The Oval Portrait is the rhythmical creation of beauty, and that the most poetical topic in the world is the death of a beautiful woman (see "The Philosophy of Composition"). "The Oval Portrait" suggests that the woman's beauty condemns her to death. Poe suggests in the tale that art can reveal the artist's guilt or evil and that the artist feeds on and may even destroy the life he has modeled into art. "The Oval Portrait" was first published as a longer version titled "Life in Death" in "Graham's Magazine" in 1842. "Life in Death" included a few introductory paragraphs explaining how the
Phantom of the Rue Morgue same story which had formed the basis of a 1932 horror film which stars Bela Lugosi. In France in the 1870s, a string of strange murders happen in the Rue Morgue. The authorities are baffled, but they do have one man who may have the answers, Prof. Dupin. When Dupin is approached by the police to help, he agrees. Soon a set of suspects are found, including a sailor named Jacques and a professor named Marais, who is involved in unauthorized (and bizarre) animal experiments. Phantom of the Rue Morgue Phantom of the Rue Morgue is a 1954 feature film