The Angel of the Odd

In England, fans of Charles Dickens were gripped by the four ghosts that visited Ebenezer Scrooge in ' A Christmas Carol' to get him to change his mean ways.At the same time, Edgar Allen Poe' s ' Angel of the Odd', made out of a keg and wine bottles, drops in on the narrator, who does not believe in strange occurrences. He chases the angel away and has a booze-induced afternoon nap. When he wakes up, his house is on fire. A ladder appears at the window and down he climbs - only to collide with a pig, fracturing his arm in the fall. Things can' t get worse, can they? They sure can! For he is given the elbow by his would-be wife, who notices that he wears a wig because it was burnt off in the blaze. The mishaps just keep coming. But when the ' Angel of the Odd' reappears, will the poor man swallow his pride and halt the barrage of blows? ' Angel of the Odd' is the ideal read for those interested in Poe' s lesser-known works.