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The Works of Edgar Allen Poe, Volume 4
Contents:
The Devil in the Belfry
Lionizing
X-ing a Paragraph
Metzengerstein
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
How to Write a Blackwood Article
A Predicament
Mystification
DIddling
The Angel of the Odd
Mellonta Tauta
The Duc de L'omelette
The Oblong Box
Loss of Breath
The Man that was Used Up
The Business Man
The Landscape Garden
Maelzel's Chess Player
The power of Words
The Colloquy of Monos and Unas
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
Shadow, A Parable
The Devil in the Belfry
Lionizing
X-ing a Paragraph
Metzengerstein
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
How to Write a Blackwood Article
A Predicament
Mystification
DIddling
The Angel of the Odd
Mellonta Tauta
The Duc de L'omelette
The Oblong Box
Loss of Breath
The Man that was Used Up
The Business Man
The Landscape Garden
Maelzel's Chess Player
The power of Words
The Colloquy of Monos and Unas
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
Shadow, A Parable
456 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1856
221 people are currently reading
1562 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,868 books28.8k 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 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 11, 2019
****The Devil in the Belfry: Well, the author opened up by describing a perfect little village where nothing ever changes and everything is exactly the same, and even as he was describing its quaint perfection, all I could think is that that sounds like a nightmare! Honestly, when he described the little identical households full of identical people all doing identical things and where everyone just sits around reverently watching a giant clock all day, the first thing I thought of was Camazotz, not paradise! (The next thing I thought of was to wonder, if every single household has exactly three boys with not a single mention of a daughter, where exactly do the wives come from? Do half the boys spontaneously change sex when they hit puberty or something?)
As a matter of fact, I'm fairly certain that this is a parody. I mean, what else can you call it when an odd little stranger wanders into a town of stiff-necked, plump, comfortable conservatives whose first reaction to change or progress or even the slightest little difference is to panic and scream "Stop, stop, STOP!" and causes the entire social order to fall to pieces by—*gasp*!—making the clock strike the wrong time? I wouldn't be surprised if the "devil" was summoned by one of the inhabitants who was desperate to get out of this dystopia.
**Lionizing: Maybe the references and/or the subject matter are just too dated, but I'm afraid I don't get the joke.
**X-ing a Paragraph: Again, it's clearly supposed to be humorous, but I just don't see the point. Did Poe have a grudge against an editor or something?
***Metzengerstein: Appropriately eerie and atmospheric in a very Poe style. It just didn't seem to have enough buildup.
***The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether: Behold, a super-accurate picture of insanity in which the one and only definition of "insanity" is apparently believing oneself to be something other than human! (Nowadays, we just call that "Otherkin".) I want to know: where exactly did people get this idea?
***The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.: Another satire. If I was wondering before whether Poe might have had some sort of grudge against editors and publishing houses, now I'm sure of it, because this is scathing.
***How to Write a Blackwood Article: Another satire, on (I think?) overly pretentious and/or formulaic writing.
****A Predicament: Okay, I'll admit that this one actually made me laugh. It's a clear sequel to the previous story, in which an amateur writer took the advice of her would-be mentor all too literally, and basically set down everything he advised her word-for-word while having not the slightest grasp of the larger meaning. My experiences in tutoring undergrads definitely lead me to sympathize. The end result is a series of descriptions of completely mundane events that are so overdramatized that it's hilarious, followed by a death scene that's so absurd it could easily have landed a place in the Darwin Awards.
****Mystification: Ah, this one makes fun of people who think they know a lot more than they actually do, and refuse to admit otherwise. I won't deny that was a pretty good punchline.
***Diddling: This would have been a lot funnier had I been able to misinterpret it according to the more... *ahem*... modern definition of "didling", which I did indeed do for the first half of the story. The second is just a bunch of long-winded descriptions of cheating people.
