18 Best Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

by Edgar Allan Poe, Vincent Price (Editor), Chandler Brossard (Editor)

A chilling compilation of some of Edgar Allen Poe's best-loved stories, edited by Vincent Price and Chandler Brossard and with an introduction by Vincent Price,

The Black Cat - The Fall of the House of Usher - The Masque of the Red Death - The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - The Premature Burial - Ms. Found in a Bottle - A Tale of the Ragged Mountains - The Sphinx - The Murders in the Rue Morgue - The Tell-Tale Heart - The Gold-Bug - The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether - The Man That Was Used Up - The Balloon Hoax - A Descent Into the Maelstrom - The Purloined Letter - The Pit and The Pendulum - The Cask of Amontillado

Genres: Horror, Classics, Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, Anthologies, 19th Century

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1965

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

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

my becoming-a-genius project, part 3!

in case you somehow missed both parts one and two, here's the situation:
i have decided to become a genius.

to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.

i am very excited for this one, which i have unhauled (put into a donate pile in my closet) and rehauled (added to goodreads yet again) at least 4 times.

PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR
PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

DAY 1: THE BLACK CAT
it's actually very funny and 19th-century-horror to be like "the Beast...the Wick'd Creature of Nightmare Itself..." and then you're describing a cat.
not scary, also kind of disturbing, but funny for sure.
rating: 3

DAY 2: THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
being alive is amazing. there is literally nothing stopping you from reading this horror story from the 1800s and pretending it's about early 2000s performing artist Usher.
but this is good stuff either way.
rating: 4.25

DAY 3: THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
rich people are the worst and this story is the best.
rating: 4.5

DAY 4: THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR
gross out horror! gross out horror! gross out horror!!!
i've always been more of a standard Ghosts n Spooks Horror girl myself, but this is a better than usual example.
rating: 3.5

DAY 5: THE PREMATURE BURIAL
reading this story in Modern Times, when the entire point of it is like "ah, man, if only there were a way we could tell if people are dead...maybe then we wouldn't have to bury dozens of people alive...but there isn't so oh well! sucks for them"...well, it's weird as hell.
rating: 2

DAY 6: MS FOUND IN A BOTTLE
took a day off because i am actually...not enjoying this very much?
poe is not my favorite. who knew.
rating: 2.5

DAY 7: A TALE OF THE RAGGED MOUNTAINS
took another day off because again, not feelin this.
poe sure showed me, because this one was really good.
rating: 4.5

DAY 8: THE SPHINX
this has the funniest plot twist of any story i've ever read.
rating: 3.5

DAY 9: THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
arthur conan doyle should give edgar allan poe a hundred bucks and a kiss on the forehead because holy smokes does this read just like sherlock holmes.
anyway, this is worth the read for the description of an orangutan shaving alone.
rating: 3.5

DAY 10: THE TELL-TALE HEART
well, we all know this one is iconic.
rating: 4.5

DAY 11: THE GOLD-BUG
for the first time in my life, i'm DNFing a short story.
this one is pretty long and, as it turns out, Poe's not being from the South doesn't prevent him from writing racist stories about Southern slaves and their masters!!
hard pass.
rating: none

DAY 12: THE SYSTEM OF DR. TARR AND PROF. FETHER
not the greatest depiction of people with mental illness, but i have to admit that the structure of this story is fun as hell.
also, it was 18whatever.
rating: 3.5

DAY 13: THE MAN THAT WAS USED UP
i find this very amusing: "But although men so absolutely fine-looking are neither as plenty as reasons or blackberries, still I could not bring myself to believe that the remarkable something to which I alluded just now,- that the odd air of je ne sais quoi which hung about my new acquaintance,- lay altogether, or indeed at all, in the supreme excellence of his bodily endowments."
both me and poe are really trying to find something to like in a handsome dude other than his handsomeness, am i right?
anyway this was complete nonsense.
rating: 2

DAY 14: THE BALLOON-HOAX
i do love a good prank, and convincing a bunch of old-timey bozos that someone crossed the whole damn ocean in a balloon in under 4 days is for sure a good prank.
rating: 3.75

DAY 15: A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM
snooze city.
rating: 1.5 or 2

DAY 16: THE PURLOINED LETTER
what i wouldn't give to be the fat rich 1800s style editor of this story. smoking a cigar. drinking whiskey, which tastes good to me for some reason. drawing huge X's over the part where poe inexplicably spends half the story explaining the relationship between poets, mathematicians, logic, and reason.
rating: 3.25

DAY 17: THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM
personally, if i were in a gross-out rat-filled dungeon being confronted with a series of horribly logical means to enact my death sentence, i would have given up immediately.
rating: 4

DAY 18: THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO
i see you, acclaimed actor Vincent Price, editor of this book. i see you ending with one of Poe's best stories and attempting to trick me into thinking i liked this more than i did using your shared spooky charm. I'M NOT FALLING FOR IT!!
rating: 4.25

OVERALL
i like Poe fine. don't love him. creepy little dude, really. weird guy. big variance in quality imo.
the technically-least-successful entry in my genius project!
rating: 3.5

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a collection of 18 shorts by Poe. I had read some of his work in the past and was interested in looking into some of his lesser known works. I was underwhelmed. His writing is very detailed and he uses loads of words and pages to build to a climax. I guess what I had already seen of his stuff was the best. I loved “The Raven” and think poetry is his strong suit.

