THE ANGEL OF THE ODD concerns a young fellow who disparages the power of odd coincidences to affect him. Then a weird-looking fellow appears out of nowhere, chastises the man for his anti-coincidence prejudice, and proceeds to make his life miserable until he mends his ways.
No one else in the story ever sees the Angel, rather like the alleged double of WILLIAM WILSON. Poe never raises the possibility that the narrator is only dreaming, but after the man is put through many wild ordeals-- falling out of a burning building, being suspended from a hot-air balloon-- it may not be "coincidence" that he ends up back into his own home-- supposedly completely rebuilt after the fire-- waking up from his experiences.
THINGUM BOB, ESQ is just a Poe-escapade satirizing the world of small literary magazines, and hardly rates as a story at all.
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