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Dec 12, 2011

Lou rated it:

Upon waking from lethargy or sleep he plunges our protagonist into total darkness a dark chamber of death and torture. Rats and a pendulum of terror are his immediate horrors as the swing of death of the pendulum lowers and increases in speed the beads of sweat upon the characters forehead increase in the terror he is experiencing. A masterpiece of writing from Edgar Allan Poe, the creator of the dark tale and splendid writing. He really places you in the moment and you feel the air of dread and More...

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Dec 23, 2011

Bonnie rated it:

’Arousing from the most profound of slumbers, we break the gossamer web of some dream.’

Another short story by Edgar Allan Poe that tells of a man that wakes in darkness to be judged and given a death sentence. He loses consciousness and falls into somewhat of a slumber, where he is still aware, but… not.

’The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled for breath. The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me. The atmosphere was intolerably clos More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2011

Nancygomez rated it:

A confused man finds himself in a dark place. He is judged and given a death sentence. He passes out but didn’t loose all of his consciousness. He feels he is moved into someplace else. He knows there is no noise, or crowd, like the autos-da-fe usually went. He then wonders if he is already dead and in his tomb.He was afraid but stood up and extended his arms in front of him. He stared walking and realized he must be in a place he heard about called Toledo. He explored his cell and thought of More...

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Mar 04, 2011

Graham rated it:

Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, died October 7, 1849.

What is it that makes an author famous? I don't mean famous in the sense a news article reports that "Jack Greylea's novels sold 15 million copies last year," but in the sense that he is thought of as being profound, and seminal. That he is quoted, and scholars analyse his works, and he is looked upon as being the original voice of his style, or the font from which many imitators have More...

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Sep 12, 2010

William Herschel rated it:

Sometimes I think people that can enjoy stories like these are deprived of sensory input, or maybe just don't acknowledge their own. The horror of the story is mostly brought out in such sensory descriptions-- utter darkness, the feel of rat teeth, thirst, suffocating odors, the swinging motion of the pendulum above the narrator's chest.

I thought I was lacking in imagination, but is all this really that difficult to imagine on one's own? A story can't depend on these things alone. Th More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 07, 2011

Leonard rated it:

Waking up in darkness, fearing a live burial; groping in the darkness almost falling into a pit; bound to a framework under a swinging pendulum while rats rush for their midnight snack; sizzling iron walls squeezing together, but not to cook hamburgers. These could be scenes from Indiana Jones and the Dungeons of Toledo. And yet, The Pit and the Pendulum is classic Poe: heart throbbing, adrenaline rushing, spine tinkling and hair raising suspense and terror. The story triumphs not only through i More...

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Jan 12, 2012

Kell rated it:

Poe is very good at relating the feeling of claustrophobia; it was very easy to put myself in that pit and feel the walls closing in on me, but I found his style rather verbose. I don’t know if it’s because I read the story in installments, but it felt like the story could have been told just as effectively in half the words. By the end, I was tiring of the tale a little, but it seemed to end very abruptly, which annoyed me somewhat.

I found some elements very chilling (the thought of g More...

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Oct 23, 2011

Mira rated it:

Harte Fakten:
Grube und Pendel – Edgar Allan Poe
Kindle Edition

Klappentext:
Toledo zur Zeit der spanischen Inquisition. In einem Klosterkerker wartet ein Gefangener auf seine Hinrichtung. Er weiß nicht, wie und wann er sterben wird. Als er erfährt, auf welche Art seine Peiniger ihn zu töten gedenken, gerinnt ihm das Blut in den Adern …

Über den Autor:
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) ist die schillerndste amerikanische Dichterpersönlichkeit des 19. Jahrhun More...

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Jul 19, 2009

Camilla rated it:

Yes, I admit; I did want to find out what happened to this guy in the story. But it was pretty weird. My school teacher noticed it (well she thought that I wasn't interested in the story). This story CAN be really disgusting. But the story didn't go that way. It only got close to the death and the extremely gross stuff. Like a swinging pendulum that would cut him in half right over his heart. Stuff like that. Go ahead and read it for yourself. It's only about 22 pages, but boy, will you get a to More...

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Jun 24, 2011

Shaqrob rated it:

The beginning of this short story isn't so great, but as it goes on it gets better. It's a really interesting story. The darkness of the cell adds to the suspense of the story because the reader really has no idea what could be in there. Since this is a Poe short story the reader really doesn't know if the narrator will be able to escape this situation alive. I found the ending of the story a little bit confusing, but I'm sure that is only because I don't really know anything about the Inquisiti More...

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Sep 24, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Short, creepy as all get pout, macabre, & insidious, it's Poe at his blackest. We never know the age or name of the young man who is sentenced to death & finds himself in a dungeon. As he feels his way around, he attempts to discover the dimensions of his prison, trips, & falls right at the edge of a pit in the center of the cell. Terrified, he retreats to the edge of the cell, where he drinks the water that's provided for him by an unknown hand. When he wakes next, it's discovered that the More...

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Dec 18, 2011

Adam rated it:

What's stopping this from getting 4 stars is the end. I just don't know enough about the Inquisition perhaps. I thought the play on emotions was not problematic at all -- in fact, it was a good way for Poe to make his horror timeless. People don't like the dark, they don't like huge blades, and they tend to not like pits of fire.

But, although I read this thing in a flash and was incredibly curious what happened to him....I don't get it!

