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The Complete Stories
Edgar Allan Poe's gift for the macabre influenced Baudelaire and French symbolism, Freudian analysis, the detective novel and the Hollywood film. His psychologically profound stories, which comprise this book, represent the darker side of the 19th-century American sensibility.
955 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1845
1841 people are currently reading
11513 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
7,181 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 - 30 of 329 reviews
August 20, 2025
«Poe es el único escritor impecable que hay. Nunca se equivocó.» Paul Valéry
«Cada una de estas obras constituye una raíz de la que ha brotado toda una literatura. ¿Dónde estaba la literatura policíaca antes de que Poe le insuflara el aliento de vida?» Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
«Edgar Allan Poe fue el primero en darles ejemplo y enseñar un arte que sus sucesores, con el camino abierto y con su guía, pudieron desarrollar mucho más. Pese a sus limitaciones, Poe realizó lo que nadie había realizado o podía haber realizado, y a él debemos la novela de horror moderna en su estado final y perfecto». H. P. Lovecraft
«Diderot, para escoger un ejemplo entre cientos, es un autor sanguíneo. Poe es el escritor de los nervios, e incluso de algo más, y el mejor que yo conozco.» Charles Baudelaire
Podría citar decenas de frases de admiración de los más renombrados autores de la literatura sobre Edgar Allan Poe.
Y no es necesario agregar mucho más sobre lo que Poe ha generado en la literatura. Pionero en todas las áreas posibles, sentó las bases del cuento moderno, anticipó la ciencia ficción de H. G. Wells y Jules Verne, inventó el género policial (como siempre digo casi cincuenta años antes que el Sherlock de Conan Doyle), fue ensayista y hasta sorprendió a Albert Einstein por su proto teoría sobre el origen del universo desarrollada en su ensayo “Eureka”.
Fue un crítico literario despiadado, introdujo nuevos conceptos de filosofía y poseía un extraordinario manejo de conocimientos relacionados a la mitología griega como así también profunda devoción por la poesía.
Qué más se puede decir sobre su obra maestra de 1835, “El cuervo”. Hasta supo escribir sobre decoración de interiores. También escribió una novela. Sí, una sola, pero el solo hecho de haberla escrito lo define como novelista.
Introdujo en sus personajes el influjo de toda la introspección psicológica que luego Dostoievski volcaría en los suyos. Nadie como Poe para azotar al lector con el terror, lo macabro, el suspenso, el desasosiego y la desesperación.
Vapuleaba a sus personajes sometiéndolos a las más tremendas penurias y las situaciones más extremas. Podía incluir un poema romántico dentro de un cuento condenado (“Ligeia”, “La caída de la casa de Usher”) y aún así salía airoso.
Ejerció hechizante influencia sobre H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Wilkie Collins, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, George Simenon, y muchos más.
Algunos de estos autores hicieron de él un culto y lo tomaron como su maestro.
Todos los cuentos que uno quiera leer de Edgar Allan Poe están en este libro imprescindible, con excepción de “La aventura sin par de un tal Hans Pfaall” que por alguna razón Edhasa decidió no incluir.
Lo más atrayente de este enorme volumen de 1.015 páginas es que cuenta con la traducción que hizo Julio Cortázar en 1953 a pedido de la Universidad de Puerto Rico y por la que le pagaron... ¡2500 dólares!
La traducción le llevó más de un año y contaba don Julio que cuando tuvo que enviar todo el paquete a Puerto Rico por barco (recordemos que no se había inventado el fax aún), tuvo que sufrir, rezándole a Dios que el envío no se mojara ni se lo comieran las ratas, pero por suerte, todo salió bien y hoy podemos disfrutar del placer único de leer a estos dos autores a la vez.
«Cada una de estas obras constituye una raíz de la que ha brotado toda una literatura. ¿Dónde estaba la literatura policíaca antes de que Poe le insuflara el aliento de vida?» Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
«Edgar Allan Poe fue el primero en darles ejemplo y enseñar un arte que sus sucesores, con el camino abierto y con su guía, pudieron desarrollar mucho más. Pese a sus limitaciones, Poe realizó lo que nadie había realizado o podía haber realizado, y a él debemos la novela de horror moderna en su estado final y perfecto». H. P. Lovecraft
«Diderot, para escoger un ejemplo entre cientos, es un autor sanguíneo. Poe es el escritor de los nervios, e incluso de algo más, y el mejor que yo conozco.» Charles Baudelaire
Podría citar decenas de frases de admiración de los más renombrados autores de la literatura sobre Edgar Allan Poe.
Y no es necesario agregar mucho más sobre lo que Poe ha generado en la literatura. Pionero en todas las áreas posibles, sentó las bases del cuento moderno, anticipó la ciencia ficción de H. G. Wells y Jules Verne, inventó el género policial (como siempre digo casi cincuenta años antes que el Sherlock de Conan Doyle), fue ensayista y hasta sorprendió a Albert Einstein por su proto teoría sobre el origen del universo desarrollada en su ensayo “Eureka”.
Fue un crítico literario despiadado, introdujo nuevos conceptos de filosofía y poseía un extraordinario manejo de conocimientos relacionados a la mitología griega como así también profunda devoción por la poesía.
Qué más se puede decir sobre su obra maestra de 1835, “El cuervo”. Hasta supo escribir sobre decoración de interiores. También escribió una novela. Sí, una sola, pero el solo hecho de haberla escrito lo define como novelista.
Introdujo en sus personajes el influjo de toda la introspección psicológica que luego Dostoievski volcaría en los suyos. Nadie como Poe para azotar al lector con el terror, lo macabro, el suspenso, el desasosiego y la desesperación.
Vapuleaba a sus personajes sometiéndolos a las más tremendas penurias y las situaciones más extremas. Podía incluir un poema romántico dentro de un cuento condenado (“Ligeia”, “La caída de la casa de Usher”) y aún así salía airoso.
Ejerció hechizante influencia sobre H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Wilkie Collins, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, George Simenon, y muchos más.
Algunos de estos autores hicieron de él un culto y lo tomaron como su maestro.
Todos los cuentos que uno quiera leer de Edgar Allan Poe están en este libro imprescindible, con excepción de “La aventura sin par de un tal Hans Pfaall” que por alguna razón Edhasa decidió no incluir.
Lo más atrayente de este enorme volumen de 1.015 páginas es que cuenta con la traducción que hizo Julio Cortázar en 1953 a pedido de la Universidad de Puerto Rico y por la que le pagaron... ¡2500 dólares!
La traducción le llevó más de un año y contaba don Julio que cuando tuvo que enviar todo el paquete a Puerto Rico por barco (recordemos que no se había inventado el fax aún), tuvo que sufrir, rezándole a Dios que el envío no se mojara ni se lo comieran las ratas, pero por suerte, todo salió bien y hoy podemos disfrutar del placer único de leer a estos dos autores a la vez.
January 5, 2026
-IN LETTURA-
"Sognare è stato lo scopo della mia esistenza che per l’appunto ho trascorso a sognare."
"I pregiudizi dell'armonia di luogo e, specie, di tempo, sono gli spauracchi che distolgono l'umanità dalla contemplazione del magnifico.
- Senza Fiato (1831):⭐⭐⭐
Di quel tale che all' improvviso scoprì il silenzio. Tra citazioni e tanta ironia.
- Metzengerstein (1831):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Che la vendetta infuri!.
- L'appuntamento (1832):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Quando la prosa diviene poesia.
- Silenzio. Favola (1832):⭐⭐⭐
Il Demonio narra una storia di un altro luogo e un altro tempo.
- Manoscritto trovato in una bottiglia (1832):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Del mare nero e del vagare infinito.
- Berenice (1832):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Come lo spirito di un suono svanito, come lucente avorio.
- Re Peste. Storia che contiene un' allegoria (1832):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Della prosa e della sua meraviglia. Un goccio di troppo può rendere una serata interessante.
- Bon-bon (1832):⭐⭐
Del diavolo e delle anime dei filosofi. Troppi nomi per un banchetto.
- Il duca de l' Omelette (1832):⭐⭐
Risvegliarsi all' inferno e non conoscere il francese. Una partita a carte può redimere.
- Storiella Ebraica (1832):⭐⭐⭐
Un dono inatteso.
- Quattro bestie in una. L' uomo camaleopardo (1833):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Quando la fede rende ciechi.
- Morella (1835):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Un nome, in eterno.
- L' incomparabile avventura di un certo Hans Pfaall (1835):⭐⭐
Hahahhaha, anche no.
- Ombra. Una parabola (1835):⭐⭐⭐
Di ombre e di voci
- Lionizing (1835):⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Fum-Fudge si misura il naso.
- Le avventure di Gordon Pym (1837):⭐⭐
DNF. Purtroppo non riesco ad andare avanti.
- Mistificazione (1837):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Di duelli e babbuini.
- Ligeia (1838):⭐⭐⭐
La morte non può dividerci.
- Come si scrive un articolo "da Blackwood" (1838):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Geniale e divertente. Usate le sensazioni!
- La falce del tempo (1838):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Quando finirò di ridere, scriverò qualcosa.
- Perché il piccolo francese porta la mano al collo (1838):⭐⭐⭐
Un corteggiamento...particolare.
- Il diavolo nella torre (1839):⭐⭐
Di un piccolo villaggio e dell' abitudine
- William Wilson (1839):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dei peccati da scontare
- L'uomo interamente consumato (1839): ⭐⭐
Quando le apperenze ingannano...
- La rovina della casa degli Usher (1839): ⭐⭐⭐
Temi già affrontati
- La conversazione di Eiros e Charmion (1839): ⭐⭐⭐
A proposito della cometa.
