Christopher Walken Reads Edgar Allan Poe

raven reading a book2017 is gonna be weird. Let’s get started on the right foot, shall we?

Poe is a favorite of mine, dating back to an assigned reading of The Telltale Heart in middle school.

It’s easy to imagine Poe being read aloud with an accent, maybe a slightly British one, even though he is a distinctly American author. Or maybe that pompous twang that William F. Buckley had.  He’s hip again, now that conservatives have gone extinct and been replaced with kleptocrats and whiny white bigots, hearing a New England snob reading some Poe might be comforting.

But I digress.

Poe’s mid-nineteenth century writing lends itself to being read in a “formal” tone, probably by a gentleman wearing a dinner jacket and a cravat. That’s right mid-nineteenth century! I often forget that he died 40 years before H.P. Lovecraft was born!

But how does Poe sound with Walken’s offbeat pauses and Queens lilt? Quite good, actually. Take a listen.

Happy New Year. Say “hi” to the raven for me.


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