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The Tell Tale Heart: Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
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64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
1 person is currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,798 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 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 14, 2015
The Tell-Tale Heart is a story about an unnamed person who insists on their sanity after murdering an old man with an evil eye. The murder was cold, calculated and well executed, the body disposed; but the guilt slowly eats away at the person.
The story uses an unreliable narrator very effectively; driving the story without giving too much away, to keep it tense. The narrator is genderless though most people assume he’s a man, it could just as easily been a woman. The way the story is written, you can see the narrator slowly self-destructing; starting by insisting that they are innocent and sane.
I noticed Edgar Allan Poe seems to italicise words throughout the story – though some versions of the story put the words in uppercase. I gather it is done to add emphasis on the words but there is another reason why Poe used to do this. Poe used to italicise words that were foreign or words he thought he had made up or found another way to use the word.
The Tell-Tale Heart is a classic chiller and well executed to keep the reader feeling on edge. I’m glad I read it and it has given me some ideas on my current WIP.
The story uses an unreliable narrator very effectively; driving the story without giving too much away, to keep it tense. The narrator is genderless though most people assume he’s a man, it could just as easily been a woman. The way the story is written, you can see the narrator slowly self-destructing; starting by insisting that they are innocent and sane.
I noticed Edgar Allan Poe seems to italicise words throughout the story – though some versions of the story put the words in uppercase. I gather it is done to add emphasis on the words but there is another reason why Poe used to do this. Poe used to italicise words that were foreign or words he thought he had made up or found another way to use the word.
The Tell-Tale Heart is a classic chiller and well executed to keep the reader feeling on edge. I’m glad I read it and it has given me some ideas on my current WIP.
April 29, 2012
"No, no, don't fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. You should have seen me."
I read this one story after hearing a lot of appreciation for it. Lately I have been reading Edgar Allan Poe's one work at a time and my gosh!, the genius keeps on getting better.
Here he tells a story of a young person(gender is not mentioned) who kills an old man in a cold and calculated manner. The way in which the story is told is simply magical. I could not peel my eyes away even for a moment. There is a new emotion and aspect unfolding in every line.
The killer took utmost precautions while performing the murder and getting rid of the body but the heart (ah! you heartless bitch!) still tells the tale.
I read this one story after hearing a lot of appreciation for it. Lately I have been reading Edgar Allan Poe's one work at a time and my gosh!, the genius keeps on getting better.
Here he tells a story of a young person(gender is not mentioned) who kills an old man in a cold and calculated manner. The way in which the story is told is simply magical. I could not peel my eyes away even for a moment. There is a new emotion and aspect unfolding in every line.
The killer took utmost precautions while performing the murder and getting rid of the body but the heart (ah! you heartless bitch!) still tells the tale.
December 31, 2013
This story rest in the dark corners of the mind. I love Poe's expert use of darkness, space, and time in this classic tale. As you edge closer to unearthing the very thing you don't want to come close to, Poe shines a little light (tone, rhythm, imagery, etc) that gets the heart pumping, and allows little air to squeeze through as readers hold breaths in anxiety.
December 12, 2022
''The Tell-Tale Heart''(1843) by Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best horror-themed short stories ever written that will undoubtedly make you quite nervous.The story is about the conflict of the protagonist with himself ,who is literally mad, and has a murderous desire to kill his neighbour because he is psychologically disturbed by his glass eyes which never stops staring at him. For the narrator there is no problem about the old man except the disturbing vulture eye.He even likes him that's why he sometimes feels guilty himself towards him . The best evidence for this is the heart symbol because the heart represents emotions. The fact that the protagonist hears the old man's heartbeat much louder than usual indicates that he feels unbearably guilty and conscientiously uneasy. The story begins with the protagonist asking the reader a question by adressing to reader as ''you'' and it feels as if the narrator is having a conversation with the reader. I believe in this way Poe intented to break down the wall between him and his reader. The irony in the story is that protoganist proves that he is mentally ill while he tries to persuade us that he is not mad.Do you think someone who is sane would spend time convincing someone else that he/she is sane? While reading the story "Will the protagonist kill the old man or not" is the most fundamental dilemma and curiosity. I won't comment on this to avoid spoilers, but I believe the message we can take from the end of the story is that ''Sometimes you are the one who will bring your own demise even though you are very confident and think that everything is fine.'' If you fan of gothic works, i ‘m sure you will like this story that can be read in one sitting.
July 17, 2012
Again, skillful, crafted beautifully, work of art, love Poe.
August 26, 2014
Slowly Slowly, Steadily Steadily it reached out to me... It haunted me and I couldn't seem to mind, rather I enjoyed it thoroughly.
July 1, 2014
Los cuentos de Edgar Allan Poe siempre me han sabido más a suspenso que a terror; suspenso mezclado con comedia.
June 29, 2013
Aye, karma baby, karma!!
Bad things bite you in the arse, obviously and Poe describes it so well!
Bad things bite you in the arse, obviously and Poe describes it so well!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews