History Characters / EdgarAllanPoesMurderMysteryDinnerParty

* HeroesWantRedheads: The object of affection to Poe. And [[AbhorrentAdmirer Hemingway]].

* HeroesWantRedheads: Thinks of himself as the hero of this story, and focuses his romantic advances on Annabel and Charlotte.

* EvilRedhead: A {{Foil}} for her [[HeroesWantRedheads heroic redhead]] counterpart Annabel Lee, Charlotte is one of the nastiest and most selfish people in the cast. [[spoiler:And one of the murderers, to boot.]] Notably an AdaptationalDyeJob -- the real Charlotte Brontë was a brunette who was always jealous of her sister Anne's auburn [[spoiler:(their hair colors are reversed in this show)]].

* [[spoiler:FakingTheDead: All he did the first time the lights went out was plop his face into the soup and hold still. Helps that all the other writers are CloudCuckooLanders and the one person who checks his vitals is his confederate, Charlotte Brontë.]]

* RatedMForManly: His very first scene has him bringing a knife instead of a dish, so they can skewer a wild boar in the backyard and roast it over an open flame. ''Only'' an open flame.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The Manly Man to Wilde's Sensitive Guy.

* RatedMForManly: Tries to outdo Hemingway at this ... and despite her best efforts, fails miserably.

--> '''Portrayed by''': Mary Kate Wiles

* {{Spinster}}: Shelley's eulogy calls her a "spinster through and through". She displays the stereotypical poor dress sense and social graces of one.

* FourthWallObserver: Oscar is the most likely of the guests to make an anachronistic joke to the camera, from quoting Film/Frankenstein1931's "IT'S ALIVE!" at the [[spoiler:death of Mary Shelley]] to a DeletedScene where he asks that someone add a quote he just came up with to his Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} page. Many of these came out of Tom's great skill at {{Improv}}.

-->'''Portrayed by''': Al Fallick

** To H.G. Wells, who is also a {{Nerd}} in a different way than the above two and is much more of a non-confrontational ShrinkingViolet, opening him up for bullying from Hemingway. A [[https://youtu.be/4pepS7_NCMg bonus feature]] was filmed with the two of them to rectify their relative lack of interaction in the show.

* NiceHat: Always seen wearing one.

* PoliceAreUseless: Somewhat understandable in that this is his first day at his job, but he really [[TurnedUpToEleven turns it up to eleven]].

* {{Leitmotif}}: The StandardSnippet of Edvard Grieg's "Morning Mood" from the Theatre/PeerGynt suite, encapsulating Emerson's TastesLikeDiabetes nature in all its cloying glory.

* KnifeNut: He ''really'' likes brandishing knives to make his point, and seems unaware how this attracts suspicion during a murder mystery.

* SkunkStripe: Sports one on the right side of her dark brown hair.

** To Oscar Wilde. Ernest is a rough BoisterousBruiser who never misses a chance for action, while Oscar is more of a foppish NonActionGuy who ScreamsLikeALittleGirl. Ironically enough, during the climax [[spoiler: Ernest, being drunk out of his mind, gets easily defeated by Eddie, while Oscar, after taking a beating, ''does'' manage to take out the Brontë sisters out]]. Oscar is also a GentlemanSnarker prone to long-winded speeches, while Hemingway's catchphrase is "Get to the point!".

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Most prominently with Hemingway. It ends badly when Oscar makes a dig at both his atheltic abilities ''and'' the brevity of his stories, which drives Hemingway to forego the talking as he lunges himself at Oscar's throat.

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Most prominently with Hemingway. It ends badly when Oscar makes a dig at both his atheltic abilities ''and'' the brevity of his stories, which drives Hemingway to forego the talking as he lunges himself at Oscar's throat.

* {{Foil}}: To Ernest Hemingway. Ernest is a rough BoisterousBruiser who never misses a chance for action, while Oscar is more of a foppish NonActionGuy who ScreamsLikeALittleGirl. Ironically enough, during the climax [[spoiler:Ernest, being drunk out of his mind, gets easily defeated by Eddie, while Oscar, after taking a beating, ''does'' manage to take out the Brontë sisters out]]. Oscar is also a GentlemanSnarker prone to long-winded speeches, while Hemingway's catchphrase is "Get to the point!".

