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Forgotten Tales
Forgotten Tales
89 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1997
15 people are currently reading
149 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,803 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 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 12, 2023
To be honest I knew Poe was a legend and had heard about his dark stories.
This short mini collection of 86 pages comprising five stories is timeless. I can but help thinking about comparisons to Dean Koontz and Stephen King.
Themes range from an artist who is so engrossed perfecting the painting of his beloved as the model posing for him - that when he is finished perfecting she is dead. And others where people are mistakenly buried alive and another where the spectacles of a young man show up how his beloved actually looks to him after he has won her over.
A quick read - and possibly a great incentive to read more of his works for those interested in this genre.
This short mini collection of 86 pages comprising five stories is timeless. I can but help thinking about comparisons to Dean Koontz and Stephen King.
Themes range from an artist who is so engrossed perfecting the painting of his beloved as the model posing for him - that when he is finished perfecting she is dead. And others where people are mistakenly buried alive and another where the spectacles of a young man show up how his beloved actually looks to him after he has won her over.
A quick read - and possibly a great incentive to read more of his works for those interested in this genre.
March 30, 2021
Hardly the best of Poe, but still fun - if you're in the mood for Poe and don't want to revisit the more famous stories.
With one exception, I honestly couldn't have told you whether I'd read any of these before... and I'm doubtful whether I could describe them now, 18 months post-reading. Which may mean they're in a good niche: engaging but forgettable stories that can be revisited for atmosphere without memorability spoiling the details.
With one exception, I honestly couldn't have told you whether I'd read any of these before... and I'm doubtful whether I could describe them now, 18 months post-reading. Which may mean they're in a good niche: engaging but forgettable stories that can be revisited for atmosphere without memorability spoiling the details.
June 23, 2017
Forgotten Tales
By: Edgar Allan Poe
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
In an effort to read all of my shorter books, I started this one…. And I remembered why I fell in love with Poe.
I enjoyed all of the stories. They were all well thought out and were well constructed. And even for such short stories, I was still able to get attached to the characters and become invested in the plot. While all of the stories were similarly constructed, each was unique with very different voices and twists.
As a side note, I find that Poe is the king of mind f***s and plot twists! I didn’t expect most of the stuff that happened to happen.
I also enjoyed the organization of the book. I appreciated the thought that went into picking these stories, and I was happy that they were consistent for the structure. In this one, I also didn’t mind having the long stories in the beginning and then other shorter ones. Usually I would prefer a mix, but How’s stories are engaging enough for me to not give a crap.
While I will do star ratings for these stories, I will not give synopses. I don’t want to risk spoiling anything, and I feel that with these you will get MUCH more from them if you go in blind and form your own opinions as you read.
The Stories
The Spectacles ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Oblong Box ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Premature Burial ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Oval Portrait ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Morella ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Shadow ⭐⭐⭐
The Sphinx ⭐⭐⭐⭐
P.S. Enjoy the bonus gif 😛😛
December 23, 2018
This slender volume (89 pages) consists of 7 Poe short stories, none of which are of a quality comparable to his better-known works. Two of the stories ("The Spectacles" and "The Sphinx") are comic farces that rely heavily on the erroneous perceptions of the first person narrator. "The Oblong Box" is a more or less engaging mystery, while the horror experienced in "The Premature Burial" arises from the confusion of the protagonist. The remaining three stories ("The Oval Portrait," "Morella," and "Shadow--A Parable," more or less conform to the notion of a horror story, and "Morella" is certainly the best of the three.
The narrow and sometimes illusory distinction between life and death is a theme in several of the stories, an idea which is developed more fully and more frighteningly in some of Poe's other works.
The narrow and sometimes illusory distinction between life and death is a theme in several of the stories, an idea which is developed more fully and more frighteningly in some of Poe's other works.
November 3, 2023
I like to find a new Poe collection every fall as it’s fascinating to see what a particular editor will decide to include. Five of the seven stories in this volume don’t appear in any of the other collections I have so it was nice to have brand-new material to read. “The Spectacles” was actually funny rather than spooky, “The Oblong Box” reminded me of Agatha Christie, and both “The Oval Portrait” and “Morella” had that classic Poe level of eery disquietude.
January 17, 2018
Ok, so there's a reason these tales aren't often published. They're not his best stories. I enjoyed several of them, but I wouldn't recommend any of them to my friends. Basically, it's cool that I read some stuff he wrote that I wouldn't get to read otherwise, but it didn't change my life in any way. I mostly finished it for my TBR challenge-- January is about short stories.
July 15, 2019
I was hoping to be spooked, and I was not. This was a really underwhelming collection of stories that were neither scary or surprising. This was my first experience with Poe's writing, but I'll give him another shot with the hope that there's a reason these are forgotten tales.
September 25, 2021
There were a few of the tales I really enjoyed. I’ve seen some reviews say these aren’t his best works which makes me really want to read his other writings because I enjoyed these.
Some tales were funny and some were terrifying.
August 30, 2017
very complicated and challenging words, too sophisticated for my taste
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February 17, 2020I was disappointed in this. I get why they aren't often anthologized.
May 8, 2021
dreadfully boring and trite
def some Seinfeld Effect going on, either way twas meh
EAP’s language is mad flowery tho
def some Seinfeld Effect going on, either way twas meh
EAP’s language is mad flowery tho
January 4, 2025
3.5 stars! A handful of very short, macabre stories. Still exuding the essence of Poe, in their brevity.🐦⬛
February 29, 2012
Oh how I love Edgar Allen Poe!!! And it seems at this point, 10% into cataloging my library that this book has the highest lexile rating... over 1200. That ranks it at the same reading level as the Series of Unfortunate Event Books but with more evil and spine tingles. My son keeps asking me for higher lexile books and I just cant talk him into reading this one.
October 14, 2016
I love Poe so much. I was a little disappointed that these stories are not as amazing as his popular stories, but that's probably why they're not as popular. They still have that Poe feeling and crazy twists though.
December 20, 2014
it gave me nightmares. im not even kidding.
April 18, 2013
Very interesting bunch of stories. I loved it!
November 11, 2014
surprisingly more humorous than expected. ENjoy.
November 11, 2014
Not the best of his stories. The first two were good, and it went downhill from there.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews