Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

by Edgar Allan Poe

1st Printing - January, 194034th Printing - December, 196321 Tales and 34 Poems"Dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before"

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

Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

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

[Vishal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books are best enjoyed - and best remembered - when you feel them.

I just came across the very same edition on here that I first owned when I was 14, maybe 15 years old...and I remember a disbelieving, cynical (I believe they call them haters nowadays) uncle was trying to challenge my degree of understanding of the book. Apparently he couldn't believe that someone so young could enjoy something so profound. Ha.

It was then that I realised that even intellectuals can try too hard and one-up others, and therefore spoil the party for deep thinkers.

Although it's been a good 20 years since I read this, I can see where the seeds of my interest for the dark side (Roald Dahl, Southern Gothic etc.) were planted. The Raven gave me the chills and the fear of being visited by a big, black bird haunted me for days after. Till then, I had never imagined a more ingenious, twisted plot than that in The Tell-Tale Heart. And although I was to become a literature student, I never thought to analyse this further; I just let it seep into my subconscious and enjoy it for what it was.

Books are best enjoyed - and best remembered - when you feel them. Is what I would tell my uncle if I saw him again now!

[Mai]

this kind of reading is above me, for way smarter people so my comprehension was on the floor, will reread when im smarter. valiant effort by me but i like the poems!

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really enjoy poe’s shorter stories and his poems. there were a few in here that i felt dragged on and on and on though.

[Ahmed Khalaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you like dark horror and sad poems? Do you like scary endings and mysterious secrets?
Then you really need to read for Edgar Allan Poe.

[Mareike · Rating 1 out of 5]

1,5 ⭐️

Gar nicht meins 😭 Trauriger Weise hat mich das Buch so gar nicht abgeholt. Habe die einzelnen Geschichten als Lesungen gehört. Sie wurden sehr gut vorgetragen. Daran lag es nicht. Mir haben einfach die Erzählungen nicht gefallen. Eigentlich habe ich mich darauf gefreut. Ein paar der Erzählung kannte ich auch vorher schon und da fand ich sie gar nicht so schlecht. Dieses Mal jedoch fand ich sie nicht gut gealtert und grausam. Liegt fürchte ich gerade an mir, dass mich meine Herbstklassiker so har nicht überzeugen. 🫣

[Marsh "Bad Sci Fi" Bloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinged one star because the writing is pretty arcane. And the greek and latin references sprinkled within serve only to interrupt.

I was impressed with the breadth of Poe’s work once I read it one story after another.

There are two worthy sea stories: Ms. Found in a Bottle and A Descent into the Maelström.

[Baylee Swank · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t even finish this book. If you enjoy classic lit horror it may be for you. Personally, I did not find it enjoyable. It was difficult to follow and not scary at all. Hopefully someone has better luck than me with this book.

[Living Dead Person · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book for people who like short stories and poems. Very good writing.

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poe remains an immortally influential voice in poetry + horror. Thoroughly enjoyed rereading as an adult vs my first read as a sophomore in high school

[Jan Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few books saved from my childhood. I love revisiting it every October!

[Helene · Rating 4 out of 5]

mochte die gruseligen kurzgeschichten, die detektivgeschichten am ende eher nicht so, war viel "tell not show" 😅

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read any of Poe's work since high school (required reading in English) and I found it much more enjoyable this time around, especially since it's so close to Halloween! To be honest, I didn't read this book from cover to cover--the mysteries (Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, etc.) and humorous stories (The Sphinx, Dr. Tarr and Prof. Feather) didn't catch my interest so I stuck with the horror stories and poems instead. As so many people know, Poe's style is dark, haunting, and bizarre. One can't help but to question the sanity of the narrators and other characters. It says something about the author when, in ten pages or less, he can draw you in and send chills down your spine long after the story is over.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still own the copy I bought for high school English and that is now going back a few. I fell in love with the imagery and use of language, the atmosphere that his words seemed to build and flesh out. His was my first true exposure to darker themes and his was the first poetry I actually understood and enjoyed.

I admit his work is not for everyone, and I suspect they are better discovered as a teen than as an adult.

[Narzain · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was actually difficult to star-rate this book. The well-known stories are five-star reviews, but several of the others brought down the average, at least for me. Not that they were bad, but I just couldn't get into some of them. So, there it is.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for casual Poe fans. Includes some of his most famous and best works.

[Gumby]

i took a course called horror in film and story back in college. i read this book but don't remember anything about it. time to re-read.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

One can never read enough Poe. :)

[Kiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great collection, I didn't love all of them, and I definitely liked the poems much more than the stories.