Great Tales of Horror

by Edgar Allan Poe

Alonebr/Annabel Leebr/Berenicebr/For Anniebr/The Black Catbr/The Cask Of Amontilladobr/The Conqueror Wormbr/The Fall Of The House Of Usherbr/The Gold-Bugbr/The Masque of the Red Deathbr/The Murders in the Rue Morguebr/The Purloined Letterbr/The Ravenbr/The Tell-Tale Heart

Genres: Horror, Classics, Fiction, Short Stories

149 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1978

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

[Manasvini · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real mixed bag- loved a few of the stories, hated the others.

[Sara Mokken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sommige verhalen zijn echt goed andere verhalen wel wat minder. Ik vond het ook jammer dat ze de beste verhalen meteen aan het begin hadden gedaan. Daardoor vielen de verhalen daarna meer tegen. Hij schrijft echt goed maar soms voelde het als meer tekst dan echt nodig was.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poe was born in 1809 and was orphaned at the age 3. He became the foster child of John Allan, a wealthy Virginian tobacco exporter. He studied at a private school in England, but went to college at the University of Virginia. He died at age 40, two years after his wife. Well, with my first Poe concluded, I feel it left me feeling.. hmm, a bit lethargic and luke warm. Great Tales contains 5 stories; of which only 1 thrilled me. The cover image relates to the story The Black Cat (except it's not missing an eye) which succeeded in producing in me shock and horror. A man slowly goes crazy, his insanity initially sparked by alcoholism. He turns from a loving husband and animal lover to murderer: gauging out his cats eye, and hanging it from a tree, and splitting his wife's head open with an axe (when she tries to stop him from killing yet another cat). At one point he is awoken with his house on fire, as the rubble settles there is an imprint on the stones above where the head of his bed was, an imprint of a solid black cat with a noose around his neck, (the only difference being a small white patch on his chest). As he touches the image the cat comes to life. The cat proves to be haunting, following him everywhere, tripping him on the stairs, climbing up to his chest while he's walking, and waking him out of slumber to find the cat on his face and difficult to remove. As time goes on the cats white chest patch grows into the shape of the gallows. Which is the mans end when the police hear the cat crying in the cellar wall, and upon opening it, Find the encased body of his wife and the live cat. Now, that's a great spooky Halloween story! It's to bad the others in the book weren't written in the same vain.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of some of Poe's short horror stories. I will say pretty much what I always say when I review a book of short stories – it varied for me, depending on the story. I liked some, some were o.k., I was bored by some. In this case, I had read a few before (The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum), and mostly liked those better than the others, with one exception. Probably my favourite story in the book was Hop-Frog, which I'd never read before. Most of the others, though, were forgettable for me. Overall, I'd say “o.k.”

[ChrisDuke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book because I was reading What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher and wanted to compare the original Fall of the House of Usher to her version. I subsequently picked it up and put it down over time.
I realized I needed to occupy a certain frame of mind to really appreciate the language of E.A. Poe. It’s not just a book you can FALL into and lose yourself.
That being said, I understand why so many people point to him as the father of modern horror stories

[Carlena · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compilation of short stories from Edgar Allan Poe. Some were of course fairly good. Some of them I did not care for. I really did not care for "The Black Cat." Trigger warning. I don't like reading about killing a cat.⚠️

[Kevin Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 star material, with a fine introduction, but loses a point because there are many more thorough and easily available collections of Poe out there. Classic vintage cover and aesthetic, tho.

[Bo Pickett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edgar Allan P-Overrated!

[Lucille Ancrath · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a long time to finish these and I'm honestly not a fan. The way he describes the events is just kind of weird to me, it's like I'm reading a medical journal with step by step instructions. It's all very precise and well said, but my mind kept drifting away.

As far as creepy tales go, I much prefer H.P.Lovecraft's descriptions and suspense building.

[Mohamad Jaber · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Darkness, decay and the red death held illimitable dominion over all".
A wonderful selection of short horror stories by Poe. My favorite was the mask of the red death although the brilliant gothic style with which the tales are written makes each one a hair raising experience.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

see the other review

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

ONE OF THE BEST STILL!!

[Dave Peticolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poe. Poe. Po-po-potpourri.

[Bookread2day · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the book Tales of Horror my favourite short story was The Purloined Letter.

[Heatherton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all of my Poe favorites, but a quick read for an Autumn day.