The Goldbug

by Edgar Allan Poe

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Horror, Fiction, Adventure, Classic Literature

76 pages, ebook

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

[Evan Opgenorth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story has been on my list ever since I read Kevin Mitnick’s autobiography. Highly recommended whether you want to dip your toes into cryptography or not. I laughed out loud at several points while reading.

[Yuan · Rating 3 out of 5]

edgar allan poe u racist mf

[Antonije Lazovic]

Nakon gubitka imovine, rezignirani clan bogataske loze sa svojim crnim slugom odlazi iz Nju Orleansa na zabaceno ostrvo. U jednoj setnji duz obalu nailazi na redak primer bube zlatnog oklopa. Igrom slucaja buba je pocetni trag velikog otkrića cije detaljno raspetljavanje postaje celokupni predmet ove price. Napisano je tako da mozes i sam da se smatras ucesnikom resavanja misterije, sto je detalj koji cini ovu pricu bez neke znacajne dubine prezanimljivom. Vise podseca na "verovali ili ne" tekst u politikinom zabavniku nego na Edgara Poa.

*niska ocena na goodreadsu je posledica iritantne navike americkih citaoca da cak i podaleku istoriju gledaju kroz moderne okvire drustvene pravde, pa su "mudro" zakljucili da je delo rasisticko.

[Masie Zasadny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Edgar Allan Poe in small doses (and this is coming from someone who owns a leatherbound Poe anthology). I love his writing and love Poe themed things. I once hosted a Poe themed Halloween party with the magazine I worked for in college. I love the show based on his stories, The Fall of the House of Usher. However. This was a lengthy read and felt like a lot for little payoff. I remember reading this and Treasure Island as a kid, loving both. Now, I feel that Poe probably wrote it on a whim. Nevertheless, I am shocked *spoiler alert* that nobody died. So much happened in so many words, but at the same time, I am still hungry for more. There was so much buildup at the end, amounting in...nothing.

[Tucker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disgustingly racist story with a bizarre narrative that falls flat because of a weak ending. Easily the most inconsistent thing about Poe's stories is the quality of their conclusions so I'm not really surprised. I have nothing nice to say about this story and it represents a low point in Poe's bibliography in my opinion.

[Gyda Mosbakk · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to force myself to finish this with the hopes of something changing my dislike of this at the end, something that never happened.

Poe is a good writer, but this was just really boring (and racist)

[Jen Hossack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Poe story but still, his writing and story telling is always so engaging.

[Aliyah Castillo · Rating 1 out of 5]

this was very racist, very boring, and overall not a good time

[Light Blue · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is probably the story of EAP that I like the least. Its racist, shallow and uncreativ. Was intriuged for a short time but lost interest pretty fast.

[Khitam · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
It wasn't what I expected.

[Taylor M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story. It was somewhat shocking that it didn't end terribly for the characters