Rashmi bookmarks “Never Bet the Devil Your Head”

Edgar Allan Poe’s mastery of the gothic and the mysterious is undeniable and unchallenged. Although I have my favourites of course, any time I read Poe, I find it hard to pick just one to discuss. When I came across this short story recently, it was such a refreshing change - not just to archetypal Poe, but also within the story and the expectations it undermines - that I decided to pick this story for today’s blog.

Never Bet the Devil Your Head - narrated by the author himself - was a story written in response to literary critics saying that he had never written a moral tale. Poe obediently starts with the subtitle, “A Tale With a Moral”. Where do you think the story goes from there! Well, initially it seemed to be what it set out to be, as the narrator tells us the story of his friend Toby Dammit (the humour of his last name originating from his mother’s constant yelling at him to come here Toby dammit, do this Toby dammit and do that Toby dammit, was brilliant!) Dammit, the man of many vices is prone to making bets, his favourite one being “I’ll bet the devil my head.”

Matters reach a head the day they come to a turnstile and Dammit bets the devil his head he could jump over it, and a little old man appears from nowhere to see this challenge through. This is where the fun begins! I’ll let you discover what happens next; suffice to say, someone of Poe’s majestic calibre would rather present transcendentalists with “dog meat” than appease their obscure mysticism.

This story was such a precious discovery! It danced to amazing rhythms of classic comedy and scathing satire, but always with an underlying sense of the macabre that is trademark Poe.

I will end with this quote: it has nothing to do with this story, but was part of the collection, and something that I feel bears repeating - especially to disheartened writers across the world that wonder at the mass popularity of sub standard books and talent less authors. In a “Letter to B----” written in 1836, Poe says: “… That they have followers proves nothing. No Indian prince has to his palace more followers than a thief to the gallows”.