* WomanScorned: A genderflipped version; implied by Lenore. In her words: "Hell hath no fury like an Oscar Wilde scorned." Wilde doesn't really deny it.

* ItIsPronouncedTropay: Tolstoy keeps trying to correct Poe's pronunciation of "Literature/AnnaKarenina", a task only made harder by both men's increasing inebriation.

* NotSoDifferent: To Charlotte Brontë, which Brontë points out when she says she also went by a male pseudonym once. If you listen to her dialogue you can tell her natural way of speaking under the cowboy accent is just as [[IAmVeryBritish posh and refined]] as Charlotte's.

** Also NotSoDifferent from Oscar himself. One being an openly flamboyant gay man and one being a well-bred lady badly pretending to be a JerkJock, they end up meeting in the middle surprisingly well. (Indeed, she ends up dying because [[spoiler:Anne Brontë]] [[MurderByMistake mistook her for Oscar]], claiming "they look the same from the back".)

* FourthWallObserver: Oscar is the most likely of the guests to make an anachronistic joke to the camera, from quoting Film/Frankenstein1931's "IT'S ALIVE!" at the [[spoiler:death of Mary Shelley]] to a DeletedScene where he asks that someone [[AuthorsOfQuote add a quote he just came up with]] to his Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} page. Many of these came out of Tom's great skill at {{Improv}}.

* FamousLastWords: "At least this dress is fab."

* InformedAbility: He's said to be a master boxer with an undefeated record (with one [[ThrowingTheFight shameful exception]]) but in the climactic fight with [[spoiler: Dantes]] he gets knocked out effortlessly without landing a single punch. But then, he has been [[RealityEnsues drinking continuously]] for the duration of the show.

* PintSizedPowerhouse: Subverted. She's quick to volunteer for feats of manly strength or fisticuffs, but given that she's actually a tiny five-foot-tall woman, RealityEnsues.

-->'''Edgar''': I don't need to act things out in order to write them. I have what we like to call an imagination. Have you ever heard of that? Oh-no-no-no-no-no, please tell us more about [[Literature/TheOldManAndTheSea The Old Man...]] [[TakeThat and the Boat]].

--> '''Poe''': [[LampshadeHanging Okay, that ... sounds incriminating]]. I hear that now.

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Her comments imply Guy was a ... NiceGuy (cough), and of all the guests, she develops a crush on H.G., who is genuinely nice and upstanding fellow.

* AnachronismStew: Poe didn't just invent a microwave decades early, he also pioneered audio recording and playback technology just so that it could play custom messages depending on what you were trying to cook.

* {{Adorkable}}: In the nerdy, socially awkward way.

* {{Adorkable}}: In an entirely opposite way -- earnest, pompous, and boyishly smug -- to the adorkably damaged Poe.

* BiTheWay: Turns out to have had a "thing" with Oscar Wilde, to everyone's surprise. Annabel only comments that he's "very... European".

--> '''Portrayed by''': Sean Persaud.

-->'''Poe''': She was [[spoiler: stabbed]].

* CrazyPrepared: Edgar's house is ''very'' well-equipped, just in case anyone wants to commit a murder there, complete with a vault for storing bodies. This [[WhatWereYouThinking turns out to be a problem]] when he's trying to [[NotHelpingYourCase argue his innocence]]. He even always carries a vest full of candles just in case of a seance.

* EurekaMoment: After Oscar jokingly states that [[spoiler: Emily]] was "crushed by the feather of loneliness", he realizes that the authors are killed off in a manner which befits their writing.

* LoveHurts: Oh boy, yes. Especially when your loved one [[spoiler: [[DiedInYourArmsTonight dies in your arms]]]].

* AdaptationalDyeJob: The only physical detail we're given in Poe's poem "Lenore" besides being young and beautiful is that she has "yellow hair"; this Lenore is a brunette. (And compared to the original she certainly averts HairOfGoldHeartOfGold.) Guy de Vere notably skips this line when quoting the poem "Lenore" in her flashback.

