A slim, engaging work of literary history and criticism ... Impressionistic ... Ogden weaves elements of his depressing biography, as well as mostly gratuitous anecdotes from her own. Neither a true biography nor a comprehensive tree of his inestimable influence, this book might best be described as an impassioned defense of Poe, in aesthetic terms ... As a critic, Ogden is both incisive and eloquent.
Probing, and sometimes puzzling ... Ogden’s readings of Poe are psychoanalytically inflected, too, though at times her book feels less like an 'analysis of the dead' than a self-analysis, or even a therapy session ... One of the most compelling things about Darkness Becomes Bright is that, while Ogden’s reasons for writing about Poe seem deeply felt, she never quite clarifies them ... Though Ogden makes a spirited case, I come away from Darkness Becomes Bright not quite convinced of Poe’s greatness ... But her book is moving anyway, as a meditation on how literature can transmute the worst experiences—author’s and reader’s alike—into something bearable, or even beautiful.
