All About Books discussion
This topic is about
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales
Readalongs
>
All Hallows Read Readalong The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe (Amber, Denise ,Tracey, Charbel, Faye, Pam, Katy and anyone else who wants to join) Oct 20-31
date
newest »
newest »
message 151:
by
Amber
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Oct 30, 2013 08:53AM
Pit and the pendulum was actually set during the inquisition. :-) okay back to a narrative of A. Gordon pym. I'll have a full review on this collection posted later but the story I'm reading right now is pretty good about pirates commandeering a whaling vessel and two friends who survive the murderous pirates. I hope to finish this one by halloween but we'll see what happens.
reply
|
flag
I'll join in with a continued Poe readalong. :)I'm halfway through Pym right now. I have to admit, I didn't enjoy reading such a detailed account of being trapped below decks in a confined and stinky space while the ship was being tossed about in a storm! Sometimes Poe's gift for description isn't such a good thing, heh.
okay awesome Faye, you ladies have fun with your continued Poe readalong. ^_^
I just realized something - while reading Pym, the narrator's voice in my head is Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) from Once Upon a Time, LOL! His way of speaking is quite similar to the voice Poe has given his main character, so it just kind of... happened. And I'm rather enjoying it, honestly. ;)
Awesome Faye. I love once upon a time! And he'd def be good at reciting poe. I'm still enjoying pym too. While I'm reading this one, I hear neil gaiman's voice narrating the tale. :-) I read up to chap 15 today and I'm going to read more tonight. I'm on pg. 310 of 381 of this tale anyway and pym started on pg. 200 in my edition of this collection which is 2006. Btw, this tale is scary and sad.
Randomly - I thought it was weird when the name "Richard Parker" popped up in Pym, which is the name of the tiger in Life of Pi, and as I read more and more of this story, it's becoming clearer and clearer that a lot of the inspiration for Pi came from Pym. I just looked it up, and sure enough, Pym has inspired a lot of novels (or at least spawned a whole lot of references) since it was first written. Cool!
Cool Faye! :-) I never knew that.
Happy Halloween, kittens! ;-)Best from
Portia
Happy Halloween to you too Portia and all hallow's read too! ^_^ Enjoy your Poe reading everyone! I am going to try to finish A Narrative of A. Gordon Pym by Halloween night. I'm almost there, YAY! It's 11 Pm central time here so it'll be Halloween morning in 1 hour in TN, USA.
Hey guys! I just finished a narrative of a. Gordon pym thus finishing this poe collection. The last story was a sad and scary adventure sea tale. I enjoyed it and felt sorry for pym and companions as they faced sharks and more. I'm about to rate and review this collection but I reccomend people check it out. I liked all the stories but diddling and the man that was used up. I hope everyone enjoy your continued poe reading! I had fun with this current readalong though and glad everyone else did too. :-) happy halloween everyone!
Happy Halloween Amber, and everyone here!
Turner classic movies is showing the pit and the pendulum tonight At 8 eastern time.
Cool katy but I don't have tcm. :-) and thanks jean!
My review is up! Enjoy. :-)
Well, I've just read the first 3, none of which I had even heard of!I was interested that "The Balloon Hoax" was exactly that. Apparently Poe wrote it as fiction pretending to be a newspaper article about a surprise balloon crossing in three days. I didn't really go for this one - it was far too technical for me, although I suspect any hoax is going to have to seem rather dry and technical to be convincing!
"Manuscript Found in a Bottle" and "A Descent into Maelstrom" were both what I think of as nautical tales, with Poe's extraordinary take on the form with his extravagant and atmospheric use of language. "A Descent into Maelstrom" has been credited as being the first SF story, but I think that's debatable. Both of these reminded me a bit of Melville's "Moby Dick". They weren't really the sort of Poe stories I like, but I can appreciate their power.
Thanks for recommending my review of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" Amber! As those stories are next I'm already a third through, so am gradually catching you up. Looking forward to the next three - I vaguely know those.
No problem Jean! I hope you enjoy the stories! Masque of the red Death is my favorite poe story in this collection. When you get to a narrative of a. Gordon Pym, that one is a nautical adventure horror tale too. It took me a while to get through it but enjoyed that one. I liked all of them except for diddling and the man that was used up though.
I don't know those two either but I'm looking forward to the next three. Glad you're still around on the thread Amber!
I'm posting from time to time now on here and will pop in here to see how you guys are enjoying the fall of the house of usher and other tales. I know you ladies will be reading other Poe collections though. ^_^ I'm still reading on Deception by C.J. Redwine which I hope to finish soon cuz it is due back to the ebooks library in a few days and I want to check out this book my mom got in the mail recently called Through the Zombie Glass which is An Alice in Wonderland story with zombies in it so I hope its good. If it turns out to be a pretty good read, I'll go back and get the first one called Alice in Zombieland since the one we got is book two. But Poe was a good choice for All Hallow's Read this year though.
Yes, it definitely was :)
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym - Novel format wasn't Poe's strong suit, I have to say. This read like 3 short stories that he attempted to meld together with some pretty boring exposition to fill in the gaps. There were parts of it that I enjoyed, but on the whole it was a struggle to get through it. The ending fizzled out in a rather ridiculous way, as though Poe got as tired of writing the story as I was of reading it and didn't know how else to stop.Like I mentioned earlier, though, it was cool to pick out some of the stories it has inspired in later years - Life of Pi was pretty obvious, but there was also brief mention of the real life event that inspired Jules Verne's Mysterious Island, which was interesting.
Right, I'm forging ahead with these now and am about halfway through. I missed out the 2 I've read recently, so today read 3 I think are classic Poe - "The Black Cat", "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum". "The Black Cat" was a really horrible and effective story about guilt and madness - incredibly unsettling. The other two I enjoyed so much that I've written reviews. I'm doing them one at a time while they're fresh in my mind, and will post them all on my shelf at the end.
Two more good ones tomorrow, including your favourite, Amber!
Awesome Jean. I hope you have fun reading them all! ^_^ If you get a chance, on youtube this filmmaker from Austrailia named Mat tyler Rhoon did a pretty good short film on the Masque of the red death which was in two parts and it was very well done. enjoy! here's pt 1 of 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv2qL-...
Thank you, Amber! I'll read it first, as I like to do it that way round. Even if I'm listening to a dramatisation at the same time I read first, then listen to that bit afterwards. And "The Masque of the Red Death" is one where I don't know the story but know OF it so am really looking forward to it :)
awesome and no problem Jean. ^_^
read masque of the red death a couple of days ago was really weird good weird though. oh and he 'paints' this one beautifully.
Yes he does Tracey. That's why that story is my favorite of his. :)
One more to go! I've put up three reviews of stories I reviewed separately, and will finish the collection shortly. Then on to a couple of others. Tracey has suggested "The Premature Burial" and I think Heather and Faye might have ideas too, have you?By the way, Heather, I didn't care for "The Assignation" either, but I think the significance of the baby was (view spoiler) So just a device really, which served the double purpose of grabbing the reader's attention at the start.
Jean wrote: "One more to go! I've put up three reviews of stories I reviewed separately, and will finish the collection shortly. Then on to a couple of others. Tracey has suggested "The Premature Burial" and I think Heather and Faye might have ideas too, have you?"Yes! I recommended these a little while back -
Some Words With a Mummy (which is HILARIOUS), William Wilson, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (also hilarious), Thou Art the Man, and the uber-creepy The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.
So I'm re-reading those, and then I'll start on ones I haven't read yet. Starting with The Premature Burial, if that's where you're headed next. :)
Great, thanks Faye. I've heard of the last 2 but not the first 3 you mention, so it's a good mix for me! I'd like to add "The Imp of the Perverse" too, as that's one I want to read.Who else is in? Amber?
Hey jean, I won't be able to read any more poe this year since I did the fall of the house of usher and other tales for this year's all hallow's read read. My tbr list is growing and I'm currently reading through the zombie glass that is pretty good and I want to read the child thief by brom next so I have some books to read before my city of bones readalong in december so you ladies have fun with the continued readalong and I'm glad you are liking the stories. :-)
OK Amber - I do understand - it's so hard to fit everything in that you want to read! But thanks anyway for organising this. It's been great fun!
No problem at all. It was my pleasure and it was lots of fun Jean. ^_^
I'm back reading a few more of Poe's stories now the weather has got me in the mood *brrrr*! Have just enjoyedThe Premature Burial Who was it suggested that one? I was quite surprised by the ending.
I've now read Some Words With a Mummy, Thou Art the Man, William Wilson and The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Feather. The first two were listed as essays, not stories, but I'm not sure why. These were suggested by Faye.Is anyone there?? LOL
All About Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Some Words With a Mummy (other topics)Thou Art the Man (other topics)
The Premature Burial (other topics)
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (other topics)
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales (other topics)
