Poe's Tales of Mystery and Terror

by Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Lombardero (Illustrator)

A delicious thrill of horror runs through the gro- tesque tales of Edgar Allan Poe, as in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, when Doom personified intrudes on a gay and brilliant gathering, and even Time must pause.

Edgar Allan Poe, bom in Boston in 1809, lived only 40 years—many of them desperately un- happy years at that—but in his short time he created a body of stories and poems that are still exciting and wonderful to read.

Besides the tales of terror such as THE MASK OF THE RED DEATH, he is given credit with setting the pattern for detective stories in THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE.

THE FALL OF THE HOVSE OF USHER
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO
THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM
THE GOLD-BUG
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET
THE PURLOINED LETTER

Genres: Horror, Classics, Short Stories, Mystery, Fiction, Gothic, Thriller

319 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1967

About the author

The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.

The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...

Reviews

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Terror must exist in hundreds of editions. I have owned this Magnum “Easy Eye” edition since I was a tween, having picked it up at Woolworth’s in Oil City many decades ago. My town had no bookstores and it was catch-as-catch-can for a book lover. In any case, I read the stories I liked and occasionally returned to it to reread them. Since I’ve read most of my fiction collection, and since bookstores are dicey places in the pandemic, I decided to read it all the way through. There may be a standard edition of Poe’s tales, but I have a feeling this isn’t it.

Beginning with “The Fall of the House of Usher,” we find “The Masque of the Red Death” next. It was probably this tale that caught my attention in the pandemic. “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Gold Bug,” round out the tales of terror. Then come the ratiocination, or mystery tales. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” and “The Purloined Letter” finish out the volume. I would never downgrade Poe from five stars, but the edition could’ve used more thought. Perhaps it reflects an era when everything had to have an explanation, and thus ended with the somewhat lengthy descriptions of Dupin of what was really happening.

I keep telling myself I should have a proper edition of Poe tales. I have the obligatory volume of complete tales and poems, of course. I’m not sure how to get through the hundreds of pages in order to count it on Goodreads, however. Poe has been from my youngest days, my muse. I should purchase a handsome volume of his best stories to take to bed with me of a chill autumnal night. But during our own version of the Red Death may not be the time to linger over shelves in a store with the door closed, trapping us in our own pit with its pendulum.

[Jehy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well.
I’d definitely say his macabre short stories are much better than this Sherlock Holmes-esque stories. It took me over a month to get through the last three stories.
However, I really enjoyed all the classics. I’m a fan of the movies, which are nothing like the stories (shocking), so it was fun to read them. I particularly enjoyed The Cask of Amontillado. It’s the shortest, but it’s great. The story is pettiness incarnate, and I love it.
I’d give the book four stars, but for those damn mystery stories.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these as a child and remember the dread that I had felt, yet this time around I felt none. The terror had ceased. Instead though I did enjoy the mysterious nature of a number of Poe's tales, including 'The Fall of the House of Usher'.

[P.E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matching Soundtrack :
Tales of Mystery and Imagination - The Alan Parsons Project

[A.M. Steiner]

I've read and enjoyed many books by authors more ancient and arcane than Poe, but for some reason I found his prose style completely impenetrable.

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Poe is not a piece of cake. I realized it while reading this book. The mystery and horror cases were interesting and engaging but by no means easy to read. The writing was too dense and difficult to understand. Some places where things can be explained in one line, the description goes on for pages at a stretch. I lost interest in the cases, trying to find my way through paras and paras.

Dupin reminded me of Sherlock and Watson. His style of deduction, smoking a pipe, the talent of catching things that were missed by the regular people... its looks like Doyle was inspired by Dupin and polished the character to make him the most loved character across the world.

[poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The majority of the stories (The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, Descent into the Maelström, The Tell Tale Heart, William Wilson, MS Found In a Bottle) where extremely good and entertaining. Even the ludicrous plots were saved by Poe’s dramatic writing.

[Tanner Lundin]

The book i have read for this month was “Tales Of Mystery And Terror” by Edgar Allan Poe. I really like this book it had wanting to read more of it all the time. I really liked it especially because of the fact that it was like three different stories all put into one book. My favorite story in the book was hands down “The Gold Bug”. My favorite character would have to be jupiter, i really like the mystery that he brought to the book. When i read the quote “Goats, kids, it’s pretty much the same thing.” I thought that that was really funny and it became my favorite quote in the book. My least favorite character in the whole book was Roderick Usher, i didn’t like this guy mainly cause he was really creepy.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was scary

The book Poe's Tales of Mystery and Terror is a fiction/ horror book genre. "I had in mind a murder". This is a very important line because the "Mad Mad" wants to kill someone. In our heads where debating if he is or not going to kill a person. Readers who like Mystery and Horror would love this book and if you get scared easily i would recommend it. You would love it and by then end of the story your going to be in shock. Overall great book especially since it has three books in one. Find out what happens in the book of Poe's Tales of Mystery and Terror.

[Abhishek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoy the way Poe establishes the mystery and confusion in his narrative. He pictures the bleakness of the situation so well. Highly recommended for people love mystery, some misery, and a little mindfuck.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four short stories of Edgar Allen Poe. All very good, but I enjoyed The Gold Bug the most. Good reading. I remembered reading two of the four tales when I was pretty young, but two of the tales I have never read.

[Andres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories are fun some others, well, I just hope I learn to appreciate Poe's prose in the future.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book.

[B.szoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories collected within are my some of childhood favorites. The tell tale heart, The cask of Amontillado, The fall of the house of Usher, and The Gold Bug. Definitely worth a read,

[Georgina Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

This version had:
The Tell-Tale Heart: 5/5
The Cask of Amontillado: 3/5
The Fall of the House of Usher: 3/5
The Gold-Bug: 4/5

[talia · Rating 3 out of 5]

creepey