Hop-Frog

by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories have lost none of their power to horrify. He remains a destabilizingly terse sketcher out of ideas, a writer who allows the reader to fill in the many ghastly blanks in his narratives of violence, retribution and animalism. It is hard to recommend Hop-Frog wholeheartedly (its original subtitle was: Or, The Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs) as it is such an affront to decency, but you will certainly never forget it.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Horror

144 pages, Paperback

Published April 17, 2025

About the author

The 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...

Reviews

[Syalinna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Poe likes ourang outan

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Archive #34
3.75

When you read the blurb for this book, it tells you that the original subtitle for the titular story was ‘The Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs’. Therefore, when an Ourang-Outang made its appearance in the Dupin story, I wondered if whoever had written the blurb had made a mistake. I read on, and found out that no, the titular story did indeed contain an Ourang-Outang as well. This collection is very Ourang-Outang heavy. I have a little image in my head of Poe doodling little Ourang-Outangs as he wrote these. In any case, these stories were quite fun!

[Naina · Rating 4 out of 5]

took me quite a while to get into the book but overall I enjoyed every story except one (it was too reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, or the other way around because I was shocked to find out this was published four decades before a study in scarlett. still, perhaps if he hadn't abandoned his signature elements it would've fared better, in my esteem at least.)

Here's my ranking-
1. The Tell-Tale Heart (reread)
2. The Masque of Red Death
3. Hop-Frog
4. The Fall of the House of Usher
5. The Murders in the Rue Morgue

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Hannah Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastically horrifying selection of short stories, including the well known 'The Tell Tale Heart'. I will write a short review for each story.

The Fall of the House of Usher: suitably spooky, but can't say that it fully grabbed my attention. But it did contain my favourite quotation from the book:

'To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave.'

The Murders in the Rue Morgue: the longest story in the book and probably my favourite. Some quite gruesome imagery that got me speeding through the story to find out what happened. A bit perplexed by the ending, but I still enjoyed it.

The Masque of the Red Death: lots of evocative imagery using colour. Short but sweet.

The Tell-Tale Heart: More gruesome than I expected, but creates a great sense of terror and suspense describing those very still moments of fearful anticipation.

Hop-Frog: A tale of retribution. Again some great language used that made me uneasy until the conclusion;

'It was interrupted by a low, but harsh and protected grating sound which seemed to come at once from every corner of the room.'

Poe is a clear juggernaut of gothic horror. The first book to really have me spooked since reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and books like An Inspector Calls or The Woman in Black during highschool. I didn't think 'horror' was really my thing, but I found myself staying up late at night to find out the endings. I look forward to reading more of his work.

PS. Shout out to my fantastic English teacher Mrs Flewitt. Reading these stories takes me back to her explaining the difference between terror and horror. Definitely experienced a lot of terror reading these.

[Jess Castz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nooooo. Que interpretación tan increíble y que buena forma de adentrarse en el mood de terror con este relato.
Noviembre nocturno lo hizo de nuevo, y ahora hizo una regrabación de la mano de narradores bien versados en su labor, del clásico literario del maestro Edgar Allan Poe. Un relato que, seamos sinceros, siempre nos recuerda a ese cuento de El traje nuevo del emperador, pero distinguiéndose con un toque macabro que solo este grupo podría conseguir.
Desde el principio nos adentramos en la atmósfera del castillo, e incluso nos sentimos mal por la forma en que tratan a los pobres de Hop frog y su pequeña amiga. Justo por eso, el final de la historia se siente como una especie de justicia poética contra sus captores y torturadores.
Una historia de venganza que termina bien para el perpetrador, y que nos sirve de advertencia para no tratar mal a quienes nos ayudan y prestan su tiempo para que nuestros proyectos salgan bien. No vaya a ser que se cobren las injusticias de la peor forma posible.

[Shoaib But · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed the second story about the murders in the Rue morgue which was a very enjoyable mystery story. It was more appealing to me than the other stories about the supernatural, especially as the prelude promotes a little thought the types of intellegence. The story itself introduces a captivating character of Dupin.
The other stories of the supernatural seemed a little fanciful and without point in my opinion, mabye due to my insensitivity to horror given the more complete terror experince provided by modern horror movies. The old english was a little difficult to understand but it provided a nice challenge to my usual readign comforts.

[Imogen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first time reading Poe. At first I found it a challenge to get into, but I think this was because I was stopping and starting. Once I read one of the stories in its entirety, I found the flow of the stories to be smoother and the pace to grip me more.

I enjoyed the stories, was surprised by the orangutan appearances and the pacing and authors voice that was strong.

Stories wise, all had their place, but I felt that the Fall of the House of Usher to be the weakest, the others had surprises and were brilliantly crafted, Fall of the House of Usher, left me a little disappointed.

[Sanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection so much! The weird and horrid stories that Edgar Allen Poe is known for have come through. The ones i liked the most are “the Masque of the Red Death” and “Hop-Frog”.
“The Tell-Tale” heart reminded me of another story I have read by Poe, “The Black Cat” through the confidence emitted by the Main Character and how their madness have driven them to horrible actions. The ending of this story makes it seem as though this connection, however, is on purpose. I wonder why this decision has been made.

[Jenn Kause · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two very popular pieces of Poe’s fiction and two surprisingly good and lesser-known horrors await in this small collection.
Poe’s strange affection for orangutans makes for intriguing stories, more so Hop-Frog. While most horror and classic authors take the approach against dwarves and disabled people, Poe takes the revenge approach in a satisfying way that mainly resembles a strange plot that I think my own teen DnD kids would come up with.

[Jazzemaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ✨️

"The Fall of the House of Usher" muess ich glaub nomol läse, da mini Englischkenntniss zu shitty sind für Edgars Sproch usm 19Jhr. pls don't judge, aber die ville fremde Wörter hend mi vo de eigentliche Story abglenkt... 👩‍🦯‍➡️🧍🏻‍♀️
Die restliche Stories hani verständlicher gfunde und teilwis sogar toll. Vorallem die random Orang-Utans?!?! Didn't see that coming lol. ✨️

[Kathryn McCarrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

As ever I can't fault Poe. This was a good little snippet of some brilliant tales and I loved every one. I entirely recommend the archive series from Penguin and these should get me through the month nicely! Would recommend and read again.

[Marissa Rojas · Rating 3 out of 5]

did not like the murders in the rue morgue; detective stories never interest me. the rest was good! had never the masque of the red death or hop-frog before and found them both engaging. tell tale heart is always a classic, and the fall of the house of usher is meh.

[Khaleel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 1840s were a most tumultuous and sanguinary decade, rife with disorder and deeds most foul👊🏽

[Katie Fleetwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little hard to grasp the first two stories, however the last few were great. Surprisingly very easy to read.

Spooky and gory as expected! Short read too.

[Kiko Montanari · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Richard McGrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tale revenge

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A humorous story of revenge, made sweeter by the insight that Poe possible wrote it in contempt of someone who libelled him.

[Joao Kulikovsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personal Ranking of the Stories:

1. Murders on Rue Morgue
2. Hop-Frog
3. The Masque of the Red Death
4. Tell-Tale Heart
5. The Fall of the House of Usher

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A masterclass in how to write a short horror story.

[Roman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favourite story: The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

[Sulav Aryal · Rating 4 out of 5]

thrilling.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet revenge.

[Riccardo Iannaccone · Rating 4 out of 5]

La vendetta è un piatto che va servito freddo, e Hop-Frog il giullare sa come fare. Raccapricciante, intenso, politico e poderoso a livello linguistico. Poe in stato di grazia.