This book argues that Poe contests the nineteenth-century American emphasis on progress as well as the Darwinian myth that the fittest individuals can evolve to develop a moral sense. Poe lays bare how high-quality individuals often become misfits due to their choice of extremes, while runaway selection mechanisms and maladaptive survival strategies at the individual, kin, and group levels can expedite market crises, family breakdown, attachment disorders, and geopolitical conflicts in antebellum America. Misfits tend to be locked in the pathway of descent; however, Poe’s futuristic vision also forecasts a cosmic journey of ascent and a universe without misfits.

Magdalen Ki is Associate Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her books include Hong Kong Studies: the Culture and Politics of Realignment (Brill, 2025) and Jane Austen and Altruism (Routledge, 2020).