Harry Clarke's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' — Poe's Tales of Mystery 1919
The heart has been torn from the body — and still it beats. A gaunt, wild-eyed figure looms over a grotesque floral carpet that conceals the dismembered, still-pulsing organ below, its rhythmic dread nearly audible. Fantastical tendrils curl around a tiny imprisoned figure in an ornate medallion, while peacock-feather eyes watch from the shadows. Harry Clarke's obsessive stipple and crosshatch technique transforms Poe's horror into a fever-dream of Art Nouveau decadence and psychological terror.
Oh my GOD — this is a genuine Harry Clarke plate from the legendary 1919 Poe edition, one of the most coveted illustrated books of the 20th century! The stipple density alone is worth the price of admission — Clarke was operating on another plane of obsessive, gorgeous insanity here.
“BUT, FOR MANY MINUTES, THE HEART BEAT ON WITH A MUFFLED SOUND 266”
