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Tales of the Supernatural
A collection of macabre tales from one of the initiators of the detective, horror, and science-fiction genres A murderer is forced to reveal his crime by the sound of a beating heart, a mysterious figure wreaks havoc among a party of noblemen during the time of the plague, a grieving lover awakens to find himself clutching a box of his beloved's blood-stained teeth, and a man is obsessed with the fear of being buried alive—these are only some of the memorable characters and stories included in this volume, which exemplify Poe's inventiveness and natural talent as a storyteller. Immensely popular both during and after his lifetime, and a powerful influence on generations of writers and filmmakers to this day, Edgar Allan Poe is still counted among the greatest short-story writers of all time.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
5 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,821 books28.7k followersThe 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 7, 2018
Even though I enjoyed most of the stories, I didn't the book itself. This edition isn't fun having to go all the way to the end to find the notes...
Want to read
August 5, 2024DNF
I don't think Edgar Allan Poe's writing is for me which I'm really sad about :(
Struggled my way through 4 short stories.
I will read the four short stores I want to and return to the library.
I don't think Edgar Allan Poe's writing is for me which I'm really sad about :(
Struggled my way through 4 short stories.
I will read the four short stores I want to and return to the library.
May 27, 2014
Edgar Allan Poe's work, taken in toto in the collection (and despite the title), reveals him to be an author of great erudition (see the plentiful, and very helpful, notes in this edition!) and none-too-few contemporary scientific/philosophical interests on his mind — by comparison, the meddling with "unattributable" super-natural forces is kept to a very-bare minimum. (Think: "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" to dwell on Poe's preoccupation with human folly, over "scary ghosts" or the like!)
WARNING: This collection — like Mary Shelley or, say, Herman Melville — is (as they say) "pre-Hemingway," so the language in it takes some (initial) grappling with, and getting-used-to. (The stories, it would seem, ask you to read them along, attentive as you can muster, in one fell swoop; if you don't let the first three-paragraphs-or-so "wash over you," you won't click into it, I'd think!
My particular favorite is the one about the mummy, which not only sports a rigorous-and-barely-implausible reason for his awakening, treats us (in the bemused figure of the mummy) to a skewering of the Western Man's pride in his (women couldn't VOTE, remember!) accomplishments: a real "been there, done that ... glad to see you're coming along!" riff that, to my knowledge, was both accurate-enough (the Egyptians had figured a lot of stuff out, back then!) and relatively-unheard of in the 19th Century.
But who knows.
Maybe everyone was talking about it, and that's just been forgotten, too!
(BONUS: Check out Poe's displeasure with the "transcendental" movement — including, by default, such American Notables as Emerson and Thoreau — if you thought Venerables of any Age always saw eye-to-eye!)
Very interesting ...
WARNING: This collection — like Mary Shelley or, say, Herman Melville — is (as they say) "pre-Hemingway," so the language in it takes some (initial) grappling with, and getting-used-to. (The stories, it would seem, ask you to read them along, attentive as you can muster, in one fell swoop; if you don't let the first three-paragraphs-or-so "wash over you," you won't click into it, I'd think!
My particular favorite is the one about the mummy, which not only sports a rigorous-and-barely-implausible reason for his awakening, treats us (in the bemused figure of the mummy) to a skewering of the Western Man's pride in his (women couldn't VOTE, remember!) accomplishments: a real "been there, done that ... glad to see you're coming along!" riff that, to my knowledge, was both accurate-enough (the Egyptians had figured a lot of stuff out, back then!) and relatively-unheard of in the 19th Century.
But who knows.
Maybe everyone was talking about it, and that's just been forgotten, too!
(BONUS: Check out Poe's displeasure with the "transcendental" movement — including, by default, such American Notables as Emerson and Thoreau — if you thought Venerables of any Age always saw eye-to-eye!)
Very interesting ...
November 18, 2019
Tales of Mystery and the super natural is a collection of short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. The collection includes, The Gold Bug, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdermar, MS. Found in a Bottle, A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Purloined Letter, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial, The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, The Oval Portrait, The Oblong Box, The Tell-Tale Heart, Ligeia, loss of Breath, Shadow – A Parable, Silence – A Fable, The Man of the Crowd, and Some Words with a Mummy. This collection of Poe’s work is an amazing example of his writing throughout his life. This book could be well utilized in secondary English classes when covering short stories and poetry. Having students read a collection of an author’s works can give them an idea of how ones style changes over a lifetime.
July 12, 2018
Really really enjoyed this collection of tales by Edgar Allan Poe. While some tales were okay for me, the ones that scarred me for life were probably 'The Murders in Rue Morgue' and 'The Black Cat'. I flinched when I read those tales. I loved 'Some Words With A Mummy' because I found it fascinating and cute, a break from the dreary dark tales. Besides those, I really enjoyed 'The Tell Tale Heart' and 'The Ooblong Box' - the range of different mysteries and tales truly show Poe's expansive imagination. His prose is excellent as well.
August 2, 2021
I thought to give Poe a try as I love a good mystery and enjoyed Tell Tale Heart. I found his style of writing quite labourious and found myself skipping over things without realising. There were some stories which I really enjoyed such as 'The Oblong Box' and 'The Fall of The House of Usher' also I agree with previous reviews saying that having all the notes at the rear making you flick to and fro was quite annoying especially when I find it takes a while to truly get into a rhythm reading his work.
October 31, 2018
These tales by Edgar Allan Poe have a "Poe-was-the-dark-American-Shakespeare" kind of feeling. Beautiful language and deep mythological, historical and overall cultural knowledge are deeply perceived within the whole collection. Very adequate for the season!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews