From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"
Ligeia" is an early
short story written by
Edgar Allan Poe, first published in
1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She recites "
The Conqueror Worm" before she dies and suggests that life is sustainable only through willpower. After her death, the narrator marries the Lady Rowena. Rowena becomes ill and she dies as well. The distraught narrator stays with her body overnight when Rowena slowly comes back from the dead - though she has transformed into Ligeia. The story may be the narrator's
opium-induced hallucination and there is debate if the story was a
satire. After the story's first publication in
The American Museum, it was heavily revised and reprinted throughout Poe's life.