- Il diario di Julius Rodman (1839):
- L' uomo d'affari (1840):
- L' uomo della folla (1841):
- Gli assassinii della Rue Morgue (1841):
- Eleonora (1841):
- Una discesa nel melstrom (1841):
- L' isola della fata (1841):
- Il colloquio di Monos e Una (1841):
- Non bisogna scommettere la testa col diavolo. Racconto morale (1841):
- Tre domeniche in una settimana (1841):
- Il ritratto ovale (1842):
- La maschera della morte rossa (1842):
- Il pozzo e il pendolo (1842):
- Il mistero di Marie Roget (1842):
- Le terre di Arnheim (1842):
- Lo scarabeo d'oro (1842):
- Il cuore rivelatore (1842):
- Il gatto nero (1843):
- La truffa. Considerata come scienza esatta (1843):
- Una storia delle Rugged Mountains (1843):
- Gli occhiali (1844):
- Il seppellimento prematuro (1844):
- La burla del pallone (1844):
- La cassa oblunga (1844):
- La lettera rubata (1844):
- Vita letteraria di Thingum Bob, defunto direttore del "Goosetherumfoodle", narrata da lui medesimo (1844):
- Rivelazione mesmerica (1844):
- Il sistema del dot. Catrame e del prof. Piuma (1844):
- Sei stato tu! (1844):
- L' Angelo del Bizzarro (1844):
- Quattro chiacchiere con una mummia (1844):
- La millesimaseconda notte di Sherazade (1844):
- Il potere delle parole (1845):
- Il demone della perversità (1845):
- La verità sul caso di mr Valdemar (1845):
- La sfinge (1845):
- La botte di Amontillado (1846):
- Mellonta Tauta (1848):
- Il villino di Landor (1849):
- Hop-Frog (1849):
- Di von Kempelen e della sua invenzione (1849):
- Come ci icsa un paragrabo (1849):
- Il Faro (1849):
"Sognare è stato lo scopo della mia esistenza che per l’appunto ho trascorso a sognare."
"I pregiudizi dell'armonia di luogo e, specie, di tempo, sono gli spauracchi che distolgono l'umanità dalla contemplazione del magnifico.
- Senza Fiato (1831):⭐⭐⭐
Di quel tale che all' improvviso scoprì il silenzio. Tra citazioni e tanta ironia.
- Metzengerstein (1831):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Che la vendetta infuri!.
- L'appuntamento (1832):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Quando la prosa diviene poesia.
- Silenzio. Favola (1832):⭐⭐⭐
Il Demonio narra una storia di un altro luogo e un altro tempo.
- Manoscritto trovato in una bottiglia (1832):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Del mare nero e del vagare infinito.
- Berenice (1832):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Come lo spirito di un suono svanito, come lucente avorio.
- Re Peste. Storia che contiene un' allegoria (1832):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Della prosa e della sua meraviglia. Un goccio di troppo può rendere una serata interessante.
- Bon-bon (1832):⭐⭐
Del diavolo e delle anime dei filosofi. Troppi nomi per un banchetto.
- Il duca de l' Omelette (1832):⭐⭐
Risvegliarsi all' inferno e non conoscere il francese. Una partita a carte può redimere.
- Storiella Ebraica (1832):⭐⭐⭐
Un dono inatteso.
- Quattro bestie in una. L' uomo camaleopardo (1833):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Quando la fede rende ciechi.
- Morella (1835):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Un nome, in eterno.
- L' incomparabile avventura di un certo Hans Pfaall (1835):⭐⭐
Hahahhaha, anche no.
- Ombra. Una parabola (1835):⭐⭐⭐
Di ombre e di voci
- Lionizing (1835):⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Fum-Fudge si misura il naso.
- Le avventure di Gordon Pym (1837):⭐⭐
DNF. Purtroppo non riesco ad andare avanti.
- Mistificazione (1837):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Di duelli e babbuini.
- Ligeia (1838):⭐⭐⭐
La morte non può dividerci.
- Come si scrive un articolo "da Blackwood" (1838):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Geniale e divertente. Usate le sensazioni!
- La falce del tempo (1838):⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Quando finirò di ridere, scriverò qualcosa.
- Perché il piccolo francese porta la mano al collo (1838):⭐⭐⭐
Un corteggiamento...particolare.
- Il diavolo nella torre (1839):⭐⭐
Di un piccolo villaggio e dell' abitudine
- William Wilson (1839):⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dei peccati da scontare
- L'uomo interamente consumato (1839): ⭐⭐
Quando le apperenze ingannano...
- La rovina della casa degli Usher (1839): ⭐⭐⭐
Temi già affrontati
- La conversazione di Eiros e Charmion (1839): ⭐⭐⭐
A proposito della cometa.
- Il diario di Julius Rodman (1839):
- L' uomo d'affari (1840):
- L' uomo della folla (1841):
- Gli assassinii della Rue Morgue (1841):
- Eleonora (1841):
- Una discesa nel melstrom (1841):
- L' isola della fata (1841):
- Il colloquio di Monos e Una (1841):
- Non bisogna scommettere la testa col diavolo. Racconto morale (1841):
- Tre domeniche in una settimana (1841):
- Il ritratto ovale (1842):
- La maschera della morte rossa (1842):
- Il pozzo e il pendolo (1842):
- Il mistero di Marie Roget (1842):
- Le terre di Arnheim (1842):
- Lo scarabeo d'oro (1842):
- Il cuore rivelatore (1842):
- Il gatto nero (1843):
- La truffa. Considerata come scienza esatta (1843):
- Una storia delle Rugged Mountains (1843):
- Gli occhiali (1844):
- Il seppellimento prematuro (1844):
- La burla del pallone (1844):
- La cassa oblunga (1844):
- La lettera rubata (1844):
- Vita letteraria di Thingum Bob, defunto direttore del "Goosetherumfoodle", narrata da lui medesimo (1844):
- Rivelazione mesmerica (1844):
- Il sistema del dot. Catrame e del prof. Piuma (1844):
- Sei stato tu! (1844):
- L' Angelo del Bizzarro (1844):
- Quattro chiacchiere con una mummia (1844):
- La millesimaseconda notte di Sherazade (1844):
- Il potere delle parole (1845):
- Il demone della perversità (1845):
- La verità sul caso di mr Valdemar (1845):
- La sfinge (1845):
- La botte di Amontillado (1846):
- Mellonta Tauta (1848):
- Il villino di Landor (1849):
- Hop-Frog (1849):
- Di von Kempelen e della sua invenzione (1849):
- Come ci icsa un paragrabo (1849):
- Il Faro (1849):
February 19, 2019
A motley collection of short stories from Poe (the complete collection!) – horror, suspense, comedy, detective, general life observations, even science fiction. At times the stories are too wordy, but Poe always entertains with his grand imagination. I greatly enjoyed Bob Thomley's narration of the audiobook. ♥
𝓓𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓪 | Instagram | Pinterest | ✿
𝓓𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓪 | Instagram | Pinterest | ✿
January 11, 2026
He desgranado cuento a cuento este trabajo de recopilación de los cuentos de Poe con una magnífica traducción de Julio Cortázar. Sé que hay otras traducciones, pero me consta que ésta es una de las más renombradas.
Me parece una recopilación irregular, no por la traducción, sino por la calidad literaria de la segunda parte.
Los primeros cuentos son extraordinarios, pero luego van decayendo y algunos de ellos son directamente malos o esa es mi percepción.
Según Poe, "Ligeia" es su mejor cuento. Siendo un buen cuento, no puedo discrepar más con el autor.
Para mi, cuentos como "William Wilson", "El gato negro" o "La máscara de la Muerte Roja", por poner algunos ejemplos, son mucho mejores, pero quién soy yo para dudar del propio autor.
Aún así, los primeros cuentos son tan buenos que quiero acordarme más de éstos que de los últimos.
He de reconocer que la segunda parte de este recopilatorio solo es recomendable para "frikies" de Poe. Los mejores cuentos son de lo más recomendable que se puede leer de Poe y de la literatura en general.
------------------------------
I have pored over this collection of Poe's stories, beautifully translated by Julio Cortázar. I know there are other translations, but I am aware that this is one of the most renowned.
I find it an uneven collection, not because of the translation, but because of the literary quality of the second part.
The first stories are extraordinary, but then they decline and some of them are downright bad, or so I perceive.
According to Poe, “Ligeia” is his best story. While it is a good story, I cannot disagree more with the author.
For me, stories such as “William Wilson”, “The Black Cat” and “The Masque of the Red Death”, to give a few examples, are much better, but who am I to doubt the author himself?
Even so, the first stories are so good that I want to remember them more than the last ones.
I must admit that the second part of this compilation is only recommended for Poe ‘geeks’. The best stories are among the most recommendable things you can read by Poe and in literature in general.
Me parece una recopilación irregular, no por la traducción, sino por la calidad literaria de la segunda parte.
Los primeros cuentos son extraordinarios, pero luego van decayendo y algunos de ellos son directamente malos o esa es mi percepción.
Según Poe, "Ligeia" es su mejor cuento. Siendo un buen cuento, no puedo discrepar más con el autor.
Para mi, cuentos como "William Wilson", "El gato negro" o "La máscara de la Muerte Roja", por poner algunos ejemplos, son mucho mejores, pero quién soy yo para dudar del propio autor.
Aún así, los primeros cuentos son tan buenos que quiero acordarme más de éstos que de los últimos.
He de reconocer que la segunda parte de este recopilatorio solo es recomendable para "frikies" de Poe. Los mejores cuentos son de lo más recomendable que se puede leer de Poe y de la literatura en general.
------------------------------
I have pored over this collection of Poe's stories, beautifully translated by Julio Cortázar. I know there are other translations, but I am aware that this is one of the most renowned.
I find it an uneven collection, not because of the translation, but because of the literary quality of the second part.
The first stories are extraordinary, but then they decline and some of them are downright bad, or so I perceive.
According to Poe, “Ligeia” is his best story. While it is a good story, I cannot disagree more with the author.
For me, stories such as “William Wilson”, “The Black Cat” and “The Masque of the Red Death”, to give a few examples, are much better, but who am I to doubt the author himself?
Even so, the first stories are so good that I want to remember them more than the last ones.
I must admit that the second part of this compilation is only recommended for Poe ‘geeks’. The best stories are among the most recommendable things you can read by Poe and in literature in general.
October 21, 2019
Sta ja da kazem sto vec o E. A. Pou nije receno. Bez sumnje veliki virtouz pisane reci. Apsolutno me je fascinirala sirina njegovog znanja. Neosporno je da su ranije ljudi mnogo vise znanja drzali u svojim glavama a manje na guglu i da je to znanje bilo stvarno i temeljito a ne povrsno i na nivou prepoznavanja. Jedan od najvecih ikada!
June 1, 2021
«Los límites que separan la Vida de la Muerte son muy tenebrosos y vagos. ¿Quién puede decir dónde termina la una y dónde comienza la otra?»
January 18, 2017
ادگار الن پو.. نويسنده اي با فضاي داستاني عجيب و راز آلود.
از سالها پيش با خواندن يك مجموعه داستان كوتاه از او به شخصيت خودش و اثارش علاقه مند شدم.
و در حال حاضر تمام فكر من متعلق به اين مرد است .
البته مثل همه ي شعر ها و نوشته هاي ترجمه شده ي ديگر ، ترجمه ي آن به اندازه ي نسخه ي اصلي اش جذاب نيست.
پيشنهاد ميشه كه شعر انگليسي آن را براي تأثير بيشتر از حس نوشته ها بخوانيد .
از سالها پيش با خواندن يك مجموعه داستان كوتاه از او به شخصيت خودش و اثارش علاقه مند شدم.
و در حال حاضر تمام فكر من متعلق به اين مرد است .
البته مثل همه ي شعر ها و نوشته هاي ترجمه شده ي ديگر ، ترجمه ي آن به اندازه ي نسخه ي اصلي اش جذاب نيست.
پيشنهاد ميشه كه شعر انگليسي آن را براي تأثير بيشتر از حس نوشته ها بخوانيد .
Read
January 14, 2020No puedo puntuar este libro por una sencilla razón: no lo he leído completo. Mi intención era hacerlo, pero creo que ha sido un error conocer al autor con una antología tan extensa, quizá debería haber empezado por otra recopilación de relatos que se centrase en los más famosos o relevantes, porque esta me ha abrumado bastante.
Cuando iba más o menos por la página 400 y tras algunos relatos que se me hicieron demasiado densos y me impedían avanzar con ganas, decidí leer DE MOMENTO solo aquellos más reconocidos, y mi experiencia con el autor cambió radicalmente.
Como en toda antología, hay relatos más potentes que otros. En este caso, unos me han parecido fascinantes y otros se me han hecho muy cuesta arriba.
Mis favoritos de los que al final he leído completos, son los siguientes:
- Sin aliento
- Morella
- La máscara de la muerte roja
- El pozo y el péndulo (creo que este ha sido mi preferido)
- El corazón revelador
- El gato negro
- El enterramiento prematuro
- El caso del señor Valdemar
- La esfinge
Al final mi primer contacto con el autor ha sido positivo en general, aunque no haya sido una lectura especialmente fácil para mi. Quizá más adelante pruebe con el resto de relatos que me he dejado por el camino, pero ahora mismo creo que no es el momento de forzarme con ello.
Cuando iba más o menos por la página 400 y tras algunos relatos que se me hicieron demasiado densos y me impedían avanzar con ganas, decidí leer DE MOMENTO solo aquellos más reconocidos, y mi experiencia con el autor cambió radicalmente.
Como en toda antología, hay relatos más potentes que otros. En este caso, unos me han parecido fascinantes y otros se me han hecho muy cuesta arriba.
Mis favoritos de los que al final he leído completos, son los siguientes:
- Sin aliento
- Morella
- La máscara de la muerte roja
- El pozo y el péndulo (creo que este ha sido mi preferido)
- El corazón revelador
- El gato negro
- El enterramiento prematuro
- El caso del señor Valdemar
- La esfinge
Al final mi primer contacto con el autor ha sido positivo en general, aunque no haya sido una lectura especialmente fácil para mi. Quizá más adelante pruebe con el resto de relatos que me he dejado por el camino, pero ahora mismo creo que no es el momento de forzarme con ello.
April 4, 2019
Started this last night. recently rescued I think. Needed something else to read. From now on I think I'll keep a book of short stories going. Or maybe poetry. This book has both.
The Telltale Heart - Amusingly creepy and funny. I think Michael Richards might have learned from this one!
The Masque of the Red Death - brief and morbid. Roger Corman somehow made a full-length movie out of this starring Vincent Price(of course) as Prince Prospero.
The Cask of Amontillado - already read a couple of years ago. Revenge is SWEET!
Metzengerstein - Got confounded by pronunciation(Poe's little joke on us?) of those German names as well as confused about whet the heck was going on. Something about revenge, transmigration of souls, a crazy-assed/possessed horse, a bad-boy Baron and so forth. Not my favorite so far.
The Pit and the Pendulum - Another re-read from long ago. Must've been in H.S. This is a good one with that rescuing, last-second hand of General LaSalle! So far I think I've read all of these before and the next one too - duh!
- the manipulations of the torturers are reminiscent of "The Hunger Games" and the arena.
The Fall of the House of Usher - This one supposedly takes place in Scotland and I will be reading closely to confirm that - it's in a trivia question. Read before fairly recently. So - once again I find no mention of Scotland in the story so I assume that Poe must have identified the setting as Scotland outside of the context of the story. The story itself is a bit problematic...
- Why doesn't our narrator persuade Roderick to take Madeline and get the bleep AWAY from that foul place???
- That narrator is Mr. Ineffectual on steroids - no help at all!
- The narrative style is more elaborate and "precious" that the previous stories, lending more support to the weakling friend notion. It also makes the story a bit less enjoyable to read.
- Fuseli - ?
- Poe glosses over the "is she really dead" question. Where's the doctor??? A little mirror held up to her mouth might have helped - eh!!! Was the friend(an ineffectual moron) as nutty as Roderick?
- Why does Roderick call the friend/narrator a madman? Did the friend even exist? If he doesn't then who tells the story?
The Black Cat - Not a favorite due to the cruelty-to-an-animal content - UGH! Our narrator is an unredeemed and nasty-crazy scumbag.
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains - A bit of a Rip van Winkle rip-off in this one. The story is strange rather than scary and what all it's about is a mystery to me. Diverting enough ...
The Oblong Box - A brief and creepy tale. Not scary. Nice writing about the trials of a ship at sea in "challenging" weather. A la Conrad ...
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Have only read the scratching introduction so far. All about chess, checkers, whist and ??????? Finished last night. I knew the solution because I'd seen the Karl Malden film version with a guy in a gorilla(oran-utan) suit. I might have seem the Bela Lugosi one too. M. Dupin is very Sherlockian ... before Sherlock.
The Purloined Letter - More from EAP about how to think super-logically(like M. Dupin). This one continues the Sherlocky stuff nicely. I read this one not too long ago, perhaps in "Fiction 101" ???
Ms. Found in a Bottle - A fantastic seagoing tale and much fun to read. Links to Coleridge and Conrad.
The Oval Portrait - A short short story with a philosophical message.
Berenice - Another buried alive tale(can't these Poe people find some way to verify that someone is REALLY dead before they go and bury them????) with a gruesome twist. I think I might've read this one before.
A Descent into the Maelstrom - Another intense, Conradian sea-tale, this time about a very real place in Norway. I looked it up in my Nat. Geo. World Atlas. The opening of it took me back to an unnerving experience I had while mountain- hiking in Colorado many years ago. Think you've had stressful experiences? Read this story!
Thou Art the Man - An amusing, if incredible, whodunit tale in which the reader suspects strongly(and correctly) all along who the killer really is. The fun is in the explanation at the end - ingenious!
Mystification - another amusing, lightweight tale of a boorish fool being made fun of and not understanding AT ALL. Good stuff by the ironic Mr. Poe.
The Imp of the Perverse - Introduction - This is a stand-alone piece, actually, and quite amusing and interesting. It's fun to read this stuff aloud and doing that will help in the understanding of it as well. Poe can be clear as a bell, if somewhat convoluted/archaic when he so chooses. At times he himself becomes a bit perverse and writes in such a baroque style that it becomes harder to read and difficult to comprehend!
The Imp of the Perverse - Another killer who can't keep his mouth shut a la "The Tell-Tale Heart."
The Premature Burial - A tale perversely both humorous and scary.
William Wilson(plus introduction) - An odd-one about a guy with a split personality(I think).
Ligeia - Filmed as "The Tomb of Ligeia" ... Creepy-crawly ghost story a bit reminiscent of "The Yellow Wall-Paper."
Morella - Another entertaining tale that dances around the same supernatural and death-focused flames of many preceding stories. I only read one a night lest I get bored with the sameness of them. The writing is always a treat but Poe's narrators are ALL tormented, unbalanced men. Like the author, I suppose!
Shadow: a Parable - more death mysteries ...
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion - all about the afterlife. I really enjoyed this one.
Silence - More of that impressively fantastic and imaginative prose. An inspiration to Lovecraft I assume.
Poems - all the big hits are here.
No problem rating this book a solid 4* though I do believe that people make the mistake of taking Poe too seriously. He can be pretty funny!
The Telltale Heart - Amusingly creepy and funny. I think Michael Richards might have learned from this one!
The Masque of the Red Death - brief and morbid. Roger Corman somehow made a full-length movie out of this starring Vincent Price(of course) as Prince Prospero.
The Cask of Amontillado - already read a couple of years ago. Revenge is SWEET!
Metzengerstein - Got confounded by pronunciation(Poe's little joke on us?) of those German names as well as confused about whet the heck was going on. Something about revenge, transmigration of souls, a crazy-assed/possessed horse, a bad-boy Baron and so forth. Not my favorite so far.
The Pit and the Pendulum - Another re-read from long ago. Must've been in H.S. This is a good one with that rescuing, last-second hand of General LaSalle! So far I think I've read all of these before and the next one too - duh!
- the manipulations of the torturers are reminiscent of "The Hunger Games" and the arena.
The Fall of the House of Usher - This one supposedly takes place in Scotland and I will be reading closely to confirm that - it's in a trivia question. Read before fairly recently. So - once again I find no mention of Scotland in the story so I assume that Poe must have identified the setting as Scotland outside of the context of the story. The story itself is a bit problematic...
