iPoe Challenge review: Von Kempelen and His Discovery
January 21, 2009 by Rob
Filed under iPoe reading challenge
What kind of Poe fan would I be if I didn’t read at least one of his stories on his anniversary? Answer – a bad one! So I took it upon myself to read the next story in my iPoe reading list – Von Kempelen and His Discovery.
I know it’s just down to the order I’m reading them but boy doesn’t Poe love his hoaxes! This one is a news article about a German baron who has apparently discovered the secret of making gold out of lead and by all accounts it’s pretty convincing. Putting it into its proper historical context though, this is story first published in 1849, in the cheap and popular American weekly newspaper The Flag of Our Union. The date is significant because it’s slap-bang in the middle of the Californian Gold Rush, which at the time was generating a world-wide fervor. Edgar’s no fool because it’s easy to imagine how such a hoax story would have gone down in such a climate, and I’m sure plenty of people fell for this hoax – hook, line and lead gold sinker.
Sadly, reading this in the cold goldrush-free light of the 21st century, the story doesn’t have quite the same impact or appeal, but I guess I wouldn’t expect it too. To be perfectly honest the first half of Von Kempelen and His Discovery reads rather dull and technical, but then again the prose is serving a particular purpose, and it is aimed at a particular audience. Thankfully the 2nd half is a lot more redeeming and the ‘Poe quality’ is clearly in attendance especially when he describes the search of Von Kempelen apartment. Certainly worth reading, provided you power your way though the opening paragraphs.
Rating: 
Notable Quote: “In one corner of the closet was a very small furnace, with a glowing fire in it, and on the fire a kind of duplicate crucible — two crucibles connected by a tube. One of these crucibles was nearly full of lead in a state of fusion, but not reaching up to the aperture of the tube, which was close to the brim. The other crucible had some liquid in it, which, as the officers entered, seemed to be furiously dissipating in vapor. They relate that, on finding himself taken, Kempelen seized the crucibles with both hands (which were encased in gloves that afterwards turned out to be asbestic), and threw the contents on the tiled floor.”
*This story was read as part of the iPoe Reading Challenge
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Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell were lined with books)