***The Angel of the Odd: Interesting way to get revenge on a skeptic who insists the weird coincidences never happen.
**Mellonta Tauta: This is clearly intended to be a satire of something, but it just does nothing but endlessly ramble.
*The Duc De L'Omelette: What. No, seriously, what is this even supposed to be about? I don't get it. (And all of the untranslated French that was thrown in certainly did not help.)
****The Oblong Box: Finally, we're back to the dramatic horror writing that Poe did best. There's actually nothing of the supernatural in this one, but it is a good buildup to a sufficiently dramatic reveal.
*Loss of Breath: Once again, this was probably supposed to be funny, but I was just bored. The narrator was yelling at his wife for no damn reason the day after their wedding and suddenly lost his breath and suddenly lost his breath so he couldn't speak at all—well serves him right! Everything that happened to him after was just completely pointless.
**The Man that Was Used Up: This one was just annoying. Reading it was annoying, and I find comedies that play up the protagonist constantly being frustrated in trying to get a straight answer regarding his man-crush to be generally annoying.
**The Business Man: More descriptions of swindling people, and I'm bored again.
*The Landscape Garden: Read the first page or so, and skipped over the rest. It's just another long-winded ramble on the virtues of landscape gardening (though thankfully without the scenery porn this time).
**Maelzel's Chess Player: Poe sure did spill a lot of ink describing various ways to swindle people. This isn't a story, and it gets boring, fast.
**The Power of Words: More navel gazing than anything else.
***The Colloquy of Monos and Una: No real story here, but nevertheless an interesting interpretation of death.
***The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion: Never seen an apocalypse quite like this one before, where instead of hitting the Earth a comet infuses the atmosphere with oxygen which causes everything to set on fire.
***Shadow—A Parable: Creepy atmosphere, but not much of a story. Very short.
As a matter of fact, I'm fairly certain that this is a parody. I mean, what else can you call it when an odd little stranger wanders into a town of stiff-necked, plump, comfortable conservatives whose first reaction to change or progress or even the slightest little difference is to panic and scream "Stop, stop, STOP!" and causes the entire social order to fall to pieces by—*gasp*!—making the clock strike the wrong time? I wouldn't be surprised if the "devil" was summoned by one of the inhabitants who was desperate to get out of this dystopia.
**Lionizing: Maybe the references and/or the subject matter are just too dated, but I'm afraid I don't get the joke.
**X-ing a Paragraph: Again, it's clearly supposed to be humorous, but I just don't see the point. Did Poe have a grudge against an editor or something?
***Metzengerstein: Appropriately eerie and atmospheric in a very Poe style. It just didn't seem to have enough buildup.
***The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether: Behold, a super-accurate picture of insanity in which the one and only definition of "insanity" is apparently believing oneself to be something other than human! (Nowadays, we just call that "Otherkin".) I want to know: where exactly did people get this idea?
***The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.: Another satire. If I was wondering before whether Poe might have had some sort of grudge against editors and publishing houses, now I'm sure of it, because this is scathing.
***How to Write a Blackwood Article: Another satire, on (I think?) overly pretentious and/or formulaic writing.
****A Predicament: Okay, I'll admit that this one actually made me laugh. It's a clear sequel to the previous story, in which an amateur writer took the advice of her would-be mentor all too literally, and basically set down everything he advised her word-for-word while having not the slightest grasp of the larger meaning. My experiences in tutoring undergrads definitely lead me to sympathize. The end result is a series of descriptions of completely mundane events that are so overdramatized that it's hilarious, followed by a death scene that's so absurd it could easily have landed a place in the Darwin Awards.
****Mystification: Ah, this one makes fun of people who think they know a lot more than they actually do, and refuse to admit otherwise. I won't deny that was a pretty good punchline.
***Diddling: This would have been a lot funnier had I been able to misinterpret it according to the more... *ahem*... modern definition of "didling", which I did indeed do for the first half of the story. The second is just a bunch of long-winded descriptions of cheating people.
***The Angel of the Odd: Interesting way to get revenge on a skeptic who insists the weird coincidences never happen.
**Mellonta Tauta: This is clearly intended to be a satire of something, but it just does nothing but endlessly ramble.
*The Duc De L'Omelette: What. No, seriously, what is this even supposed to be about? I don't get it. (And all of the untranslated French that was thrown in certainly did not help.)
****The Oblong Box: Finally, we're back to the dramatic horror writing that Poe did best. There's actually nothing of the supernatural in this one, but it is a good buildup to a sufficiently dramatic reveal.
*Loss of Breath: Once again, this was probably supposed to be funny, but I was just bored. The narrator was yelling at his wife for no damn reason the day after their wedding and suddenly lost his breath and suddenly lost his breath so he couldn't speak at all—well serves him right! Everything that happened to him after was just completely pointless.
**The Man that Was Used Up: This one was just annoying. Reading it was annoying, and I find comedies that play up the protagonist constantly being frustrated in trying to get a straight answer regarding his man-crush to be generally annoying.
**The Business Man: More descriptions of swindling people, and I'm bored again.
*The Landscape Garden: Read the first page or so, and skipped over the rest. It's just another long-winded ramble on the virtues of landscape gardening (though thankfully without the scenery porn this time).
**Maelzel's Chess Player: Poe sure did spill a lot of ink describing various ways to swindle people. This isn't a story, and it gets boring, fast.
**The Power of Words: More navel gazing than anything else.
***The Colloquy of Monos and Una: No real story here, but nevertheless an interesting interpretation of death.
***The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion: Never seen an apocalypse quite like this one before, where instead of hitting the Earth a comet infuses the atmosphere with oxygen which causes everything to set on fire.
***Shadow—A Parable: Creepy atmosphere, but not much of a story. Very short.
May 13, 2016
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
September 18, 2013
It seems that all Poe's most iconic stories came from the earliest part of his career. Pity.
October 16, 2018
The Devil in the Belfry 3*- The town of Vondervotteimittiss (wonder-what-time-it-is) which suffers from communal OCD and a extreme love of cabbages, gets a visit from a devil to stir up some trouble.
Lionizing 3* - This is one of Poe's comedic stories which plays on the silliness of words more than having a plotline which centers around a man who studies noseology.
X-ing a Paragraph 2.5* - Another comedic tale like before that is more word play, this one centering around writing articles and replacing the letter O with an X. It ends up spilling into the story.
Metzengerstein 2.5* - This one centers on a family feud where the main subject becomes obsessed with a horse that leads to his doom.
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether 3.5* - A young doctor visits a famous asylum to see its techniques only to learn that the system changed .
How to Write a Blackwood Article 2*- This was to be a guide on how to sensationalize a story.
A Predicament 3.5* - A continuation from the previous story, a young woman is trying to rescue her dog when she realizes too late she's trapped by the minute hand of a giant clock.
Mystification 1* - About two men arguing through letters about the rules of dueling.
Diddling 3* - The definitions and a how-to guide on how to run a scam.
The Angel of the Odd 3* - Another satirical piece aimed at a man who doesn't believe in foolishness, but is visited by a so-called angel who throws karma and irony at his choices.
Mellonta Tauta 4* - A woman is writing letters from her travels in a balloon to a friend in the year 2848, where she is comparing science and history, but getting it very wrong.
The Duc de L'omelette 5*- The Duc has acquired an ortolan for dinner (do not look this up if you're squeamish) and dies from choking. He is greeted by the Devil who shows him a wondrous apartment fill with art that belongs to famed, damned artists. He tries to make a bet against the Devil to win back his life.
The Oblong Box 5* - Our narrator is traveling on a ship from South Carolina to New York. On board is a friend, his new wife, and his two sisters. He also carries a long box which throughout several days, he grows more attached. Thinking it is some new art work, the narrator think his behavior is odd but it isn't until he later meets the Captain that he discovers the contents.
Loss of Breath 3* - A man, is hurling abuses at his wife after their wedding night when he suddenly loses his breath. He then kisses her cheek and decided to leave for the country where he finds everyone he encounters thinks he is dead.
