic, indeed frightening, rather than melodramatic. I studied Poe at degree level, yet this was one of the many insights I acquired by reading this novel.

Poe’s (illegal) marriage to his first cousin Virginia when she was 13 and he was 27 is presented in credible terms. This is a credit to the author’s powers, but this reader found it quite worrying that it brought me to an understanding of how, in those days, it could happen! The death of young women (Virginia was only 25 when she died) is, of course, a motif running through Poe’s work.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which I was sent to review by NetGalley, and look forward to rereading it. If you’ve even a passing interest in Poe and his gothic works, do give it a go!

If you love EAP, this book is for you. It is a well-written story combining fact into fiction. It started off a bit slow but I soon found myself engrossed and making extra time to continue reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I highly recommend it. I know this is a novel, but the facts are blended in well with the prose making it an enjoyable read. It is about Edgar Allan Poe starting with his birth. His mother gave birth to him on funeral slab where they usually prepare bodies for burial. Eliza Poe his mother was a famous actress, and the owner of the funeral place's wife had seen her perform, so she gave her a place to have her baby. One of my favorite parts in the book is the scene where Jones describes how Edgar grieving for his lost lover Lenore who has died, decides to write a poem about how he feels. We see he begins to write, "Once upon a midnight dreary... and writes that first verse. Then, in his grief he gets up and begins pacing the floor and he weeps for her. Again, he returns to his writing table and continues the poem that is probably one of his most famous poems "The Raven." For me, it just made that poem so much more vivid as l as a reader watched him compose it in his grief.
Now this may be a spoiler I'm not sure, but Poe later goes to different venues to read "The Raven." The patrons attending are not seated in chairs as for an audience, but rather gathered around small tables. When Poe reads it, all the lights are out, and he passes between the tables giving a dramatic reading of it, carrying one a candlestick for light. Wow! Can you imagine how creepy that would have been. I knew before reading this book, that Edgar had had a rough and sad life, but Jones' details about it make it to life. Thanks to the author John Isaac Jones, the publisher, and Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read it as an early read. I have not read books by John Isaac Jones, but I do want to read more now.

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A Quiet Madness: A biographical novel of Edgar Allan Poe by John Isaac Jones is a fictional biography of the famous poet. Mr. Jones is a published author and a renowned journalist.

I have read the works of Edgar Allen Poe in a collection many years ago. It was a very nice book I bought, hard cover, great quality, which I promptly gave to the local library when I moved. I enjoyed the book, the stories, and the obvious talent, however my main outtake from it was the Mr. Poe was absolutely insane.

In A Quiet Madness: A biographical novel of Edgar Allan Poe by John Isaac Jones the author novelizes the life of Mr. Poe, and uses conjecture to fill in the blanks (for example: how Poe died). The book is well written, but it is in short bursts which move the story along. When I first started it I thought it was going to be more literary, the narrative quickly changed though. I was surprised because for a somewhat long book that is mostly consists of short segments.

I don’t know much about Poe’s life, besides the bullet points many people are familiar with. I thought the author did a good job re imagining his life, habits, and most of all motivations. I especially enjoyed the chapter in which Poe wrote his most famous poem “The Raven” and how it came to be. There are several chapters which deal with how Poe came up with the ideas to several of his stories and poems, not all of them of course. I found these chapters to be the most enjoyable, interesting, and fascinating. There are many aspects of Poe’s history I never knew about, his soldering days and talent in boxing, just to name two of them, which were fascinating to read about.

The novel is written in a simple language, almost a YA type of narrative. I found it a bit strange because some of the subject matter is not simple and I found the width between the short, poignant writing and racy subjects somewhat strange, but somehow fitting with Poe’s life and writing.

Overall this was an enjoyable read. Historical fiction done well, interweaving both historical facts and historical figures to tell of the sad life of a mad genius.

Even if you don’t like Poe’s work, this book is worth reading. It is a biography, based in fact, but could be mistaken for being fiction. What a life! I love Poe’s work but did not know much about him. The insights offered by this book inspired me to revisit Poe’s poems and stories. Carefully researched, beautifully told, this is a book with a great deal to offer any reader.

John Isaac Jones is a good writer and his novelized account of Edgar Allen Poe, starting with the actor parents (the father will grate on your nerves, but that is part of the story) is a page turner. Most ,Poe aficionados would probably have been happier not to see or read modern vernacular, but that is a bump one can get used to. (Deadwood the film series demonstrated similar peculiarities of speech not true to era for reasons its viewers may have taken the trouble to research.) No doubt the modern turns of phrase were chosen to distinguish American culture from British, yet any reader who is familiar enough with the writing of Poe himself will probably find the "Sure" and "thanks" era-inappropriate. Be that as it may, this story is one Poe fans will appreciate and it is well told.#AQuietMadness #NetGalley

An interesting read. Not wuite what I expected and different from what I had always thought/heard about Poe's demise. Worth the read but not sure if I can say I truly enjoyed it. Glad I read it as I am a lover of all things Poe.

This book is a biographical work of fiction about Edgar Allan Poe. It is a novel in chronological order that begins just prior to his birth. The book is fascinating, but full of supposition. This book would be an alternative way to learn more about Poe. Especially if the reader is looking for something rather than the often dry nonfiction text. I personally have enjoyed reading about Poe and like many of his poems and stories. I had my first book of Poe’s poems and stories in fourth grade which I read quite often. It was because of this decided to pickup this book. Unfortunately, while the book is well written I did not particularly enjoy it. It was just too hard to read about his life as a novel for me.

I was provided an ARC of A Quiet Madness by John Isaac Jones in exchange for an honest review of the novel.

The dialogue in this book made it hard to read. I wanted to like it because the subject, Poe, interests me, but I had a very hard time feeling anything at all about the characters because the dialogue was so simple and not really in the style of the times in which it took place. I'm sorry, but if that could be fixed, the story would improve.