* LoopholeAbuse: Despite the effort the murderer went to to set up a ClosedCircle, Lenore is able to summon Krishanti for help thanks to their PsychicLink (and the murderer can't punish her for violating the rule against calling for help since she's already dead). [[spoiler: Turns out getting Krishanti involved was AllAccordingToPlan.]]

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Her comments imply Guy was a... NiceGuy (cough), and of all the guests, she develops a crush on H.G., who is genuinely nice and upstanding fellow.

* DeadpanSnarker: This being a gathering of brilliant authors, almost everyone gets to snark at some point. Though Lenore, Charlotte Brontë and Oscar Wilde reign supreme.
* EveryoneIsASuspect: Everyone, who hasn't already died, that is.
* FakeBrit: The whole cast is American, but several of the characters are British (Brontë, Shelley, Wilde, Wells, Christie [[spoiler: for the few seconds before she dies]], and surprise characters [[spoiler: Jane Austen and Anne Brontë]]). There's also Dostoevsky, the token non-Anglophone, and George Eliot, a hilarious example of an American pretending to be a Brit pretending to be an American. Also Dantes, a European of unknown origin who speaks English with an American accent. [[spoiler: Which is a lie.]]
* IronicDeath: Everyone who dies is killed in a way that references their work. [[spoiler: George Eliot]] breaking the pattern due to a mistake by the killer is an early clue to their identity.

* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Applies to both Lenore and Annabel Lee, both from their original poems and from the earlier pre-Poe Party Shipwrecked videos. Annabel Lee is not from a "kingdom by the sea" but Edgar's longtime next-door neighbor. And unlike in the Tell Tale Vlogs or Lenore's Draw My Life, she's not a ghost [[spoiler: yet, anyway]].

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Lenore deferred to her on the guest list since the only reason Poe threw the party was for her benefit... [[spoiler: and she deferred to her boyfriend, Eddie Dantes, letting him use the party to gather together the instruments and targets of his revenge.]]

* TheAce: Eddie, unlike Edgar, is a wealthy, square-jawed, athletic pillar of the community who has taken Annabel on multiple glamorous vacations to Europe. [[spoiler: Too bad he's also a murderer.]]
-->'''Eddie''': Hi, Eddie Dantes, sorry we're delayed. My volunteer shift at the old folks' home ran late, and then on the way over we ran across a barbershop quartet and their bass was out with a sore throat, so I had to... ''(sings)'' fiiill iiin... You understand.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: Despite being a fictional character, Dantes seems to show up again and again in real historical events involving famous writers, including being present at the writing of Literature/{{Frankenstein}}. (In RealLife the only people there besides Mary Shelley were her husband Percy and their host Lord Byron.) [[spoiler: It turns out this is because he's intentionally stalking the entire literary community as part of a deranged master plan to take bloody revenge on writers as a profession.]]

* {{Expy}}: To Edmond Dantès from Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo, obviously. (Lampshaded by Poe conspicuously leaving out "Edmund" from his list of names "Eddie" could be short for.) [[spoiler: {{Foreshadowing}} for his SecretIdentity for the purpose of a [[ComplexityAddiction convoluted]] and [[BestServedCold long-delayed]] revenge scheme.]]
* FakeNationality: [[spoiler: Eddie uses the name "Eduardo Dantes" to mislead people -- including his girlfriend Annabel -- that he's a globetrotting European, when really he's a Baltimore local, just like Lenore, Krishanti and his brother Guy. Just as Dantes in Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo was a Frenchman pretending to be English, this Dantes is pretending to be French to hide his English ancestry -- specifically, that he's a descendant of the Earl of Oxford who wrote Shakespeare's plays.]]
* [[spoiler: FakingTheDead: All he did the first time the lights went out was plop his face into the soup and hold still. Helps that all the other writers are CloudCuckooLanders and the one person who checks his vitals is his confederate, Charlotte Brontë.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler: He hates famous writers for taking the credit and glory for other people's ideas, but isn't above leveraging societal sexism to try to steal credit for Literature/{{Frankenstein}} from Mary Shelley.]]

* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler: He'd been away from home a long time when he heard his brother Guy killed himself. Explains why Lenore, who predeceased Guy, never met him.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: By his own admission, he [[spoiler: courted Annabel for the sole purpose of bringing the authors together so he could kill them off]].
* MorallyBankruptBanker: It's not the ''reason'' he's morally bankrupt, but he has no compunction about foreclosing on the historic Brontë Parsonage [[spoiler: or using the foreclosure to extort the Brontë sisters into assisting with his schemes]].
* PetTheDog: One of the only positive relationships he has with another character besides Annabel Lee is with Dostoevsky, whom he took in out of charity and helped to get back on his feet after prison. [[spoiler: In hindsight, since he invited Dostoevsky to the party to be killed, it seems to have just been another part of his plan to worm himself into the good graces of the writing community to enact a [[BestServedCold long delayed]] revenge.]]

* TheResenter: Has an insane grudge against [[spoiler: Lenore, Krishanti, Shakespear and writers in general]].
* TheSociopath: A textbook example. Charming and seemingly perfect at the first glance, [[spoiler: he's a ruthless murderer, killing Annabel Lee, whom he had courted for quite some time, without an ounce of regret.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler: Naturally, being the real killer.]]
* WhoMurderedTheAsshole: It slowly transpires that Eddie wasn't as nice a guy as Annabel thought, and that most of the guests knew him and had some prior motive for killing him (and killing the other guests is probably a way of getting rid of the witnesses). [[spoiler: Turns out they had it backwards -- everyone who had a grudge against Dantes also had a reason for ''him'' to want to kill ''them''.]]

* ButtMonkey: Poor, poor Emily never catches a break. It begins with Poe not remembering having her invited in the first place and gets only worse from there on.

* NiceGirl: Despite her treatment she is very nice and forgiving. She mentions that she once wrote Eddie Dantes a few ''strongly worded poems''. That's about as mean as she got.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: To Annabel. (And to Charlotte when Annabel rejects his advances. And, one presumes, to many other women.)

* BoisterousBruiser: He is very much into sports, loud, outspoken and usually one of the first to swing into action. Unfortunately, he's also TheAlcoholic.
* DumbJock: Hemingway is obviously educated enough to be a famous writer, but is a bit slow on the uptake -- he's the only one who seems to not know who George Eliot is, and has a habit of guessing the murderer is a literary figure who isn't even at the party (like Creator/RudyardKipling). Possibly explained by the fact that he's currently in the middle of a days-long bender.

** To Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is stoic and dislikes smoking while Hemingway is loud and boisterous, TheAlcoholic and a heavy smoker. Both have an interest in Annabel; Poe is deeply in love but unsure about Annabel's feelings towards him, Hemingway on the other hand is very confident about himself and misses every subtle sign that Annabel is not interested in him.
** To Oscar Wilde. Ernest a rough BoisterousBruiser who never misses a chance for action, while Oscar is more of a foppish NonActionGuy who ScreamsLikeALittleGirl. Ironically enough, during the climax [[spoiler: Ernest, being drunk out of his mind, gets easily defeated by Eddie, while Oscar, after taking a beating, ''does'' manage to take out the Brontë sisters out]]. Oscar is also a GentlemanSnarker prone to long-winded speeches, while Hemingway's catchphrase is "Get to the point!".

* InformedAbility: He's said to be a master boxer with an undefeated record (with one [[ThrowingTheFight shameful exception]]) but in the climactic fight with [[spoiler: Dantes]] he gets knocked out effortlessly without landing a single punch. But then he has been [[RealityEnsues drinking continuously]] for the whole duration of this show.

* OnlySaneMan: Various other characters get their chance at being this, but after the first murder she stays intensely serious about the situation they're in without indulging the CloudCuckoolander fancies of the other guests and will not let go of the common sense plan to get out of the house and go to the police. [[spoiler: This is why she is the [[SacrificialLamb second guest targeted for death.]]]]

[[folder:Louisa May Alcott]]
--> '''Portrayed by''': Tara Perry
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: As opposed to Emily Dickinson, whom everyone ignores. Everyone seems to find her vaguely annoying, no one tries to stop her when she leaves [[spoiler: and no one is really upset when she dies]].
** Possibly lampshaded in one of the prologue videos where Poe angrily tells Creator/RalphWaldoEmerson he hates Transcendentalists and suggests they hold their own party where they can [[GranolaGirl blather about nature in each other's company]], but ended up inviting Alcott, a stereotypical Transcendentalist, anyway.
* GranolaGirl: Downplayed, but still there. She shows up with twigs and leaves in her hair for some reason, and her contribution to the potluck is some random weeds she picked off the side of the road. Her next birthday party is tree-themed; everybody has to come as their favorite tree.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Keeps on coughing during the scene after Dantes' death, before running out of the room and collapsing before she can make it out the front door, hinting that she was poisoned. Like all the other deaths, this is an IronicDeath referencing the famous IncurableCoughOfDeath when Beth died of scarlet fever in Literature/LittleWomen. [[spoiler: A subversion: she was actually injected with cyanide by Anne Brontë as soon as she was out of sight.]]
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Louisa is the first to attempt one. It doesn't work.
* {{Spinster}}: Shelley's eulogy calls her a "spinster through and through". She displays the stereotypical poor dress sense and social graces of one.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: The [[spoiler: first actual]] person to die.
[[/folder]]

* BrainyBrunette: Well this ''is'' Oscar Wilde, after all. He seems to concentrate more on making snide remarks about Hemingway, though he was one of the few people to suspect [[spoiler: Charlotte]] of being the murderer, along with Lenore and Wells.

* TheDandy: Because you can never be overdressed. Or overeducated.
* {{Foil}}: To Ernest Hemingway. Ernest is a rough BoisterousBruiser who never misses a chance for action, while Oscar is more of a foppish NonActionGuy who ScreamsLikeALittleGirl. Ironically enough, during the climax [[spoiler: Ernest, being drunk out of his mind, gets easily defeated by Eddie, while Oscar, after taking a beating, ''does'' manage to take out the Brontë sisters out]]. Oscar is also a GentlemanSnarker prone to long-winded speeches, while Hemingway's catchphrase is "Get to the point!".
* FourthWallObserver: Oscar is the most likely of the guests to make an anachronistic joke to the camera, from quoting Film/Frankenstein1931's "IT'S ALIVE!" at the [[spoiler: death of Mary Shelley]] to a DeletedScene where he asks that someone [[AuthorsOfQuote add a quote he just came up with]] to his Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} page. Many of these came out of Tom's great skill at {{Improv}}.
* GeniusBonus: [[spoiler: Oscar screams "Emily!" when Emily Dickinson dies and then dismissively says "Oh, different Emily". Oscar Wilde did in fact have a half-sister named Emily who died young in a house fire.]]
* GentlemanSnarker: As the situation grows more tense Wilde is becoming increasingly snarky, especially towards Hemingway.
* LargeHam: He is quite dramatic and due to his wide range of facial expressions it's hard to ignore him even when he's in the background.
* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Implied. Oscar seems honestly distraught that [[spoiler: Eddie was drunk when they spent the night together and didn't take kindly to being rebuffed without an explanation]], and apparently Anton Chekhov cheated on him with Charlotte and [[spoiler: Anne Brontë]].
* NonActionGuy: Oscar is not one to do the lifting of dead bodies (he has George Eliot carry Mary Shelley, while he's holding the lantern) and screams and whines as Hemingway lounges at him, while Charlotte and Annabel are trying their best to keep Ernest from strangling him.
* OddFriendship: Of sorts with Lenore. They both are very into fashion and constantly high-fiving each other after a snarky remark, but have no qualms accusing each other with murder. Also with George Eliot, though it's YMMV as to how far that's friendship.

* FakeAmerican: George Eliot was English in RealLife, and here seems to be putting on a stilted, clichéd American accent to seem manlier. (She only slips back into her English accent screaming "Oh, bloody hell!" upon seeing a mouse and when [[spoiler: posthumously]] reciting a poem by the real George Eliot.)
* DramaticUnmask: As well as a [[spoiler: DeathbedConfession. Unfortunately, she's too focused on her confessing her true gender to describe her killer to anyone.]]

