Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe

by Edgar Allan Poe, Edward H. Davidson (Editor)

Tamerlane --
Song ("I saw thee on thy bridal day") --
A dream within a dream --
"The happiest day, the happiest hour" --
Sonnet: To science --
Al Aaraaf --
Romance --
Fairy-land --
To Helen --
Lenore --
Israfel --
The city in the sea --
The sleeper --
The valley of unrest --
The coliseum --
To one in paradise --
The haunted palace --
Sonnet: Silence --
The conqueror worm --
Dream-land --
The raven --
Ulalume --
For Annie --
Eldorado --
Annabel Lee --
The bells --
O, Tempora! O, Mores! --
Alone --
Imitation (The first or 1827 version of "A dream within a dream") --
To ---
---
(The second or 1829 version of "A dream within a dream") --
A pæan (The first or 1831 version of "Lenore") --
Lenore (Intermediate or 1843 version) --
Metzengerstein --
The assignation --
Ligeia --
The fall of the House of Usher --
William Wilson --
The man of the crowd --
The murders in the Rue Morgue --
The oval portrait --
The masque of the Red Death --
The pit and the pendulum --
The tell-tale heart --
The black cat --
The purloined letter --
The imp of the perverse --
The cask of Amontillado --
Hop-frog --
The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket --
Letter to B---
--
Norman Leslie (excerpts) --
Drake-Halleck (excerpts) --
Night and morning (excerpts) --
Exordium --
Ballads and other poems (excerpts) --
Twice told tales --
The characters of Shakespeare --
Preface to The raven and other poems --
The philosophy of composition --
The poetic principle.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Fiction, Short Stories, Horror

508 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1956

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

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent selection of Poe poetry, tales, essays and criticisms.

Introduction, Edward H. Davidson - 3.5 Stars An interesting analysis of Poe's mind in formulating his poetry and prose as well as their construction. I didn't agree 100% with his conclusions but most of what he said gave me pause for thought.

Poems:
Tamerlane - 3.5 Stars
Song ("I saw thee on thy bridal day") - 3.5 Stars
A Dream Within a Dream - 5 Stars
"The Happiest Day, The Happiest Hour" - 3 Stars
Sonnet-To Science - 4.5 Stars
Al Aaraaf - 2.5 Stars
Romance - 4 Stars
Fairy-Land - 4 Stars
To Helen - 4 Stars
Lenore (1845) - 4.5 Stars
Israfel - 3.5 Stars
The City in the Sea - 5 Stars
The Sleeper - 5 Stars
The Valley of Unrest - 4.5 Stars
The Coliseum - 4 Stars
To One in Paradise - 4.5 Stars
The Haunted Palace - 5 Stars
Sonnet-Silence - 4.5 Stars
The Conqueror Worm - 4 Stars
Dream Land - 4.5 Stars
The Raven - 5 Stars
Ulalume - 4 Stars
For Annie - 4 Stars
Eldorado - 5 Stars
Annabel Lee - 5 Stars
The Bells - 5 Stars

Poetic Appendix:
O, Tempura! O, Mores! - 3 Stars
Alone - 4 Stars [Boy you really can feel Poe's depth of sadness in the lines of this poem]. This 22-line poem was composed in 1829 and left untitled and unpublished during Poe’s lifetime. The original manuscript was signed "E. A. Poe" and dated March 17, 1829. In February of that year, Poe's foster mother Francis Allan had died.

Imitation (The first of 1827 version of "A Dream Within a Dream") - 3.5 Stars
To - - (The second of 1829 version of "A Dream Within a Dream") - 3. 5 Stars
A Pæan (The first or 1831 version of Lenore) - 3.5 Stars
Lenore (Intermediate or 1843 version) - 4 Stars

Tales:
Metzengerstein - 4 Stars
The Assignation - 5 Stars
Ligeia - 5 Stars
The Fall of the House of Usher - 5 Stars
William Wilson - 5 Stars
The Man of the Crowd - 5 Stars
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - 5 Stars
The Oval Portrait - 4 Stars
The Masque of the Red Death - 5 Stars
The Pit and the Pendulum - 5 Stars
The Tell-Tale Heart - 5 Stars
The Black Cat - 5 Stars
The Purloined Letter -4 Stars
The Imp of the Perverse - 5 Stars
The Cask of Amontillado - 5 Stars
Hop-Frog - 5 Stars

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - 5 Stars

Essays and Criticism:
Letter to B - 3.5 Stars

Norman Leslie (excerpts) - 5 Stars Poe's full lambasting review can be found at https://www.eapoe.org/works/criticsm/... This review was just such a great lampooning of Mr. Theodore Fay's novel Norman Leslie that it would have been worthy of a Saturday Night Live skit.

Drake-Halleck (excerpts) - 3 Stars for excerpt. In full version form this review is long and the excerpt given here really doesn't do it justice. Poe's full review can be found at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/POE... here Poe critiques Drake's The Culprit Fay and Halleck's Alnwick Castle. Poe just doesn't naysay these poet's works he also gives constructive criticism why they don't measure up and how to improve them.
4.5 Stars for the full version . "In April 1836, Edgar Allan Poe published a review of their work–known to Poe scholars as The Drake-Halleck Review– in the Southern Literary Messenger criticizing both, though he thought Drake the better of the two." Frank, Frederick S. (1997). The Poe Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. (17)

Night and Morning (excerpts) - 5 Stars

Exordium - 5 Stars
Ballards and Other Poems (excerpts) - 4 Stars A review of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's book Ballards and Other Poems

Twice-Told Tales - 4 Stars Review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's collection of short stories.

The Characters of Shakespeare - 4 Stars Poe wrote a very favorable review of this book by William Hazlitt. He agreed with Hazlett's view of not confusing a character in reality with a fictitious one created by the author. Edgar Allan Poe acknowledges a "radical error" that is not often mentioned in the teachings of Shakespeare. This "error" is discussing Shakespeare’s characters and accounting for their actions as if they had actually existed in real life. Poe writes "we talk of Hamlet the man, instead of Hamlet the dramatic persona—of Hamlet that God, in place of Hamlet that Shakespeare, created." (451)

Preface to The Raven and Other Poems -5 Stars Poe's own quote from this Preface: "With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence; they must not--they cannot at will be excited with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind." (vii)

The Philosophy of Composition - 5 Stars
The Poetic Principle - 5 Stars

[Sarah Staszkiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love Poe's works! For a while I had some of his poems framed up on my walls. My favourite has got to be Annabel Lee. I enjoyed each of his tales as well, laced with so much cleverness and humour as well as the dark themes that he's known for! I own several different collections of his that I picked up before finding a complete collection!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't read all of this -- skipped Arthur Gordon Pym and most of the poetry, except for Tamerlane, the Raven, and Annabel Lee. Read all of the short stories and a few of the essays, which were consistently a delight. There's just something about his prose's unabashed extravagance that I find so endearing and so much fun to read.

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed the poems and short stories as well as one particular essay - poe is a joy to read. that being said i didn't particularly care for the narrative of arthur gordon pym, and some of the essays and criticisms were a bit redundant and became a bit of a slog to get through at the end

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition was edited by David Galloway, first published in 1967. It includes several of Poe's most read poems, The Raven, The Bells, and To Helen (to name three). The Tales in this collection include, The Fall Of The House Of Usher and The Murders In The Rue Morgue. There are Essays & Reviews in this book of 514 pages.