Tales of Suspense

by Edgar Allan Poe

Tales of Suspense - Edgar Allen Poe - Illustrations Steve Salerno - THE WORLD'S BEST READING - The Reader's Digest Association -

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

271 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

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

[Ian Baaske]

How awesome is Edgar Allan Poe? Strangely, some of these stories are famous and I've read them a number of times, but others--not only had I never read them--I’d never even heard of them. I'd heard of, but never read, the two detective story precursors (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter”), which are amazing in how specifically they inspired this genre that will last for hundreds of years and dominates our television.

Poe's stories are wordy and have a lot of references to dark classics I've never heard of. I certainly wouldn't say they're easy to read, but they're not too terrible once your ear (er, eye) gets accustomed to them. The writing itself is pitch perfect.

The more popular stories ("Amontillado" and "House of Usher") get right into the heart of things. The less accessible ones start with long introductions on history or the science behind a topic. Despite being considered a master of the supernatural, Poe often offered a scientific explanation for bizarre phenomena.

When I was 14, I thought "The Fall of the House of Usher" was about as good as it gets. I'm 40 now and feel about the same way.

[Jurga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in 2010 out of pure curiosity who is this writer. now after a decade Poe is my favourite. not all shall find compatibility with his talent and sadness.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poe is interesting. His stories seem to be platforms for him to flesh out various psychologies (most of which that lead to murder). Some of those stories are more fun than others. This is kind of fun bedtime reading.

[s.e · Rating 2 out of 5]

abandoned at about 16%, 2/19 stories

Well, I only read about 2 stories before I quit which is kind of pathetic, but I didn't think Edgar Allen Poe would really be something I'd be interested in, and I was right- I'm not normally one for horror, mystery, or poetry.

I only read it because I decided I should probably get into the spooky spirit, seeing as it was the day before Halloween and all.

Even with all that being said, I didn't hate the first two stories I read- They were nice, just not my thing.

The Pit and the Pendulum- Pretty spooky, just kind of a dumb story? The part where he got all the rats to join in the fun was pretty cool, but the ending was unexpected because it was was what was expected. One thing I liked was the kind of gloomy contrast between the unspeakably-evil pit and the kind of divine, ever-swinging pendulum- It made for interesting symbolism at least.

Fall of the House of Usher- This one was actually pretty cool. Usher as a character was really pretty cool, and this also afforded the use of first person peripheral, one of my very favorite narrative structures. Usher's actual house, the second part of the title, was also a really cool setting.

I had to look up what a tarn was though- I thought it was a type of rain barrel?? Made it a little confusing at the end when the housefell into it.

Well even though I said Usher was pretty cool, he was a shit show of a human being, some of it not his fault but some of it his fault. Way to go, keeping your sister locked up in the basement even though you could hear she was alive. We love to see it!

My favorite part was when the narrator, in the span of like half a page, just decided to blast out of there as fast as he could. Yeah, this was actually a pretty great story.

But overall, I don't want to get stuck up on a book I didn't feel like reading, especially with midterms and such coming up. Sorry Edgar Allen Poe, it's an Edgar Allen no from me :(

[Lex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually really enjoy classic literature, however, I struggled with this one. I don't know whether it was because they were short stories that meant I couldn't fully immerse myself and enjoy the tale or if the style of writing just isn't one I'm accustomed too. I did also find that there was a lack of suspense for a book titled "Tales of Suspense", a lot of them felt less suspenseful and more wildly unbelievable and random. It feels as though he relied on making the setting seem dark and dangerous more than the actual content of the tale itself.

In all honesty, I did struggle to read this book. Although with saying that there were some stories within that I did genuinely enjoy. "The Pit and Pendulum" is one of them. This tale, I felt, did what the others failed to do, it built up that suspense and played with the more psychological feelings of suspense rather than just placing the character in an obscure situation with some fog

I will say if you are well acquainted with this genre then you may very well enjoy it and find yourself immersed, however, if you are just getting into classic literature I do not recommend.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I’m not very impressed. But I suppose I should’ve known better since this is an American author in the 1800s.
The endless word babble that starts out nearly every story can put a man to sleep easily. Once the actual story gets going it’s usually more interesting but my god, the trouble getting there.

Of the 19 short stories in this collection I did have a few I enjoyed.
The Cask of Amontillado was great, insane and no answers, I loved that.
The Black Cat did horrify me in a way, but just because I hate reading about animals getting hurt.

The others I found more of a struggle, but each did often have its own certain imagery or intrigue to make it interesting. Just a lot of them fizzled out in the end, less horrifying unknown and instead just some coked out guy. Oh well. I understand at the time this was brand new and unique.