-->'''George''': ''(trapped in the ravenry while Oscar Wilde makes fun of her)'' I am loving this gaiety, but I am covered in excrement, please --
** Also NotSoDifferent from Oscar himself. One being an openly flamboyantly gay man and one being a well-bred lady badly pretending to be a JerkJock, they end up meeting in the middle surprisingly well. (Indeed, she ends up dying because [[spoiler: Anne Brontë]] [[MurderByMistake mistook her for Oscar]], claiming "they look the same from the back".)

* RatedMForManly: Tries to outdo Hemingway at this... and despite her best efforts, fails miserably.

-->'''George''': Show me to the billiard room... or a voting booth!

* ChekhovsGun: For all her cleverness, she seems to have a tough time understanding the concept that Lenore is dead and a ghost, repeatedly forgetting about it and treating her like a living human. [[spoiler: This ends up biting her in the ass when she wastes her time trying to stab her in the finale and letting Oscar get the jump on her.]]
* CoDragons: With [[spoiler: her sister Anne.]]
* EvilRedhead: A {{Foil}} for her [[HeroesWantRedheads heroic redhead]] counterpart Annabel Lee, one of the nastiest and most selfish people in the cast. [[spoiler: And one of the murderers, to boot.]] Notably an AdaptationalDyeJob -- the real Charlotte Brontë was a brunette who was always jealous of her sister Anne's auburn [[spoiler: (their hair colors are reversed in this show)]].

* ForcedIntoEvil: [[spoiler: It was Anne who killed Jane Austen, not her, and she could've gone to the police ... But instead she stayed loyal to her family and became SiblingsInCrime with Anne. It helps that she was always the kind of person to whom EvilFeelsGood.]]

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Well, for starters, she never [[spoiler: was a murderer]].

* InLoveWithYourCarnage: [[spoiler: Her relationship with Dantes is business, not personal, but she still seems a bit turned on when they're discussing the details of how they pulled off their murders together. Then again, he is played by Ryan Garcia...]]
* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: Not above [[spoiler: killing a man with an axe]] while wearing her classy evening-gown.

* MadArtist: [[spoiler: Reveals she murdered half the cast in order to create the "ultimate Gothic novel" in RealLife... though this was a secondary motive to paying off her debt to Dantes.]]
* [[spoiler: TheMole: She spends her whole time among the guests subtly manipulating them into traps set up for them by her accomplices. It becomes very obvious upon rewatching knowing the ending. Even with the mistakes she makes she's not a half-bad ManipulativeBastard.]]

* RefugeInAudacity: [[spoiler: She takes the opportunity to turn on Dostoevsky and brutally murder him the instant they're alone together, precisely because she doubts anyone will believe she did it.]]
* SmugSnake: [[spoiler: Even before she grabs the VillainBall in the ending, she repeatedly gets herself in trouble talking more than she should, usually because she can't resist bragging about herself and her family or insulting the other guests]].

* AxCrazy: Because he wrote one of the [[Literature/CrimeAndPunishment most famous such characters]] in literature everyone [[CannotTellFictionFromReality assumes]] he might be one too. [[spoiler: Tragically subverted -- the AxCrazy one was ''Charlotte Brontë'', of all people.]]

* GentleGiant: Everyone seems to find him intimidating, especially the ones who've read the [[Literature/CrimeAndPunishment description of a brutal axe murder]] that made him famous. But he seems genuinely horrified by violence and indeed is one of the only members of the cast who reacts to the murders with appropriate seriousness and grief. [[spoiler: And then he's the one who gets axe murdered rather than doing the murdering.]]

* RussianGuySuffersMost: He has the most tragic backstory of any of the authors, the vodka only briefly takes the edge off his depression, and [[spoiler: while his death may not be ''worse'' than anyone else's it's certainly one of the most gruesome]].

* CloudCuckooLander: Wells is socially awkward, always wears a pair of goggles (to a suit, no less), and is always seen inventing something that no one except him believes in.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Everyone's reaction to Wells' microwave, and to a lesser extent his other inventions.
* LethalChef: The bread he made with his microwave is charred beyond recognition (it is, after all, the first microwave and he hasn't calibrated cooking times yet).