- Why doesn't our narrator persuade Roderick to take Madeline and get the bleep AWAY from that foul place???
- That narrator is Mr. Ineffectual on steroids - no help at all!
- The narrative style is more elaborate and "precious" that the previous stories, lending more support to the weakling friend notion. It also makes the story a bit less enjoyable to read.
- Fuseli - ?
- Poe glosses over the "is she really dead" question. Where's the doctor??? A little mirror held up to her mouth might have helped - eh!!! Was the friend(an ineffectual moron) as nutty as Roderick?
- Why does Roderick call the friend/narrator a madman? Did the friend even exist? If he doesn't then who tells the story?
The Black Cat - Not a favorite due to the cruelty-to-an-animal content - UGH! Our narrator is an unredeemed and nasty-crazy scumbag.
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains - A bit of a Rip van Winkle rip-off in this one. The story is strange rather than scary and what all it's about is a mystery to me. Diverting enough ...
The Oblong Box - A brief and creepy tale. Not scary. Nice writing about the trials of a ship at sea in "challenging" weather. A la Conrad ...
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Have only read the scratching introduction so far. All about chess, checkers, whist and ??????? Finished last night. I knew the solution because I'd seen the Karl Malden film version with a guy in a gorilla(oran-utan) suit. I might have seem the Bela Lugosi one too. M. Dupin is very Sherlockian ... before Sherlock.
The Purloined Letter - More from EAP about how to think super-logically(like M. Dupin). This one continues the Sherlocky stuff nicely. I read this one not too long ago, perhaps in "Fiction 101" ???
Ms. Found in a Bottle - A fantastic seagoing tale and much fun to read. Links to Coleridge and Conrad.
The Oval Portrait - A short short story with a philosophical message.
Berenice - Another buried alive tale(can't these Poe people find some way to verify that someone is REALLY dead before they go and bury them????) with a gruesome twist. I think I might've read this one before.
A Descent into the Maelstrom - Another intense, Conradian sea-tale, this time about a very real place in Norway. I looked it up in my Nat. Geo. World Atlas. The opening of it took me back to an unnerving experience I had while mountain- hiking in Colorado many years ago. Think you've had stressful experiences? Read this story!
Thou Art the Man - An amusing, if incredible, whodunit tale in which the reader suspects strongly(and correctly) all along who the killer really is. The fun is in the explanation at the end - ingenious!
Mystification - another amusing, lightweight tale of a boorish fool being made fun of and not understanding AT ALL. Good stuff by the ironic Mr. Poe.
The Imp of the Perverse - Introduction - This is a stand-alone piece, actually, and quite amusing and interesting. It's fun to read this stuff aloud and doing that will help in the understanding of it as well. Poe can be clear as a bell, if somewhat convoluted/archaic when he so chooses. At times he himself becomes a bit perverse and writes in such a baroque style that it becomes harder to read and difficult to comprehend!
The Imp of the Perverse - Another killer who can't keep his mouth shut a la "The Tell-Tale Heart."
The Premature Burial - A tale perversely both humorous and scary.
William Wilson(plus introduction) - An odd-one about a guy with a split personality(I think).
Ligeia - Filmed as "The Tomb of Ligeia" ... Creepy-crawly ghost story a bit reminiscent of "The Yellow Wall-Paper."
Morella - Another entertaining tale that dances around the same supernatural and death-focused flames of many preceding stories. I only read one a night lest I get bored with the sameness of them. The writing is always a treat but Poe's narrators are ALL tormented, unbalanced men. Like the author, I suppose!
Shadow: a Parable - more death mysteries ...
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion - all about the afterlife. I really enjoyed this one.
Silence - More of that impressively fantastic and imaginative prose. An inspiration to Lovecraft I assume.
Poems - all the big hits are here.
No problem rating this book a solid 4* though I do believe that people make the mistake of taking Poe too seriously. He can be pretty funny!
June 12, 2021
Cuentos Completos.- Edgar Allan Poe
"Los que sueñan de día tienen conocimiento de muchas cosas que escapan a los sueñan únicamente de noche."
La presente edición de esta antología fue publicada en el año 2016 por la editorial Penguin Clásicos. La misma incluye 70 cuentos escritos por Poe (cada uno de ellos con una nota previa con mucha información sobre el cuento), una excelente introducción del especialista en la obra de Poe, Profesor Thomas Ollive Mabbot (1898-1968), una cronología detallada de la vida del autor, dos introducciones escritas por Poe para El Club Del Folio y Cuentos De Lo Grotesco y Lo Arabesco respectivamente, y por último, dos interesantísimos prefacios escritos por Charles Baudelaire para sus selecciones de cuentos de Poe editados y traducidos por él mismo al idioma francés.
Un libro con un contenido monumental y magnífico que debería estar en la biblioteca de todo amante, no solo del terror, sino de la literatura en general. Todos los cuentos que conocemos y alabamos, más algunos quizá no tan conocidos por el gran público, se incluyen en esta súper recomendable antología propuesta por los especialistas Penguin Clásicos .
Al ser un libro tan abarcador y por ende voluminoso, quizá al lector ocasional, o también al que se acerca por primera vez al autor, le pueda parecer un poco frustrante su lectura. A ellos les recomiendo leerlo de a poco, incluso leer primero los cuentos más conocidos y que están presentes en la cultura popular, y luego si, sucumbir ante la obra completa de nuestro querido y atormentado Edgar Allan Poe.
🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
"Los que sueñan de día tienen conocimiento de muchas cosas que escapan a los sueñan únicamente de noche."
La presente edición de esta antología fue publicada en el año 2016 por la editorial Penguin Clásicos. La misma incluye 70 cuentos escritos por Poe (cada uno de ellos con una nota previa con mucha información sobre el cuento), una excelente introducción del especialista en la obra de Poe, Profesor Thomas Ollive Mabbot (1898-1968), una cronología detallada de la vida del autor, dos introducciones escritas por Poe para El Club Del Folio y Cuentos De Lo Grotesco y Lo Arabesco respectivamente, y por último, dos interesantísimos prefacios escritos por Charles Baudelaire para sus selecciones de cuentos de Poe editados y traducidos por él mismo al idioma francés.
Un libro con un contenido monumental y magnífico que debería estar en la biblioteca de todo amante, no solo del terror, sino de la literatura en general. Todos los cuentos que conocemos y alabamos, más algunos quizá no tan conocidos por el gran público, se incluyen en esta súper recomendable antología propuesta por los especialistas Penguin Clásicos .
Al ser un libro tan abarcador y por ende voluminoso, quizá al lector ocasional, o también al que se acerca por primera vez al autor, le pueda parecer un poco frustrante su lectura. A ellos les recomiendo leerlo de a poco, incluso leer primero los cuentos más conocidos y que están presentes en la cultura popular, y luego si, sucumbir ante la obra completa de nuestro querido y atormentado Edgar Allan Poe.
🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
November 17, 2016
En este libro se puede disfrutar de lo que creo son todos los cuentos (67) de este genio del relato corto.
No solo hay cuentos de terror, que es quizás por lo que más se le conozca a Poe. También encontramos temas sobre el pasado y el futuro, sobre la metafísica o la presencia de lo sobrenatural. Los hay mejores y peores, como es natural, pero en general ninguno defrauda. Muy recomendable.
Puntuación: 8
964 pag.
No solo hay cuentos de terror, que es quizás por lo que más se le conozca a Poe. También encontramos temas sobre el pasado y el futuro, sobre la metafísica o la presencia de lo sobrenatural. Los hay mejores y peores, como es natural, pero en general ninguno defrauda. Muy recomendable.
Puntuación: 8
964 pag.
October 18, 2015
This guy. THIS guy.
August 24, 2022
Son 67 relatos de todo tipo: terror, detectivesco, humor y hasta filosóficos, hay auténticas obras maestras y algunos que son algo densos, esta edición contiene comentarios introductorios para cada relato, algunos muy enriquecedores, incluye la biografía de Poe por Cortázar. En general la edición es buena pero pudo ser mejor si incluyeran pies de página ya que hay varias citas en francés, latín y hasta griego, así como otras relativas a la traducción (Cortázar se tomó algunas licencias). Ha sido una relectura -los más conocidos- y un feliz descubrimiento de otros, en especial los humorísticos, tardé varios meses en terminarlo pero valió la pena cada minuto, ahora quiero más de Poe.
March 10, 2021
Mi hanno chiamato pazzo; ma nessuno ancora ha potuto stabilire se la pazzia sia o non sia la più elevata forma d'intelligenza, se la maggior parte di ciò che è glorioso, se tutto ciò che è profondo non derivi da una malattia del pensiero, da umori esaltati della mente a spese dell'intelletto generale.»
Questo libro appartiene alla mia libreria da tantissimo tempo e gli sono affezionata.
Una raccolta dei racconti del controverso genio della letteratura americana.
Re peste, Berenice, Eleonora, la caduta della casa Usher, I delitti della Rue Morgue e tanti altri.
Un classico da leggere e rileggere nel corso della propria vita, per farsi un'opinione personale di questo figlio d'artisti che difficilmente poteva affrancarsi da un destino di eccessi ma anche di grande talento.
"Nella mia infanzia mostrai di avere ereditato questi caratteri di famiglia; discendo da una razza che si è sempre distinta per immaginazione e temperamento facilmente eccitabile…»
Questo libro appartiene alla mia libreria da tantissimo tempo e gli sono affezionata.
Una raccolta dei racconti del controverso genio della letteratura americana.
Re peste, Berenice, Eleonora, la caduta della casa Usher, I delitti della Rue Morgue e tanti altri.
Un classico da leggere e rileggere nel corso della propria vita, per farsi un'opinione personale di questo figlio d'artisti che difficilmente poteva affrancarsi da un destino di eccessi ma anche di grande talento.
"Nella mia infanzia mostrai di avere ereditato questi caratteri di famiglia; discendo da una razza che si è sempre distinta per immaginazione e temperamento facilmente eccitabile…»
March 29, 2020
Este libre me sorprendió muchísimo la verdad si puedo decir que Poe si es el maestro de la descripción y terror psicológico de su época altamente recomendado de los cuentos que más me gustaron fue:
1.- entierro prematuro.
