Raven/Albatross

Two Americans in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War land in France to search out Charles Baudelaire("Les Fleurs du Mal"), to offer that notable poet a literary business proposal. Meeting Baudelaire in exile in Belgium, they offer unpublished, "genuine" manuscripts to the Poe fan and translator. What follows is a jumble of doubles, fraud, and mystery that tests the patience of the very ill and failing Baudelaire- whose own last angry works are themselves in disarray. Included in these faux classics are conclusions to "The Lighthouse" and "The Narrative A. Gordon Pym" along with many other short pieces. And is Poe, much less his opus, present in this confrontation? Framed in actual historical detail, this playful fiction takes the "what if?" concept down a conundrum rabbit hole.

The third person, presumably also the narrator, is the most deliberately unknown actor in this drama. Fate has decided to hand down his reports and surviving manuscripts through subsequent generations of his descendants. That framing and those judgments are just as murky as the identity of the Poe double who accompanied him to France- the nation where all the principal characters are destined to die. About 52,000 words.