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Sep 18, 2010

Susan rated it:

Later this month, our local library is having a discussion on Poe and his Pit and the Pendulum. I read it again after reading it numerous times throughout my life. Loved it! It only took about an hour to read. I have been a lifelong fan of Poe, his stories and especially his poetry. The man was brilliant in his command of vocabulary and his usage of meter and rhyme. It always gives me a thrill to read his works.

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Dec 09, 2010

Haleema rated it:

I LOVED THIS STORY!! Best horrific story I have read. Of course by one of my favorite authors, Sir Edgar Allan Poe. This story exemplifies the true horror of death and how close it can come to you. This story is a good mixture of effective imagery and a interesting plot. It literally kept my heart racing and put me in awe of Poe's sheer genius. Enjoy (or not really) this wonderfully crafted story by Poe!

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Dec 08, 2008

Susan rated it:

Out of 3 short stories I read of his, this is my favorite. I absolutely loved the underlying tension of the entire story which not only moved it along, but gave a desperate feeling of needing to finish it in one sitting. The back and forth reasonings of our main character who was debating to give in to death, or fight until the end added to that tension. Something to read on a dark and stormy night.

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Aug 05, 2011

Mark added it

I did enjoy reading this, and the imagery is genuinely thrilling, however it loses its truly terrifying edge by being written in first person - we know that the protagonist lives to tell his tale. Having said this, Poe really does provide a very suspenseful and nail biting short story here and whilst I still think he was better at writing poetry, this is an enjoyable narrative.

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Jan 12, 2012

Sandy rated it:

Dipping my toe into Poe at long last. High marks so far. This story reminded me of the cliché James Bond scenes where the villian is doing everything he can to delay his success while unwittingly allowing Bond to escape. Is this the origin of the pendulum blade trope?

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Dec 06, 2011

Sean rated it:

This haunting tale is told through a first person narrative about a man imprisoned in a dungeon during the Inquisition who awaits his impending execution. Much of the story revolves around the description of the mans surrounding and the overally sense of dread as he faces the ambiguity of his future. Poe at his top form. Highly recommended.

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Oct 16, 2009

Laura rated it:

Available at Open Source Audio (Internet Archive)

"The Pit And The Pendulum" was written by Edgar Allan Poe (1842). This recording is narrated by Grant Raymond Barrett.

A man finds himself damned by the Inquisition and is subjected to horrible torture, namely that of the razor-sharp pendulum. Can he escape this brutal death?

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Jul 22, 2011

Hansini rated it:

Although I do not enjoy reading these types of books...I read it for the purpose of understanding Poe's type of work, and find it very interesting. The text is very intriguing, and although the story's description were rather grotesque, the end was quite diverting in relationship to the rest of the story.

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Feb 09, 2011

Shanna rated it:

I read this story for the first time in high school and the imagery never left me. I read it again for the first time last week, and it was just as terrifying as I remembered. However, this time I was better able to appreciate the genius of Poe's diction, while still being captivated by his madness.

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Jan 11, 2012

Claire rated it:

The terror in this short story was very well portrayed, you really felt like you were there with the man in the cell but the ending was insane - paragraphs of terror, horror, dismay and then just as he was about to brutally die a man came in and saved him, end of. Apologies for the spoiler.

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Jul 31, 2011

Nicole rated it:

I really don't like anything I've read that was written by Edgar Allan Poe. I think it's mostly a personal preference issue as I don't like dark/horror stories. They just don't do anything for me. And if I have to read The Telltale Heart for one more English class, I think I might cry.

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Sep 27, 2011

Sandra added it

Liked some of the poems (I think the not so dark ones). Liked The Balloon-Hoax, A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, (especially) The Purloined Letter, The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart. The rest were meh - all description and little else - too little to sustain me.

Heavy reading - the short stories are good in small doses only. (That's why we have poetry.)

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Jul 20, 2011

Jess rated it:

this story is amazing, even though i had no idea what some of the words mean, i still got the story. i understand how people can be bored with his stories. but people in my school have no idea who the hell he is, or they no that his poem was in the simpsonz :(

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Sep 24, 2009

Erik rated it:

(10-24-09)
This was in our Elements of Literature book...
...
I didn't read it.

(11-8-09)
Uhm, thank God I didn't read this in school. I would have sat there with the horrible look on my face that I have now. Good God! It took me a while to figure out it was during the Inquisition, even though it was clearly stated over and over. I guess I was too busy trying to not pee my pants to notice. Who the Hell thinks up this stuff? Gah. Well, at least it was beautifully More...

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Oct 16, 2011

Craig rated it:

As dark and dank this made me feel, I occasionally giggled during my reading of this work. No, I am not that mental, just had a hard time keeping the Monty Python version of the Inquisition from storming the cerebral gates. Still feels like Poe had some secrets.

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Oct 11, 2009

Heidi rated it:

This book scared the crap out of me in 9th grade. I still carry a mental picture of the pendulum swinging back and forth. For a book to be able to grasp your imagination and stay with you for years to come (too many years)speaks volumes.

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Sep 07, 2009

Madeline rated it:

Pretty cool, but I really don't understand how the managed to make a movie out of it. I'd go to the trouble of finding said movie and watching it to find out, but frankly I can't be bothered. The story is good enough for me.

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Jan 01, 2011

Janie rated it:

this is an all time favourite - I read this many years ago and have re read since. Its so horrific and desperate. A clever tale of the inquisition and an essential read for all horror fans.

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