2.---Berenice.
3.- Corazón delator.
4.--Escarabajo de oro.
5.- El gato negro.
6.-El pozo y el péndulo.
7.--Revelacion mesmerica.
8.--Ligeia
Entre muchos otros más..... altamente recomendado.
1.- entierro prematuro.
2.---Berenice.
3.- Corazón delator.
4.--Escarabajo de oro.
5.- El gato negro.
6.-El pozo y el péndulo.
7.--Revelacion mesmerica.
8.--Ligeia
Entre muchos otros más..... altamente recomendado.
October 28, 2021
Cuentos clásicos de terror del gran Edgan Allan Poe.
Los leí por Halloween, y me sorprendí de la calidad de sus textos, así de sus historias, y como han sido adaptadas hasta la saciedad.
Maravilloso.
Los leí por Halloween, y me sorprendí de la calidad de sus textos, así de sus historias, y como han sido adaptadas hasta la saciedad.
Maravilloso.
May 2, 2016
Llegar a conocer la obra de Poe es como descubrir un cáliz sagrado, y aquel que se atreve a cruzar ese caudal desmesurado de genialidad no sale indemne. Famoso por sus cuentos de terror, Allan Poe, sabe llevar al lector por las distintas emociones; desde la hiel del terror hasta el humor sarcástico siempre salpicado por esa naturaleza imperfecta del ser humano. Su intelectualidad desborda cada línea de sus relatos llevando el genero del "cuento" a otro nivel donde pocos han podido llegar. Es y seguirá siendo inspiración para muchos y un referente ineludible para las futuras generaciones de escritores. Vale la pena destacar la edición de la editorial Páginas de espuma que con esta traducción de Cortázar y los prólogos de Carlos Fuentes y Mario Vargas Llosa ( estandartes de "boom latinoamericano" ) además de otras colaboraciones, lograron crear un ejemplar que vale la pena conservar para leer una y otra vez.
September 1, 2024
Sui racconti di Edgar Allan Poe nulla da dire, è realmente il maestro dell'occulto.
Egli ci porta a conoscere le innumerevoli sfaccettature dell’angoscia, i modi per calarsi in quell’ignoto, ancestrale pozzo, che è la paura.
Egli ci porta a conoscere le innumerevoli sfaccettature dell’angoscia, i modi per calarsi in quell’ignoto, ancestrale pozzo, che è la paura.
August 25, 2015
Love you Poe ;)
January 2, 2019
Algunos excelentes, otros muy buenos y muchos francamente mediocres. Es lo que pasa cuando uno lee las obras completas de un autor
March 27, 2022
En lugar de esta edición recomendaría otra de esas muchas "Obras selectas" que contienen únicamente lo mejor del autor. Hay muchos cuentos que al momento de ser publicados pudieron ser interesantes pero hoy en día resultan bastante anticuados.
May 29, 2022
Esta re lectura, con esta traducción ha sido sumamente placentera. Realmente, ciertos relatos de Poe han plasmado y forjado terrores en el inconsciente colectivo.
Esta edición es hermosa.
Esta edición es hermosa.
October 28, 2013
This collection was really hit or miss for me. Many of Poe's most famous works are fun to read, but there was little here that changed my life. I've had many friends say they found Poe when they were in their angsty teens and that he was a breath of fresh air for the, so maybe I just came to explore him too late. I can totally appreciate his influence on modern literature, but many of his stories were too simplistic. In most cases, they were little more than anecdotes.
A few of them stood out to me, like "The Angel of the Odd." In many cases, his stories were thinly veiled covers for philosophical treatises, which got me wondering if one could pull that off today.
The best surprise for me was "William Wilson," as story I'd never heard of before but quite enjoyed. And of course, "The Raven" is always a classic.
A few of them stood out to me, like "The Angel of the Odd." In many cases, his stories were thinly veiled covers for philosophical treatises, which got me wondering if one could pull that off today.
The best surprise for me was "William Wilson," as story I'd never heard of before but quite enjoyed. And of course, "The Raven" is always a classic.
July 4, 2020
Sin duda, la mejor edición de los cuentos completos de POE en español. La traducción de
Julio CORTÁZAR
es una obra maestra, aplaudida y celebrada como la mejor de todos los tiempos. Esta edición contiene además sendos prólogos de
Carlos FUENTES
y
Mario VARGAS LLOSA
, y además, cada uno de los cuentos trae una introducción escrita por reconocidos escritores de habla hispana, entre los que destacan
Jorge VOLPI
y
Fabio MORÁBITO
... ¿que más podemos pedir? Altamente Recomendable
August 23, 2023
Si bien ya conocía a la mayoría de los relatos que forman parte de este libro, me encantó leerlos.
Se reconoce en él, la inmensa habilidad del autor para recrear, en sus textos, climas de misterio, de terror, situaciones inquietantes, escenas relacionadas con la agonía, la muerte, los crímenes, la venganza y la locura, entre otros.
Destaco, entonces, que estamos frente a una edición que recomiendo leer.
Se reconoce en él, la inmensa habilidad del autor para recrear, en sus textos, climas de misterio, de terror, situaciones inquietantes, escenas relacionadas con la agonía, la muerte, los crímenes, la venganza y la locura, entre otros.
Destaco, entonces, que estamos frente a una edición que recomiendo leer.
October 28, 2020
"Se ha apoderado de mi alma un sentimiento que no tengo palabras para expresar, una sensación que se resiste al análisis, que no encuentra traducción posible en los léxicos pretéritos y cuya clave me temo mucho no pueda descifrarse en lo por venir (...) A mi alma se ha incorporado un nuevo sentimiento, una nueva entidad."
Una parte de mi alma siempre será de sus palabras.
Una parte de mi alma siempre será de sus palabras.
May 10, 2025
Cuando era pequeño, de unos 11 años aproximadamente, para mi materia de español tuve que leer El Gato Negro y desde entonces he leído y releido infinidad de veces y en diferentes ediciones y traducciones los cuentos, poemas, relatos detectivescos y reflexiones de Poe.
Si bien algunos se hacen un poco pesados por la cantidad de vueltas que dan para llegar a un punto final, creo que eso es algo que también destaca del autor y su prosa, aparte del lenguaje científico, las referencias (o autoreferencias) a otras obras o artículos y como en medio de lo insólito, tenebroso y lo complejos que eran sus cuentos, lograba colar sutilmente (o no tanto) partes de su turbulenta pero interesante vida personal.
Tengo que admitir que la pasé increíble estos meses que estuve leyendo este primer tomo, pues con la cantidad de temas religiosos, fantasiosos, de salud mental, de dualidad, de crítica y en general de asombro y temor por lo que supone el ser humano y lo desconocido, parece que cada vez que leo algo de Poe parece haber algo más allí.
En unos meses leeré el tomo 2 y daré mi opinión. Por ahora mis favoritos de este tomo fueron:
Manuscrito hallado en una botella
Sombra
Silencio
Berenice
El rey peste
El diablo en el campanario
El hundimiento de la casa de Usher
William Wilson
El hombre de la multitud
Los crímenes de la Rue Morgue
Un descenso dentro del Maelstrom
La isla del hada
Nunca apuestes tu cabeza al diablo
El retrato ovalado
La máscara de la muerte roja
El pozo y el péndulo.
Si bien algunos se hacen un poco pesados por la cantidad de vueltas que dan para llegar a un punto final, creo que eso es algo que también destaca del autor y su prosa, aparte del lenguaje científico, las referencias (o autoreferencias) a otras obras o artículos y como en medio de lo insólito, tenebroso y lo complejos que eran sus cuentos, lograba colar sutilmente (o no tanto) partes de su turbulenta pero interesante vida personal.
Tengo que admitir que la pasé increíble estos meses que estuve leyendo este primer tomo, pues con la cantidad de temas religiosos, fantasiosos, de salud mental, de dualidad, de crítica y en general de asombro y temor por lo que supone el ser humano y lo desconocido, parece que cada vez que leo algo de Poe parece haber algo más allí.
En unos meses leeré el tomo 2 y daré mi opinión. Por ahora mis favoritos de este tomo fueron:
Manuscrito hallado en una botella
Sombra
Silencio
Berenice
El rey peste
El diablo en el campanario
El hundimiento de la casa de Usher
William Wilson
El hombre de la multitud
Los crímenes de la Rue Morgue
Un descenso dentro del Maelstrom
La isla del hada
Nunca apuestes tu cabeza al diablo
El retrato ovalado
La máscara de la muerte roja
El pozo y el péndulo.
June 13, 2018
Poco se puede decir de la barbaridad que representa la obra de Edgar Allan Poe. Su genio y miseria, aspectos indisolubles de su vida, se catapultan hasta pronunciarse sobre los miedos y experiencias limítrofes más aterradoras de la vida humana. Ya decía Baudelaire en su sentido homenaje al norteamericano que la obra de Poe reflexionaba sobre la belleza como un atributo susceptible de alcanzarse tanto en la naturaleza como en la creación humana. De la mano de lo anterior, el mismo Poe afirma en "La posesión de Arnheim o el pasaje hacia el jardín" que, para alcanzar la felicidad, se deben observar cuatro condiciones: 1) el ejercicio al aire libre; 2) el amor a la mujer; 3) el desprecio por la ambición; 4) el cultivo de la poesía o la belleza (pág.1104). En cierto modo, sus cuentos logran condensar todas estas preocupaciones y la posibilidad de su negación-sin desconocer otras igualmente importantes como la fortuna y su injerencia en la vida, el humor, la palabra y su potencia, etc-.
De hecho, tal vez sea más preciso señalar que los cuentos de Poe presentan, sobre todo, la imposibilidad de ser partícipes de la felicidad. A diferencia de sus poemas, el personaje de los cuentos de Poe suele ser un sujeto atormentado por los nervios, en los extremos de la locura, sometido a la historia inmediatamente vivida que sólo puede ser narrada, como un impulso furioso en el que la vida se aloja antes de perder la posibilidad de su sosiego. En algunos casos, es el amor y su carencia la que se esgrime con plena potencia: "Morella", "Ligeia", "Berenice" y "Eleonora" son muestras de la pérdida del sentido de la vida misma a partir del hecho de saberse solo...de perderse la posibilidad de compartir la vida con el ser amado. En otros casos, Poe se vale de imágenes limítrofes, alegóricas, en las que la muerte nos recuerda que es nuestra última posibilidad: tal es el caso de cuentos como "El rey Peste", "La máscara de la muerte roja" (el cuento más bestial de Poe a mi juicio), "Hop-Frog" (otra barbaridad literaria), "Metzengerstein", "El hundimiento de la casa Usher" (estos dos últimos cuentos son preciosos en su composición y alegoría), los diálogos platónicos, "El gato negro" y "El corazón delator". En cada uno de estos casos, Poe se permite hilvanar la catastrofe y la serena muerte como únicas posibilidades de la experiencia humana; más allá de los breves intervalos en los que la felicidad pareciera ser el hecho mismo de la existencia. A mi juicio, son en estos dos conjuntos de cuentos donde sale a relucir el talante literario del escritor norteamericano: escritos con cincel sobre mármol, sus palabras son las del artesano que, reconociendo su talento, no se permite deslumbrarse por el mismo; sino que se esfuerza en la medida de sus posibilidades por pulir su arte. Desde el mismo propósito narrativo de Poe, que no era otro que el de hacer cuentos en los que cada oración contribuía a un afecto que debía ser constitutivo de la narración misma, se entrevé la necesidad de ser cuidadoso con cada oración y palabra. De allí que no sorprenda el afán del norteamericano por retocar cada uno de sus relatos, cuando no de reescribirlos directamente.
Especial mención cobran los relatos de aventura y los detectivescos: desde el viaje en globo y "El escarabajo dorado", pasando por "El viaje al Maelstrom" y el "Manuscrito hallado en una botella", Poe se permite mostrar sus dotes de narrador a la par que manifiesta su sensibilidad ante la naturaleza misma. Sobre los cuentos de Dupin, resta decir que "Los crímenes de la calle Morgue" sigue siendo de lo mejor de los relatos detectivescos.
Lean a Poe. Sin importar edad, ni momento de la vida, ni nada. Aquí está la belleza del que supo ver su vida apagada por la miseria.
De hecho, tal vez sea más preciso señalar que los cuentos de Poe presentan, sobre todo, la imposibilidad de ser partícipes de la felicidad. A diferencia de sus poemas, el personaje de los cuentos de Poe suele ser un sujeto atormentado por los nervios, en los extremos de la locura, sometido a la historia inmediatamente vivida que sólo puede ser narrada, como un impulso furioso en el que la vida se aloja antes de perder la posibilidad de su sosiego. En algunos casos, es el amor y su carencia la que se esgrime con plena potencia: "Morella", "Ligeia", "Berenice" y "Eleonora" son muestras de la pérdida del sentido de la vida misma a partir del hecho de saberse solo...de perderse la posibilidad de compartir la vida con el ser amado. En otros casos, Poe se vale de imágenes limítrofes, alegóricas, en las que la muerte nos recuerda que es nuestra última posibilidad: tal es el caso de cuentos como "El rey Peste", "La máscara de la muerte roja" (el cuento más bestial de Poe a mi juicio), "Hop-Frog" (otra barbaridad literaria), "Metzengerstein", "El hundimiento de la casa Usher" (estos dos últimos cuentos son preciosos en su composición y alegoría), los diálogos platónicos, "El gato negro" y "El corazón delator". En cada uno de estos casos, Poe se permite hilvanar la catastrofe y la serena muerte como únicas posibilidades de la experiencia humana; más allá de los breves intervalos en los que la felicidad pareciera ser el hecho mismo de la existencia. A mi juicio, son en estos dos conjuntos de cuentos donde sale a relucir el talante literario del escritor norteamericano: escritos con cincel sobre mármol, sus palabras son las del artesano que, reconociendo su talento, no se permite deslumbrarse por el mismo; sino que se esfuerza en la medida de sus posibilidades por pulir su arte. Desde el mismo propósito narrativo de Poe, que no era otro que el de hacer cuentos en los que cada oración contribuía a un afecto que debía ser constitutivo de la narración misma, se entrevé la necesidad de ser cuidadoso con cada oración y palabra. De allí que no sorprenda el afán del norteamericano por retocar cada uno de sus relatos, cuando no de reescribirlos directamente.
Especial mención cobran los relatos de aventura y los detectivescos: desde el viaje en globo y "El escarabajo dorado", pasando por "El viaje al Maelstrom" y el "Manuscrito hallado en una botella", Poe se permite mostrar sus dotes de narrador a la par que manifiesta su sensibilidad ante la naturaleza misma. Sobre los cuentos de Dupin, resta decir que "Los crímenes de la calle Morgue" sigue siendo de lo mejor de los relatos detectivescos.
Lean a Poe. Sin importar edad, ni momento de la vida, ni nada. Aquí está la belleza del que supo ver su vida apagada por la miseria.
November 26, 2023
Si bien ya conocía la mayoría de los relatos que forman parte de este libro, me gustó leerlo.
En éste se reconoce, la inmensa habilidad del autor para recrear, en sus textos, climas de misterio, de terror, sombríos, situaciones inquietantes, escenas relacionadas con la agonía, la muerte, la venganza y la locura, entre otros.
Resalto, entonces, que estamos frente a una edición que recomiendo leer.
En éste se reconoce, la inmensa habilidad del autor para recrear, en sus textos, climas de misterio, de terror, sombríos, situaciones inquietantes, escenas relacionadas con la agonía, la muerte, la venganza y la locura, entre otros.
Resalto, entonces, que estamos frente a una edición que recomiendo leer.
January 30, 2023
Poe sometimes quotes other languages without providing English translations, so it's a good idea to have your phone handy while reading to translate for you. He sometimes blanks out the year or character names for some reason. I also noticed he uses lots of adverbs. (Supposedly, good writers don't use a lot of adverbs, but I'm not convinced that's true.)
The narrators of his stories often go unnamed. I wonder if this is because the reader is supposed to think Poe is the viewpoint character? This seems especially likely in stories where the narrator's name is given as P. or P__. Some of his narrators marry their cousins, like Poe himself did.
Most of his female characters get killed off either by murder or illness. It's interesting that he considers blood letting to be good for one's health, but I guess that was a common belief at the time. Doppelgangers, mesmerism, and being buried alive are frequent themes, as well as hot air balloons, surprisingly. I was also surprised upon a reread by how much he's against democracy (he considers it to be mob rule).
His sole completed novel, The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket, is an adventure novel with mutiny on the high seas, a ghost ship, cannibalism, shark attacks, a polar bear attack, savage natives, and a mysterious new land found near the South Pole. A lot of things about the story don't make sense, such as the natives being afraid of the color white, Pym faithfully copying down marks on a wall that he thinks are naturally occurring, him forgetting that he has a dog, him forgetting they have a way to get food until after resorting to cannibalism, or him wanting to continue adventuring instead of going home after all the harrowing things that happened to him. It's pretty racist, there are no female characters, and it drags at times, so I can't really recommend it.
His writing hasn't aged well in regards to his depiction of women, Native Americans, the Dutch, Jews, and Black people. He also ridicules people for being fat or short, or having big butts. However, some of his stories still manage to hold up. I'd say his best stories are Murders in the Rue Morgue, Ligeia, The Assignation, William Wilson, Berenice, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Masque of the Red Death. Honorable mentions go to The Black Cat, Ms. Found in a Bottle, The Cask of Amontillado, Metzengerstein, and The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Some think of Murders in the Rue Morgue as the first detective story, however E.T.A. Hoffman's Mademoiselle de Scuderi is decades earlier. Nevertheless, Poe's detective at least predates Sherlock Holmes.
The narrator starts by comparing draughts, chess, and whist and says cards require more analytical skill. His friend Dupin uses deductive reasoning to correctly guess what he was thinking about as they walk down the street, showing off his analytical skills.
The two of them learn of a particularly gruesome double murder in the newspaper. One victim was strangled and stuffed up a chimney, while the other victim was decapitated inside a locked room. Gold was left behind, so robbery wasn't the motive. Dupin thinks the police can't see the forest by focusing too much on the trees. Since he owes a favor to the accused, and knows the Prefect of Police, he decides to look into the murders himself. I like that he points out how often coincidences happen without people noticing. One of Poe's best stories.
The Black Cat
In The Black Cat, a man who loves animals becomes alcoholic and physically abuses his wife and his pets. He cuts one of his cat's eyes open, then hangs it from a tree just because he knows it's wrong, like when a person breaks a law just for the sake of breaking it.
His house then burns down and the only wall still standing has the figure of a hanged cat upon it. He adopts another black cat with one eye which he grows to loathe because it adores him. A patch of white hair on the cat resemble the gallows. He fears to abuse this cat.
After the cat almost trips him down the stairs, however, he tries to kill it with an axe. His wife stops him and he kills her instead. He walls her body up, but the police find it due to the wailing of the cat that was walled up with her. Reminiscent of The Tell-Tale Heart, but this story is better because there's more to it.
Ligeia
In Ligeia, a man reflects upon his dead wife. He realizes he doesn't know her patronymic or remember exactly how they met, only that he was madly in love with her. She was the most beautiful woman ever and stepped so lightly he couldn't hear her footfalls. There's something mysterious about her eyes he can't quite put his finger on. They are larger than normal, but there's more to it than that. She was more learned than anybody he knew. Although placid, she possessed a fierce energy.
As she neared death from an illness, she professed her love for her husband. She writes a really good poem about the Conqueror Worm. She attempts to resist death through force of will, but dies anyway. He grieves her loss and uses part of his fortune to refurbish an abbey. Then he marries Lady Rowena. He hates his new wife as he's still in love with the former. He becomes an opium addict. His second wife gets sick and thinks she sees and hears things. He thinks it's just the demonic decorations on the drapes blowing in the wind. She dies. Her body is reanimated, but it is Ligeia, not Rowena. The story ends there and I can't help wonder what happens next. In my opinion, this is one of Poe's best stories.
The Assignation
In Venice, a child slips from its mother's arms and falls from a window into a canal. A stranger rescues the child and our narrator gives him a ride home in his gondola. The mother is the Marchesa Aphrodite. The stranger has a painting of her and seems to be pining a lost love. They both poison themselves. This story ends abruptly, but I like that it doesn't overexplain. The prose is exquisite, making it one of my favorites.
Ms. Found in a Bottle
During a storm, our narrator is thrown from his ship and winds up in another. The crew either can't see him or don't acknowledge him. They're all old and speak an unknown language. They're headed to the South Pole.
William Wilson
William Wilson (not his real name) attends a boarding school where all his classmates defer to him except for one who has the same first and last name as him. They both started school the same day and were also born on the same day. They were rivals, but also friends.
Wilson takes advantage of the other Wilson's inability to speak louder than a whisper with practical jokes and the other Wilson retaliates in kind. Wilson hates that others think they're related, so the other Wilson, who is already physically similar, dresses, acts, and speaks like him (at least, as well as he can in his whisper voice.) No one else realizes his impersonation but our narrator.
Wilson changes schools. Years later, at Oxford, he's winning at cards when someone enters the room and reveals he's cheating. Wilson leaves Oxford, but the other Wilson follows him around the world, stopping him from doing great harm. Wilson eventually challenges the other Wilson to a duel and kills him, but the other Wilson says he's also killed himself for they have the same face. Is Wilson his conscience? A long-lost twin? Someone who coincidentally looks like him? I love that it's not spelled out.
Berenice
"Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been."
Egaeus has a memory of existing before his birth. His cousin/fiancé Berenice used to be vivacious, but disease changed her. She's no longer as beautiful and goes into trances. Egaeus has a disease that makes him focus for hours on small details like a shadow, or flame, or a scent, or a word. He becomes obsessed with her teeth. She dies of epilepsy. He experiences amnesia, only later realizing that he dug up her grave and took her teeth. Also, she was still alive. What a messed up ending! I love it.
The Fall of the House of Usher
Our narrator visits his friend Roderick Usher. The House of Usher itself gives him the creeps. Roderick has wasted away much since our narrator last saw him. Roderick's malady involves sensory overload. He's only comfortable in the dimmest light and only enjoys bland food. Most sounds and smells disgust him. He lives in fear and hasn't left his house in years.
His twin sister Madeline is his last living relative. She is gravely ill and soon dies. Fearing grave robbers, Usher intends to intern her body in a vault inside the house for a fortnight before final burial.
Usher believes his house is sentient. One night, a storm rages outside and a strange light is seen. Our narrator reads a story about a knight and a dragon. Coincidentally, when he reads a passage about noise, he hears a similar noise in real life. It turns out Madeline was buried alive. She has just enough energy to collapse upon her twin who also dies. Narrator runs from the house, which is utterly destroyed by the storm.
The Cask of Amontillado
Montresor wants revenge against Fortunato, but doesn't specify why. It's carnival season in Italy, so Fortunato is dressed like a motley fool with bells on his cap. Montresor wears a black mask. There's some funny moments such as the mason/masonry joke. Montresor uses reverse psychology on both Fortunato (tells him the catacombs are too damp, they should leave, which makes him press on) and his servants (tells them to not leave the house knowing they will.) Unlike the narrators in many of Poe's other stories, this murderer gets away with it. A good story, but it felt too short.
Metzengerstein
In Hungary, two families were hostile to each other: Metzengerstein and Berlifitzing. Frederick, Baron Metzengerstein, upon his inheritance at 18, engaged in all sorts of debaucheries. The castle of his rival, Wilhelm Count Berlifitzing, catches fire. The Baron looks at a tapestry, and to his surprise, the horse moves when he looks away. Going outside, he sees the same horse which seemed to come from Berlifitzing's stables, but they say the horse isn't theirs. A portion of the tapestry is suddenly missing. The Count dies in the fire. The Baron becomes obsessed with the horse and shuns all social engagements only to ride. His palace catches fire one night while he was riding. The horse takes him into the burning palace and he's unable to stop it. I don't remember reading this story before, a pleasant surprise.
The Masque of the Red Death
A pestilence called the Red Death causes sharp pain, dizziness, bleeding from the pores, and then death in half an hour. Prince Prospero summons a thousand friends to seclude themselves in one of his estates, welding the gates shut to prevent anyone from coming or going. It's well-provisioned and there's much entertainment to wait out the plague. After a few months, the prince throws a masked ball. He sets up seven rooms with no light inside. Each has light from outside shining through a stained glass window, giving each room a different tint. Few dare set foot inside the black room with the blood red window. There's a black clock in the room that agitates everyone every time it strikes the hour.
At the stroke of midnight, the guests notice a masked figure they hadn't noticed before which fills them with horror and disgust. The figure is dressed like a corpse who succumbed to the Red Death. Angry, Prospero orders the figure to be unmasked and hanged at sunrise, but none dare approach. Wielding a knife, Prospero charges at the figure himself, but falls down dead. The revelers remove the costume, but there's no one underneath. They all die, as does the clock. One of Poe's best. This story actually gave me chills when I was reading it.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Our narrator is a mesmerist named P__. (Poe?) He wants to see if mesmerism at the point of death will extend life, so he mesmerizes Valdemar upon his death bed. He lives longer than expected in a peaceful sleep and he's able to respond to questions by talking in his sleep. He then dies, but continues speaking. They leave him in this state for months. They finally awaken him from the trance and his body immediately decomposes into liquid.
Poe's most famous for his horror stories, but he also wrote detective fiction, science fiction, philosophical dialogues, essays, and quite a lot of humor. I don't think his humor holds up for the most part, but his funniest stories are the darkly humorous How to Write a Blackwood Article, Loss of Breath, and Never Bet the Devil Your Head.
How to Write a Blackwood Article
This may be Poe's only story told from a woman's point of view, but he does it to make fun of literary women. Poe seems to make fun of the way he himself writes as well with advice to write about macabre topics, focus on sensation, and throw in obscure references and foreign phrases to make yourself seem erudite.
Signora Psyche Zenobia (Suky Snobbs) is advised to almost die somehow and focus on the sensations of the experience so her article will be realistic. She's advised to avoid talking about something directly and to always use insinuations. She follows all the advice she's been given and writes a story titled A Predicament.
The story humorously changes styles between laconic, overwrought, and melancholy. It's amusingly repetitious. However, there are also offensive descriptions of her negro servant. It's funny when she gets the allusions and foreign phrases wrong. She describes climbing a single step as if it's epic. Her dog understands English and she can speak German. She gets her head stuck in a clock tower and nearly gets decapitated by the minute hand. Her eye pops out of her head and looks at her with insolence. Her head is cut off and she wonders whether the head or the body is the real her. Pretty funny.
Loss of Breath
While calling his wife names and yelling at her the day after their wedding, Mr. Lackobreath loses his breath and can only speak in guttural tones. Taking a coach to the city, a fat man falls asleep on him, dislocating all his limbs. Thinking him dead because he has no breath, he's thrown out of the coach. It runs over him, breaking both his arms and his trunk is thrown out, breaking his skull. A doctor begins dissecting him, then leaves for dinner. Lackobreath escapes, but gets mistaken for a prisoner headed to the gallows. He puts on such a good show twitching at the end of the rope, the crowd calls for an encore. He's put in a public vault and checks out the corpses. Fat-shames one, then criticizes a thin corpse who objects. His neighbor Mr. Windenough was also mistaken for dead after he caught someone else's breath. He gets his breath back and they escape. Hilarious dark humor.
Never Bet the Devil Your Head
When he was an infant, Toby Dammit's mother beat him until he was as black as an African, but unfortunately, she was left-handed so instead of beating evil out of him, she beat evil into him. By the time he was one year old, he had a moustache and cursed. He refused to sign the Temperance pledge, etc. He liked to bet the devil his head until one day, the devil takes him up on it and he loses it. The homeopaths try to cure him, but unfortunately, he dies of his lost head a few days later. Pretty funny.
The narrators of his stories often go unnamed. I wonder if this is because the reader is supposed to think Poe is the viewpoint character? This seems especially likely in stories where the narrator's name is given as P. or P__. Some of his narrators marry their cousins, like Poe himself did.
Most of his female characters get killed off either by murder or illness. It's interesting that he considers blood letting to be good for one's health, but I guess that was a common belief at the time. Doppelgangers, mesmerism, and being buried alive are frequent themes, as well as hot air balloons, surprisingly. I was also surprised upon a reread by how much he's against democracy (he considers it to be mob rule).
His sole completed novel, The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket, is an adventure novel with mutiny on the high seas, a ghost ship, cannibalism, shark attacks, a polar bear attack, savage natives, and a mysterious new land found near the South Pole. A lot of things about the story don't make sense, such as the natives being afraid of the color white, Pym faithfully copying down marks on a wall that he thinks are naturally occurring, him forgetting that he has a dog, him forgetting they have a way to get food until after resorting to cannibalism, or him wanting to continue adventuring instead of going home after all the harrowing things that happened to him. It's pretty racist, there are no female characters, and it drags at times, so I can't really recommend it.
His writing hasn't aged well in regards to his depiction of women, Native Americans, the Dutch, Jews, and Black people. He also ridicules people for being fat or short, or having big butts. However, some of his stories still manage to hold up. I'd say his best stories are Murders in the Rue Morgue, Ligeia, The Assignation, William Wilson, Berenice, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Masque of the Red Death. Honorable mentions go to The Black Cat, Ms. Found in a Bottle, The Cask of Amontillado, Metzengerstein, and The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Some think of Murders in the Rue Morgue as the first detective story, however E.T.A. Hoffman's Mademoiselle de Scuderi is decades earlier. Nevertheless, Poe's detective at least predates Sherlock Holmes.
The narrator starts by comparing draughts, chess, and whist and says cards require more analytical skill. His friend Dupin uses deductive reasoning to correctly guess what he was thinking about as they walk down the street, showing off his analytical skills.
The two of them learn of a particularly gruesome double murder in the newspaper. One victim was strangled and stuffed up a chimney, while the other victim was decapitated inside a locked room. Gold was left behind, so robbery wasn't the motive. Dupin thinks the police can't see the forest by focusing too much on the trees. Since he owes a favor to the accused, and knows the Prefect of Police, he decides to look into the murders himself. I like that he points out how often coincidences happen without people noticing. One of Poe's best stories.
The Black Cat
In The Black Cat, a man who loves animals becomes alcoholic and physically abuses his wife and his pets. He cuts one of his cat's eyes open, then hangs it from a tree just because he knows it's wrong, like when a person breaks a law just for the sake of breaking it.
His house then burns down and the only wall still standing has the figure of a hanged cat upon it. He adopts another black cat with one eye which he grows to loathe because it adores him. A patch of white hair on the cat resemble the gallows. He fears to abuse this cat.
After the cat almost trips him down the stairs, however, he tries to kill it with an axe. His wife stops him and he kills her instead. He walls her body up, but the police find it due to the wailing of the cat that was walled up with her. Reminiscent of The Tell-Tale Heart, but this story is better because there's more to it.
Ligeia
In Ligeia, a man reflects upon his dead wife. He realizes he doesn't know her patronymic or remember exactly how they met, only that he was madly in love with her. She was the most beautiful woman ever and stepped so lightly he couldn't hear her footfalls. There's something mysterious about her eyes he can't quite put his finger on. They are larger than normal, but there's more to it than that. She was more learned than anybody he knew. Although placid, she possessed a fierce energy.
As she neared death from an illness, she professed her love for her husband. She writes a really good poem about the Conqueror Worm. She attempts to resist death through force of will, but dies anyway. He grieves her loss and uses part of his fortune to refurbish an abbey. Then he marries Lady Rowena. He hates his new wife as he's still in love with the former. He becomes an opium addict. His second wife gets sick and thinks she sees and hears things. He thinks it's just the demonic decorations on the drapes blowing in the wind. She dies. Her body is reanimated, but it is Ligeia, not Rowena. The story ends there and I can't help wonder what happens next. In my opinion, this is one of Poe's best stories.
The Assignation
In Venice, a child slips from its mother's arms and falls from a window into a canal. A stranger rescues the child and our narrator gives him a ride home in his gondola. The mother is the Marchesa Aphrodite. The stranger has a painting of her and seems to be pining a lost love. They both poison themselves. This story ends abruptly, but I like that it doesn't overexplain. The prose is exquisite, making it one of my favorites.
Ms. Found in a Bottle
During a storm, our narrator is thrown from his ship and winds up in another. The crew either can't see him or don't acknowledge him. They're all old and speak an unknown language. They're headed to the South Pole.
William Wilson
William Wilson (not his real name) attends a boarding school where all his classmates defer to him except for one who has the same first and last name as him. They both started school the same day and were also born on the same day. They were rivals, but also friends.
Wilson takes advantage of the other Wilson's inability to speak louder than a whisper with practical jokes and the other Wilson retaliates in kind. Wilson hates that others think they're related, so the other Wilson, who is already physically similar, dresses, acts, and speaks like him (at least, as well as he can in his whisper voice.) No one else realizes his impersonation but our narrator.
Wilson changes schools. Years later, at Oxford, he's winning at cards when someone enters the room and reveals he's cheating. Wilson leaves Oxford, but the other Wilson follows him around the world, stopping him from doing great harm. Wilson eventually challenges the other Wilson to a duel and kills him, but the other Wilson says he's also killed himself for they have the same face. Is Wilson his conscience? A long-lost twin? Someone who coincidentally looks like him? I love that it's not spelled out.
Berenice
"Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been."
Egaeus has a memory of existing before his birth. His cousin/fiancé Berenice used to be vivacious, but disease changed her. She's no longer as beautiful and goes into trances. Egaeus has a disease that makes him focus for hours on small details like a shadow, or flame, or a scent, or a word. He becomes obsessed with her teeth. She dies of epilepsy. He experiences amnesia, only later realizing that he dug up her grave and took her teeth. Also, she was still alive. What a messed up ending! I love it.
The Fall of the House of Usher
Our narrator visits his friend Roderick Usher. The House of Usher itself gives him the creeps. Roderick has wasted away much since our narrator last saw him. Roderick's malady involves sensory overload. He's only comfortable in the dimmest light and only enjoys bland food. Most sounds and smells disgust him. He lives in fear and hasn't left his house in years.
His twin sister Madeline is his last living relative. She is gravely ill and soon dies. Fearing grave robbers, Usher intends to intern her body in a vault inside the house for a fortnight before final burial.
Usher believes his house is sentient. One night, a storm rages outside and a strange light is seen. Our narrator reads a story about a knight and a dragon. Coincidentally, when he reads a passage about noise, he hears a similar noise in real life. It turns out Madeline was buried alive. She has just enough energy to collapse upon her twin who also dies. Narrator runs from the house, which is utterly destroyed by the storm.
The Cask of Amontillado
Montresor wants revenge against Fortunato, but doesn't specify why. It's carnival season in Italy, so Fortunato is dressed like a motley fool with bells on his cap. Montresor wears a black mask. There's some funny moments such as the mason/masonry joke. Montresor uses reverse psychology on both Fortunato (tells him the catacombs are too damp, they should leave, which makes him press on) and his servants (tells them to not leave the house knowing they will.) Unlike the narrators in many of Poe's other stories, this murderer gets away with it. A good story, but it felt too short.
Metzengerstein
In Hungary, two families were hostile to each other: Metzengerstein and Berlifitzing. Frederick, Baron Metzengerstein, upon his inheritance at 18, engaged in all sorts of debaucheries. The castle of his rival, Wilhelm Count Berlifitzing, catches fire. The Baron looks at a tapestry, and to his surprise, the horse moves when he looks away. Going outside, he sees the same horse which seemed to come from Berlifitzing's stables, but they say the horse isn't theirs. A portion of the tapestry is suddenly missing. The Count dies in the fire. The Baron becomes obsessed with the horse and shuns all social engagements only to ride. His palace catches fire one night while he was riding. The horse takes him into the burning palace and he's unable to stop it. I don't remember reading this story before, a pleasant surprise.
The Masque of the Red Death
A pestilence called the Red Death causes sharp pain, dizziness, bleeding from the pores, and then death in half an hour. Prince Prospero summons a thousand friends to seclude themselves in one of his estates, welding the gates shut to prevent anyone from coming or going. It's well-provisioned and there's much entertainment to wait out the plague. After a few months, the prince throws a masked ball. He sets up seven rooms with no light inside. Each has light from outside shining through a stained glass window, giving each room a different tint. Few dare set foot inside the black room with the blood red window. There's a black clock in the room that agitates everyone every time it strikes the hour.
At the stroke of midnight, the guests notice a masked figure they hadn't noticed before which fills them with horror and disgust. The figure is dressed like a corpse who succumbed to the Red Death. Angry, Prospero orders the figure to be unmasked and hanged at sunrise, but none dare approach. Wielding a knife, Prospero charges at the figure himself, but falls down dead. The revelers remove the costume, but there's no one underneath. They all die, as does the clock. One of Poe's best. This story actually gave me chills when I was reading it.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Our narrator is a mesmerist named P__. (Poe?) He wants to see if mesmerism at the point of death will extend life, so he mesmerizes Valdemar upon his death bed. He lives longer than expected in a peaceful sleep and he's able to respond to questions by talking in his sleep. He then dies, but continues speaking. They leave him in this state for months. They finally awaken him from the trance and his body immediately decomposes into liquid.
Poe's most famous for his horror stories, but he also wrote detective fiction, science fiction, philosophical dialogues, essays, and quite a lot of humor. I don't think his humor holds up for the most part, but his funniest stories are the darkly humorous How to Write a Blackwood Article, Loss of Breath, and Never Bet the Devil Your Head.
How to Write a Blackwood Article
This may be Poe's only story told from a woman's point of view, but he does it to make fun of literary women. Poe seems to make fun of the way he himself writes as well with advice to write about macabre topics, focus on sensation, and throw in obscure references and foreign phrases to make yourself seem erudite.
Signora Psyche Zenobia (Suky Snobbs) is advised to almost die somehow and focus on the sensations of the experience so her article will be realistic. She's advised to avoid talking about something directly and to always use insinuations. She follows all the advice she's been given and writes a story titled A Predicament.
The story humorously changes styles between laconic, overwrought, and melancholy. It's amusingly repetitious. However, there are also offensive descriptions of her negro servant. It's funny when she gets the allusions and foreign phrases wrong. She describes climbing a single step as if it's epic. Her dog understands English and she can speak German. She gets her head stuck in a clock tower and nearly gets decapitated by the minute hand. Her eye pops out of her head and looks at her with insolence. Her head is cut off and she wonders whether the head or the body is the real her. Pretty funny.
Loss of Breath
While calling his wife names and yelling at her the day after their wedding, Mr. Lackobreath loses his breath and can only speak in guttural tones. Taking a coach to the city, a fat man falls asleep on him, dislocating all his limbs. Thinking him dead because he has no breath, he's thrown out of the coach. It runs over him, breaking both his arms and his trunk is thrown out, breaking his skull. A doctor begins dissecting him, then leaves for dinner. Lackobreath escapes, but gets mistaken for a prisoner headed to the gallows. He puts on such a good show twitching at the end of the rope, the crowd calls for an encore. He's put in a public vault and checks out the corpses. Fat-shames one, then criticizes a thin corpse who objects. His neighbor Mr. Windenough was also mistaken for dead after he caught someone else's breath. He gets his breath back and they escape. Hilarious dark humor.
Never Bet the Devil Your Head
When he was an infant, Toby Dammit's mother beat him until he was as black as an African, but unfortunately, she was left-handed so instead of beating evil out of him, she beat evil into him. By the time he was one year old, he had a moustache and cursed. He refused to sign the Temperance pledge, etc. He liked to bet the devil his head until one day, the devil takes him up on it and he loses it. The homeopaths try to cure him, but unfortunately, he dies of his lost head a few days later. Pretty funny.
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