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The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe [Volume 1 of 5]
Edgar Allan Poe, An Appreciation -- Life of Poe, by James Russell Lowell -- Death of Poe, by N. P. Willis -- The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfall -- The Gold Bug -- Four Beasts in One -- The Murders in the Rue Morgue -- The Mystery of Marie Rogêt -- The Balloon Hoax -- MS. Found in a Bottle -- The Oval Portrait
- GenresShort Stories
230 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 28, 2009
5 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,888 books28.6k 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 3, 2021
أتممتُ قراءة الجزء الأول من مجموعة الأعمال الكاملة للكاتب والقاص والشاعر الأميركي إدغار آلان بو. لطالما عرفتُ الكاتب ولكنني لم أقرأ له من قبل – على الرغم من شهرته – ولكن هذه البداية لم تكن مشجعة بصراحة. في هذه المجموعة كانت هناك قصص خيال علمي غير محفزة ومملة للغاية وقصص بوليسية قصيرة – لم تشدني أبدًا ولا يمكنني مقارنتها بأعمال آرثر كونان دويل أو أغاثا كريستي. كانت لغته قوية بلا شك ولكنني وجدت الأسلوب جاف جدًا ولم أستمتع كثيرًا بقراءة هذه المجموعة. مع ذلك، سوف أعطي بو – الذي يصفه الجميع بالعبقري – فرصة أخرى وأقرأ المزيد من أعماله.
Quotes:
- If a fire wanted fanning, it could readily be fanned with a newspaper.
- Truth, is frequently of its own essence, superficial, and that, in many cases, the depth lies more in the abysses where we seek her, than in the actual situations wherein she may be found.
- Hoax, with these sort of people, is, I believe, a general term for all matters above their comprehension.
- “Surely this is the most populous city of the East! What a wilderness of people! what a jumble of all ranks and ages! what a multiplicity of sects and nations! what a variety of costumes! what a Babel of languages! what a screaming of beasts! what a tinkling of instruments! what a parcel of philosophers!”
- Truth is not always in a well. In fact, as regards the more important knowledge, I do believe that she is invariably superficial. The depth lies in the valleys where we seek her, and not upon the mountain-tops where she is found.
- The history of human knowledge has so uninterruptedly shown that to collateral, or incidental, or accidental events we are indebted for the most numerous and most valuable discoveries.
#GilgameshNabeel
#كلكامش_نبيل
Quotes:
- If a fire wanted fanning, it could readily be fanned with a newspaper.
- Truth, is frequently of its own essence, superficial, and that, in many cases, the depth lies more in the abysses where we seek her, than in the actual situations wherein she may be found.
- Hoax, with these sort of people, is, I believe, a general term for all matters above their comprehension.
- “Surely this is the most populous city of the East! What a wilderness of people! what a jumble of all ranks and ages! what a multiplicity of sects and nations! what a variety of costumes! what a Babel of languages! what a screaming of beasts! what a tinkling of instruments! what a parcel of philosophers!”
- Truth is not always in a well. In fact, as regards the more important knowledge, I do believe that she is invariably superficial. The depth lies in the valleys where we seek her, and not upon the mountain-tops where she is found.
- The history of human knowledge has so uninterruptedly shown that to collateral, or incidental, or accidental events we are indebted for the most numerous and most valuable discoveries.
#GilgameshNabeel
#كلكامش_نبيل
October 30, 2012
I am, sadly, a bit unimpressed with this collection of short stories. On the whole, I feel that Poe never seems to be able to decently finish a story. The ending is often abrupt, odd, and unsatisfactory. Several of the stories are in the form of articles or investigations, rather than traditional fictional narratives, and this does make the odd endings more acceptable. These are also the stories I like the least, like The Mystery of Marie Rogêt. I did enjoy The Gold Bug and MS. Found in a Bottle, and was already familiar with The Murders in the Rue Morgue (who isn't?). Many stories contained a bit too much "science", which shows some impressive knowledge on the part of Poe, but that easily becomes tiresome to someone who can hardly remember trigonometry or basic physics from school...
Also, I was hoping for more scary stories!
Also, I was hoping for more scary stories!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews