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
The Lady in the Morgue (morgues, cemeteries). The British publishing house Methuen & Co. Ltd. republished "The Lady in the Morgue" in hardcover in 1957. "The Lady in the Morgue" was adapted for the big screen in 1938 (aka "The Case of the Missing Blonde" in the UK). The screenplay was written by Eric Taylor and Robertson White; the film, which starred Preston Foster as Bill Crane, was directed by Otis Garrett. It has often been cited as a particularly well-made B-movie. The Lady in the Morgue The Lady in the Morgue (1936) is one of the novels by Jonathan Latimer featuring private detective William