The Man that was Used Up 3.5* - Our narrator visits his hero, a general who fought in numerous wars, who everyone admires. When he arrives to the house of the General, he isn't quite ready and finds that his war experiences have left hero in pieces.
The Business Man 2* - Another story about someone recounting the scams he has ran.
The Landscape Garden 2* - Poe talks about gardening.
Maelzel's Chess Player 1* - An essay on a chess-playing automaton which was in the news at the time.
The Power of Words 1* - Oinos and Agathos, two...angels, I guess, discuss the philosophical nature of the creation of the universe.
The Colloquy of Monos and Unas 2* - The two mentioned characters describe the love they have for one another, past the point of death and how they are alone.
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion 1* - Two...demons, I guess, discuss the aftermath of the apocalypse.
Shadow, A Parable 4* - This one practically drips with gloomy atmosphere and doom. A group of seven is hold up, possibly in a tomb mourning a friend and waiting for pestilence to pass over, but it is with them.
Lionizing 3* - This is one of Poe's comedic stories which plays on the silliness of words more than having a plotline which centers around a man who studies noseology.
X-ing a Paragraph 2.5* - Another comedic tale like before that is more word play, this one centering around writing articles and replacing the letter O with an X. It ends up spilling into the story.
Metzengerstein 2.5* - This one centers on a family feud where the main subject becomes obsessed with a horse that leads to his doom.
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether 3.5* - A young doctor visits a famous asylum to see its techniques only to learn that the system changed .
How to Write a Blackwood Article 2*- This was to be a guide on how to sensationalize a story.
A Predicament 3.5* - A continuation from the previous story, a young woman is trying to rescue her dog when she realizes too late she's trapped by the minute hand of a giant clock.
Mystification 1* - About two men arguing through letters about the rules of dueling.
Diddling 3* - The definitions and a how-to guide on how to run a scam.
The Angel of the Odd 3* - Another satirical piece aimed at a man who doesn't believe in foolishness, but is visited by a so-called angel who throws karma and irony at his choices.
Mellonta Tauta 4* - A woman is writing letters from her travels in a balloon to a friend in the year 2848, where she is comparing science and history, but getting it very wrong.
The Duc de L'omelette 5*- The Duc has acquired an ortolan for dinner (do not look this up if you're squeamish) and dies from choking. He is greeted by the Devil who shows him a wondrous apartment fill with art that belongs to famed, damned artists. He tries to make a bet against the Devil to win back his life.
The Oblong Box 5* - Our narrator is traveling on a ship from South Carolina to New York. On board is a friend, his new wife, and his two sisters. He also carries a long box which throughout several days, he grows more attached. Thinking it is some new art work, the narrator think his behavior is odd but it isn't until he later meets the Captain that he discovers the contents.
Loss of Breath 3* - A man, is hurling abuses at his wife after their wedding night when he suddenly loses his breath. He then kisses her cheek and decided to leave for the country where he finds everyone he encounters thinks he is dead.
The Man that was Used Up 3.5* - Our narrator visits his hero, a general who fought in numerous wars, who everyone admires. When he arrives to the house of the General, he isn't quite ready and finds that his war experiences have left hero in pieces.
The Business Man 2* - Another story about someone recounting the scams he has ran.
The Landscape Garden 2* - Poe talks about gardening.
Maelzel's Chess Player 1* - An essay on a chess-playing automaton which was in the news at the time.
The Power of Words 1* - Oinos and Agathos, two...angels, I guess, discuss the philosophical nature of the creation of the universe.
The Colloquy of Monos and Unas 2* - The two mentioned characters describe the love they have for one another, past the point of death and how they are alone.
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion 1* - Two...demons, I guess, discuss the aftermath of the apocalypse.
Shadow, A Parable 4* - This one practically drips with gloomy atmosphere and doom. A group of seven is hold up, possibly in a tomb mourning a friend and waiting for pestilence to pass over, but it is with them.
February 16, 2022
This volume was completely new territory for me with regards to Poe reading. A completely random and at times, less than interesting, set of tales, essays, and general writing. There was no introduction, which might have helped clarify what I was in for. I liked most of what was on offer here, with the most interesting (to me) being A Predicament. THAT was a weird tale for certain! A few of the essays I could have done without, but I persevered, and certainly feel I know E.A. Poe's work much better now for having taken on the reading of these volumes. On to #5.
March 26, 2018
The poorest volume of the first four.
July 5, 2019
This volume is filled with Poe's less famous works. It was enjoyable, but nothing stood out to me.
February 26, 2020
Waste of time
August 13, 2021
Mostly morbid and strange, but occasionally I found an enjoyable tale.
March 22, 2024
Some of his poetry is beautiful and definitely unique. For people who like poetry I would definitely recommend.
July 24, 2024
Really just 1 or 2 of these stories are worth reading, the others are skippable.
January 23, 2025
Enjoyable collection of stories by Edgar Allen Poe.
1. The Devil in the Belfry
2. Lionizing
3. X-ing a Paragraph
4. Metzengerstein
5. The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
6. How to Write a Blackwood Article
7. A Predicament
8. Mystification
9. Diddling
10. The Angel of the Odd
11. Mellonta Tauta
12. The Duc de L'omelette
13. The Oblong Box
14. Loss of Breath
15. The Man That Was Used Up
16. The Business Man
17. The Landscape Garden
18. Maelzel's Chess Player
19. The Power of Words
20. The Colloquy of Monos and Unas
21. The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
22. Shadow: A Parable
1. The Devil in the Belfry
2. Lionizing
3. X-ing a Paragraph
4. Metzengerstein
5. The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
6. How to Write a Blackwood Article
7. A Predicament
8. Mystification
9. Diddling
10. The Angel of the Odd
11. Mellonta Tauta
12. The Duc de L'omelette
13. The Oblong Box
14. Loss of Breath
15. The Man That Was Used Up
16. The Business Man
17. The Landscape Garden
18. Maelzel's Chess Player
19. The Power of Words
20. The Colloquy of Monos and Unas
21. The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
22. Shadow: A Parable
April 12, 2016
Included in this volume are 22 of Poe's short stories and they range from the sublime to the ridiculous. The stories themselves prove without a doubt of the imagination this brilliant author had and his knowledge not only of the use of language but also subject matter. Not some of my favorite works of his but none the less a wonderful collection well worth the read.
November 11, 2008
Here we have some criticism, some fancy, and a great look at how the Turk Chess automaton worked. I found the last bit to be totally relevant, as I'm currently loving the crap out of Jane Irwin's dramatised comic of the Turk's life and history.
June 30, 2013
One of the best ways to understand Poe's writing is to start with How to Write a Blackwood Article. Though the man has a reputation for dark and gothic, the majority of his stories are more about poking fun. My favorite in this volume is The Business Man.
June 4, 2012
I liked the x-ing a paragraph story in this but not a whole lot more stood out to me when compared to the other 3 volumes. But there are more than a dozen stories here and I'm sure some will find others in the collection to enjoy.
June 21, 2016
This volume was good. Probably not as good as some of the other ones. The short stories it contains are some of the lighter, more humorous of his tales. There are a few grim and gothic tales, but most of these are light-hearted.
December 27, 2008
P. F Collier & Son published a five volume collection of Poe's work in hardback in 1903. This is volume 4, with a frontspiece in color from a painting by Arthur E. Becher.
March 3, 2013
Volume 4 seems to be all the prose that didn't make it very far. I felt I was trudging through this one, and nothing really grabbed me. Very 'meh'
April 7, 2013
These stories were written by Edgar Alan Poe. What more needs to be said?
October 26, 2013
These were for the most part humorous works with macabre bits in some of them. I didn't much care for this volume.
July 23, 2014
If you know French, some of the stories are much easier to read.
December 27, 2025
Each is a favorite of mine. Oh, yeah!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews