The Raven’s Bride: A Novel

When eight-year-old Virginia "Sissy" Clemm meets her cousin Eddy, she envisions him as the perfect husband from her childhood imaginings. Thirteen years her senior, he is soft-spoken, brooding, and handsome. After failing at West Point and in the army, he repeatedly returns to Baltimore, where his friendship with Sissy deepens. As Sissy pursues a musical career, her childhood crush evolves into love. At thirteen, she accepts his proposal. Their marriage darkens as Sissy endures Eddy's sudden disappearances, self-destructive moods, and alcoholic episodes. When she becomes ill, his fear of losing her drives him toward both madness and his greatest literary work. Part ghost story and part love story, this novel examines the complex relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and his young cousin Sissy Clemm—his muse and greatest love. Lenore Hart explores the inner life of the woman who inspired one of American literature's most controversial figures and whose influence ultimately shaped his fate.