Personally, Poe strikes me as a depressed, mopey guy who likes to pretend to give in to his ‘perversions’ and has a great fear of death. Not someone I’d hang out with.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Favourite stories:
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Cask of Amontillado

Runners Up:
The Gold-Bug
Berenice
Hop-Frog
The Tell-Tale Heart
Metzengerstein

The first two stories I listed were amazing, but most fell flat for me, or at least didn't end as strongly as I had hoped. A lot of reoccurring themes too, such as premature burial, revenge tales and dead/murdered wives. I was surprised to discover that Poe wrote private detective stories more than 40 years before the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in print.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Cask of Amontillado" still takes the cake ("The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best as I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge."), but "The Black Cat" is also glorious. I had also forgotten how gory and sadistic "The Murders of the Rue Morgue" (jump starter of the crime/mystery genre) and "The Pit and the Pendulum" (jump starter of the Saw and Escape Room movies) were.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Just catching up on some Literature. I didn't actually read the entire book: just those that I wasn't as familiar with or which I had forgotten. I read the following:

--The Pit and the Pendulum
--The Murders in the Rue Morgue
--The Oblong Box
--The Cask of Amontillado
--The Black Cat

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the book, I used it to help gain knowledge and inspiration about gothic short stories. My only issue with the book is that I’m too much of a simpleton to fully understand most of the stories on the first read, which did affect how much I enjoyed the reading process, but that’s just a me problem so don’t let it discourage you from reading this book.

[Brett Bosley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthologies take me forever, and this was no exception. There's not a lot to say here - it's Poe. It's a stretch, though, to call all of these "suspense". Some are more of a proto-Sherlock Holmes. Enjoyable, despite some slow starts and inaccessible language.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read one story out of this book this year - The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Very creepy. No one's going to be hypnotizing me anytime soon.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Douglas Fugate · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of some of Poe's stories. I would recommend reading from The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. In that way, you could experience his poetry along side the stories.

[Alisha]

No rating

I legally cannot rate this book since I understood less than 5% of it. My small brain can’t handle the content of Poe’s writing, yet.

[Susan Devine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edgar Allen Poe writes so beautifully and his stories are creative and dramatic. Truly enjoyed reading this collection.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an admirable collection of Edgar Allan Poe stories. You get just about all the classics (Masque of the Red Death, The Gold Bug, Tell-Tale Heart, Black Cat, House of Usher, etc.) as well as some stories that, at least to me, were lesser known such as William Wilson, Hop-Frog, Premature Burial, Oblong Box, etc. One thing I found when reading a whole collection of his stories together is that I can dispense with the sometimes multi-page philosophical musings that serve as the introductions. Murder in the Rue Morgue is a great example of that, just skip the intro and start at 'The narrative that follows' and you'll be fine. Also when you read his stories all together like this you see just how much he wrote about being buried alive. I'd say half the collection involves that premise, with the Premature Burial actually giving a history of real-life accounts of this for the first 3/4. I can only guess that Poe had some personal event occur which made him obsess over this.

[Marrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating Clarification:★★★★

Favorite Stories:
The Black Cat
The Oblong Box
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Cask of Amontillado
The Fall of the House of Usher
Hop-Frog
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Tale of the Ragged Mountains

I love how much detail Poe gives these stories. You truly feel as if you are right there in the story. It’s amazing. His writing always makes me feel more a part of the story than anyone else’s can. I feel like a gothic heroine while reading his works. For the most part, I enjoyed a lot of these stories. However, I didn’t like the Dupin stories much. In fact, I disliked the one I read so much that I didn’t even bother reading the other. It wasn’t that the Dupin stories were bad per say so much as just bland. I also thought The Gold-Bug was a bit too long and over-dramatic. Outside of those stories, I enjoyed the rest very much and I liked re-reading some old favorites.

[Katerina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good tales, the horror is not as explicit as I expected but very entertaining

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

there's no denying that poe has a way with words, and that he's been HUGELY influential (a quick read of either "murders in the rue morgue" or "the purloined letter," and you'd swear you're reading arthur conan doyle), but sometimes he's a little TOO wordy and it makes him a chore to read.

that said, there's a reason that "the black cat," "masque of the red death," and "fall of the house of usher" are considered classics, and the question remains why others, such as "hop-frog" and especially the fantastic "berenice," apparently poe's first-published story, and a tales from the crypt-ish shocker, aren't more well known.

[Brooklyn Tayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second spooky book of the month done and dusted.
So these were really my formal introduction to Poe, and I found a few of them utterly bone chilling. "The Fall of The House of Usher" in particular was SO poetically horrifying especially, as I read it, it was like a horror movie was playing out in my mind (no I've not seen any adaptions, but I intend to.
All these stories were written with such powerful language, they're utterly brilliant and I can see why Poe stands the test of time and still remains a genius to this day.

[Doris Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of Poe's tales I really enjoyed. Of course, I liked "The Telltale Heart," recalling my high school days when we read it in English Class. I also really enjoyed "The Black Cat" and "The Mask of the Red Death." Some I had a hard time understanding and had to resort to Wikipedia to summarize. Bugt on the whole this book was a worthwhile read. He was a very good storyteller.

[Willow Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply a gorgeous read, like the literary equivalent or rich mudcake, but nowhere near as crass. Take care with eating too much at once, though, it will leave you feeling mentally full.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these classic dark tales many years ago. They are still gruesome and creepy.