Tales of Terror is a collection of nine, famous, Edgar Allan Poe stories. Gothic, chilling, inventive, grotesque — they are classics of horror and suspense, penned by a master. Several I have read before, while a couple are new to me. All are brilliant.
1. The Tell-Tale Heart
“True! — nervous — very, very, dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”
This, I believe, is Poe’s greatest, most effective tale. It’s certainly the one I’ve read most often. It’s short, for Poe paired down the details to only what is essential. There’s no backstory, no clue of the relationship between the narrator and his victim, no inkling of any deeper motive for the crime than the superficial one the narrator states. We don’t even know, with certainty, our narrator’s gender.
The opening sentence clues us to the narrator’s unreliability. He indicates that his sanity has been questioned, and wishes to convince us otherwise. He then proceeds to describe his motivation, his crime and his discovery succinctly. He begins dispassionately, but eager to convince us of his cleverness as well as his sanity. As he nears the point of his discovery, he becomes agitated, then desperate, and finally melts down altogether.
This story, revealing the mind of a madman, may be more than Poe’s best. It may be the best terror short story ever penned.
5 stars
2. Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
“Upon the bed, before that whole company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome, of detestable putridity.”
This tale is new to me. I’ve never read it, or, in truth, heard of it before. As in The Tell-Tale Heart, this story is narrated to us by an observer, in this case a mesmerist who relates to us an experiment in which he practiced his art on a subject (M. Valdemar) in the final stages of dying. Again, Poe is spare in his details, giving almost no backstory, this plunging the reader directly into the event described.
While I would not count this tale among Poe’s best work, it is an effective little mood piece that should be good for one or two quick chills.
3 stars
3. Hop-Frog
Another story that is new to me. Hop-Frog is a gruesome tale of revenge, set in a king’s court. The corpulent king, along with his seven fat ministers, is a tyrant who fancies himself a practical joker. His dwarf jesters become the brunt of his cruel humor. Hop-Frog, the king’s jester, hides his anger until he can deliver his own practical joke, in horrific and spectacular fashion.
3 stars
4. The Murders in the Rue Morgue
This tale is the granddaddy of the modern detective story. Before Sherlock Holmes, before Hercule Poirot, there was Auguste Dupin. It is the first closed room mystery. All the major tropes that Arthur Conan Doyle later made famous were here first invented by Poe.
This is far from my favorite Poe story. It’s over long and awkward in spots. But for pure inventiveness, for the genius of creating an entire genre, Poe gets the honor, and this story should be read.
4 stars
5. The Masque of the Red Death
This gothic chiller is one of Poe’s most famous tales with good reason. He here paints in hues of words, creating an atmospheric tapestry. First, Poe describes the plague afflicting the land in gruesome detail. Then, in even greater detail, he describes the construction and decorations of the baroque pleasure palace to which Prince Prospero and his courtiers escape to wait out the pestilence in decedent amusements. His climax, during a masque ball where the Prince and the rest of the revelers are confronted by their terrible mortality, is brilliantly effective.
5 stars
6. The Pit and the Pendulum
The narrator of this tale is a condemned victim of the Inquisition. Poe wove together atmospheric details and agonizing suspense in a tale of a man desperate to escape a terrible and relentless death.
The Pit and the Pendulum is one of Poe’s most recognizable stories. I still recall, when a small child, how my big brother dramatically narrated it to me (certainly my very first exposure to Edgar Allan Poe).
4 stars
7. The Fall of the House of Usher
Another famous gothic tale from Poe, this one piles it on. A remote, crumbling estate built by a dank tarn, a creepy hypochondriac brother and his cataleptic twin sister, living entombment, inescapable fate, and certain doom! A bit longish and florid, but a true classic.
4 stars
8. The Black Cat
“In so doing I was committing a sin, a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it, if such a thing were possible, even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the most merciful and most terrible God.”
This is a horrible, terrible, gruesome tale, effectively told. It is hard for me to read, and impossible for me to review. If you are sensitive to harm done to animals, don’t read this one.
4 stars
9. The Cask of Amontillado
Poe’s most famous tale of revenge. This is a short, efficient and terrible tale. As with The Tell-Tale Heart, no unnecessary details are given. We are not told how the narrator was wronged, just that he was. No details beyond the fact that he and his victim are acquaintances are given of their relationship. As the narrator leads his unwitting victim into catacombs, supposedly to sample an exquisite wine, we the reader feel the suspense of knowing that something dreadful lies ahead, but not exactly what. Unlike some of his longer, gothic tales, this story could almost be contemporary from its efficient construction.
4 stars.