Product Description

This title includes an introduction and notes by John S. Whitley, University of Sussex. This collection of Poe's best stories contains all the terrifying and bewildering tales that characterize his work. As well as the Gothic horror of "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Premature Burial" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", all of Poe's Auguste Dupin stories are included.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #276034 in Books
• Published on: 1992-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Born Boston, Mass, 1809, d.1849. Deserted by his father, and his mother died when he was two. Raised by John Allan, a merchant, and his wife Frances. Published his first work, Tamerlaine and Other Poems, in 1827; The Raven and Other Poems was a Great success in 1845. His many stories are collected in Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Died of drink in Baltimore.

Customer Reviews

Masterful Depiction of the Macabre.
Edgar Allan Poe is the epitome of the genre that is the macabre...simply put. A man whose lyrical lucre and gamut are fueled as much by an almost vivid imagination for the grotesque as much as his proclivity for the philosophically preternatural. Only Vladimir Nabokov has ably rivalled the vocabulary that is so evident in the convolutions that are as much a precedent to Poe's works as are his theoretical musings. Constantly in an endeavour to blur the lines between tale and short story, he congeals one into the other in an almost mid-methodology of sorts to create a passage that is part fable and part vision. His scientific musings on the "Murders in the Rue Morgue" border on the Doylish, while his ornate description of the red room in the "The Masque" is an exercise in baroque art and can adorn every manual in decorative imagery. While "The Pit and the Pendulum" are epics of the macabre, rivalled only by the likes of "The Descent into the Maelstrom", and "King Pest", vivid imageries conjured in "The Man of the Crowd" are absolute literary masterpieces of the subliminal nature. Though his oeuvre was largely the result of a dying age, his was the talent that would attract posthumously as was the result. Once beheld, once forgotten....as Poe himself would quote, "Silence was never this golden until it was exemplified with verve".

An awesone introduction to Poe's prose.
This book is amazing, it is the book that first got me really entralled by Poe's writings. I would suggest to anyone that they should read this book. If you like horror films, this is the origin of many of the themes that are in most horror films. A truely scary book at points. Utterly brilliant!

worthy of four and a half stars, but I don't know how
Hmm, let me see, macabre, check, horror, check, an immortal title, check, worldwide renown, well, maybe not at that particular moment, but later. And so it brings us to the point where Poe was a poor, miserable, beggar even though he's got all of the above. Alas, the weakness of the human heart, I do declare that it is a fortune--only for us, the miserable soul--that he is poor, his experience in the cruelty of this earth enabled him, I daresay, to astound the later world and distinguished writers with his original creativity, his active love of writing, and his strong heart even though he is a misfortunate soul in the midst of the world of wealth and power whom the goddess of misfortune pursued with an unwearied eye/jinx. Those stories each gives you a different horrific sensation that is worthy of recognition: "The Cask..." lets you experience the insanity and horrible triumph of revenge, "The Black..." brings the old tradition of witch's cats to a new circle, astounding the general audience by its venemous strenghth of mind. So being able to accomplish such a task is quite and achievement. Now, I would like to remind the reader of two Poe facts and one historic fact. It is true that Poe lived in America, when San Francisco was a small town, and gold was about to be discovered, and he died in 1849, the year gold was discovered. Now, his love literature and the need of money combined, well, we'll let the reader think about the hundreds of stories that could've came out if he had lived just three years more. All in all, Poe was a great influence and a great writer.