* SteamPunk: This version of Wells is basically an homage to the whole steampunk genre and aesthetic, the [[GogglesDoNothing constantly present goggles]] worn with a formal suit especially.

* AdvertisedExtra: Christie is in the opening credits of every episode despite being absent from the party -- until the episode where she shows up and immediately dies. It becomes a RunningGag that the disembodied hand putting down people's names never questioned her right to be there while repeatedly [[ButtMonkey trying to remove Emily Dickinson]], who really was there from the beginning.
* RedHerring: Being stuck in a real murder mystery themselves, everyone hopes she'll turn up soon, given her experience with the genre, with several episodes mentioning her and building up to her arrival... and then she drops dead the second she does.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: She drops dead as soon as she turns up.

* PoliceAreUseless: While he does give off the impression at first that he knows what he's doing, it quickly becomes clear that he's not.

* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler: Guy's brother Edward was furious with Lenore for driving his brother to suicide and Krishanti for failing to bring him back. His actions do finally bring Guy's ghost back... in order to indict him for his crimes.]]
* NiceGuy: Not much is seen of him, but seemed like a pretty kind and caring guy.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Guy only briefly appears in a flashback and as a ghost, but he delivers a valuable clue to the killer's identity and his death is what [[spoiler: ticks off his older brother to go on revenge]].

* SheKnowsTooMuch: Knowing both Guy [[spoiler: and his brother]] she quickly suspected the murderer.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Like her sister, she [[spoiler: never killed anyone]].
* StartOfDarkness: They were never nice people in this universe, but Anne's impulsive decision to [[spoiler: bludgeon Jane Austen to death]] is what sets the Brontës off to becoming full blown villains.

* WalkingSpoiler: Her presence at the party indicates that [[spoiler: Charlotte is a murderer using her sister as a hidden accomplice.]]

* GeniusBonus: Austen inviting the Brontës to the debut party for Literature/NorthangerAbbey, a posthumously published novel, is a hint that she's [[spoiler: about to be murdered by Anne]].

** Also note that Charlotte Brontë despised Austen because she believed she had no understanding of "hot-blooded passion", reflected in how Austen's blissful obliviousness to [[spoiler: Anne's murderous rage]] leads to [[spoiler: her death]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The concept of a minimum drinking age in the United States didn't even really exist until the 20th century and didn't universally become 21 until 1984. Although since Poe seems to think Barrie, like Peter Pan, is a 14-year-old boy he'd probably object to him drinking regardless.

* VagueAge: We never find out how old he actually is (in RealLife Barrie was 44 when the play Theatre/PeterPan premiered).

* {{Adorkable}}: In an entirely opposite way -- earnest, pompous and boyishly smug -- to the adorkably damaged Poe.

* CondescendingCompassion: Tolstoy is moved to break his solemn vow to never poison himself with alcohol again... because Poe just looks ''so'' pitiful, and sad, and [[IJustWantToHaveFriends lonely]].

* DudeNotFunny: Said word-for-word by Tolstoy -- who, having embraced Christian universal lovingkindness, will tolerate Poe kidnapping him, ruining years of sobriety and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking making fun of his accent]] but won't stand for being accused of not paying for his drinks.
* GentleGiant: Tolstoy isn't quite as big as his countryman Dostoevsky but he's still a HuskyRusskie compared to Poe, and yet never loses his temper with him even after being kidnapped (raising the question of how he was kidnapped in the first place).

* OffTheWagon: Tolstoy agrees to take ''one drink'' with Poe, despite his status as a recovering alcoholic... and, as they say, [[HilarityEnsues one is one too many]].
* SmallReferencePools: The final PlotTwist that despite previously calling him the "greatest writer of all time" and knowing his books Literature/WarAndPeace and Literature/AnnaKarenina, Poe -- like many Americans with a shallow knowledge of Russian literature --wasn't aware Tolstoy was a different person from Dostoevsky, the guy whose name he actually put on the invite list.