Edgar Allen Poe Eight Tales Of Terror

by Edgar Allan Poe

Eight classic poe tales. Fall of the house of Usher , hop frog , William Wilson, & other stories.

Paperback

Published January 1, 1965

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

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting how many themes and even phrases are repeated in some of Poe's most famous short stories of terror. This edition included Masque of the Red Death, Fall of the House of Usher, the Gold Bug, the Cask of Amontillado, and a few others with my favorite story being Ligeia.

[Joni Greenwell Bycroft · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this one on a road trip this weekend. And, it was terribly hard to listen to. The reader's voice shifted to whispers that couldn't be heard at all. Worst was when he read "The Murder on the Rue Morgue". He used a French accent that was literally unintelligible. If you read this - READ it. Don't bother with an audio version.

It's a collection of 9 of Poe's short stories, including "The Tale Tale Heart", "The Fall of the House of Usher", and my favorite in the collection - "The black Cat".

[Lacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unimpressed. Expected greater things.

[Iris Sutherland · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 because after reading it I'm like that was bad but when I read it it was mid I only rly liked 4 of the stories

[Lisa Carp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been a fan of Poe. The writing of his time is truly remarkable.