Ligeia
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"Ligeia" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the September 18, 1838 edition of American Museum Magazine, and was edited by two of Poe's friends, Dr. N.C. Brooks and Dr. J. E. Snodgrass. The magazine paid Poe $10 for "Ligeia" and another of his stories, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym."
Ligeia was extensively verbally revised throughout its publication history. It was reprinted in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840), the one volume of Phantasy Pieces (1842), and Tales by Edgar Allan Poe (1845), and it appeare alongside the poem "The Conqueror Worm" in the New York New World (February 15, 1845), and the Broadway Journal (after July, 1845)
Summary
The unnamed narrator describes the qualities of Ligeia, a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed, that he met "in a decaying city near the Rhine". They marry, but after a few years Ligeia dies; the narrator, grief-stricken, moves to England where he buys and refurbishes an abbey. He soon enters into a loveless marriage with "the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine".In the second month of the marriage, Rowena begins to suffer from worsening fever and anxiety. One night, when she is about to faint, the narrator pours her a goblet of wine. Drugged with opium, he sees (or thinks he sees) drops of "a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" fall into the goblet. Her condition rapidly worsens, and a few days later she dies and her body is wrapped for burial.
As the narrator keeps vigil overnight, he notices a brief return of colour to Rowena's cheeks. She repeatedly shows signs of reviving, before relapsing into apparent death. As he attempts resuscitation, the revivals become progressively stronger, but the relapses more final. As dawn breaks, and the narrator is sitting emotionally exhausted from the night's struggle, the shrouded body stands and walks into the middle of the room. When he touches the figure, its head bandages fall away to reveal masses of raven hair and dark eyes: Rowena has transformed into Ligeia.
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