[Behzad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The truly mad and horrifying genius of Poe can best be found in "the Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", "the Murders in the Rue Morgue", "the Gold Bug" and "the System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether".
Some other stories could have been really brilliant had it not been for the overly poetic language and really long introductory parts before the main story begins.

[Larry McCloskey · Rating 2 out of 5]

EVERYBODY needs to read some Edgar Allan Poe...everybody. Plus, this particular collection has an introduction by Vincent Price, who most people confuse with Poe on some level. Perfect, right? Overall, though, this collection was kind of disappointing. Several of the stories would have been reviewed better on their own, but there were some real clunkers and letdowns.

"The Black Cat" may be my new favorite story of Poe's. I knew of it from the film, but the story is great. "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Masque of the Red Death" are well-known favorites. I purchased this particular collection for "The Cask of Amontillado", which was recommended, and lived up to that recommendation - even if it was sort of simple and straightforward. "The Tale of the Ragged Mountains" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" were pleasant surprises.

Most of the stories are what you'd expect - or what you're used to - from Poe: wordy and at times difficult to immerse yourself in, but the creepiness makes it worth the effort. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a great story that everybody knows, but could stand some editing. "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether" was a bit hokey, but a nice surprise as well - although the twist at the end is sort of obvious. "MS Found in a Bottle" was disappointing - it just sort of ran out of steam.

Some just rambled on for too long. Lest you think I just don't like big words or that I want it all to be "easy" to read, I'm a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft, who is almost as well known for his vocabulary as for his Elder Gods. Poe, though, had a tendency to just ramble. "The Man That Was Used Up" could have been a great story - the underlying plot was ingenious - but the story was so awkwardly and clumsily written that you almost wouldn't recognize it as Poe's. "The Gold-Bug" is one of his better known and more renowned works but, like "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter", he dragged out the explanations for far too long. Doyle's Sherlock was great because the solutions were "elementary". Poe's Dupin, on the other hand, explains the solution with a rambling diatribe on the human condition and his own brilliance. Legrand, in "The Gold-Bug" similarly turns his explanation into a drawn out intro to cryptography.

"The Premature Burial" had a sour ending and "A Descent into the Maelstrom", while well-written, never really went anywhere. "The Sphinx" and "The Balloon-Hoax" just did nothing for me.

Still, though, there are great stories here and plenty of others floating around as well. Like I said, everybody needs to read Poe.

[Mariam Alaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There isn't much I could say that'd do this collection justice. All I know is Edgar Allan Poe does in a short story what others could only dream of doing in a full-length novel. He takes you deep into the darkest pits of human nature, offers you insight into the psychology of a sociopath, and an overall understanding of a world you probably wouldn't have otherwise known, which is what great literature does. The detailed language can be a little too much, but the plot greatly makes up for it. Between The black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, it's truly hard to pick a favorite; all are exquisite to say the least.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t find Poe nearly as “chilling” as I used to, but I really enjoy his stories. The only one I found dull was “The Balloon-Hoax.” “The Purloined Letter” reminded me of Sherlock Holmes. I had read 5 of the most well-known stories before but the rest were new to me.

[Court Schueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some were more entertaining than others, but overall a fun, quick short story collection! Perfect for Halloween time. My October classic of the month. Obviously the writing was stellar!

[Emilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

always hard to rate a story collection, for me the boring ones overshadowed the good ones here.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some were excellent, others not so much.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The detective stories are very fun, the sci-fi adventures stories pretty meh, and the horror stories are where Poe really shines.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, okay. I like that the M. Auguste Dupin stories are included ("The Purloined Letter"), and some classic macabre tales (e.g. "Masque of the Red Death", "The Black Cat"). Reading beyond "The Raven" and the most famous stories I could enjoy Poe's humor, but to me it seemed he had a peculiar and sublime fixation on asphyxiation.

[urwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

i knew going in that i wouldn't love poe b/c he's horror and horror not my thing.. but also poe's writing... just a product of his time i guess :-( took me waaaaay too long to slog through this

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I choose it:
I choose my book because Edgar Allan Poe is known for being a great author especially for more mysterious scary stories and October is spooky season so I thought it was appropriate to read it now. Also in seventh grade we read an Edgar Allan Poe short story and I really enjoyed and thought it was very interesting and I wanted to read more stories like it.

Summary:
The book is a compilation of many short stories so I will talk about a few. The first one is The Black Cat, in the beginning the narrator is talking to the reader and claims he is not “mad” as in crazy. This is the first clue that the narrator is mentally unstable. Throughout the story you see him struggle as he finds symbolism in every little part of his life and believes this cat for all the bad luck around him. This drives him crazy and what he does to try to get rid of this bad luck is something unspeakable and even unthinkable to many.
Another story in the book is Tell Tale-Heart in which the narrator is a butler and he his masters eye drives him to madness. His crazy elusive and complicated methods make this an interesting read. As the story continues the act drives him to act even more insane. The crazy twist to his story makes this my favorite piece of literature written by Poe.
Another story is The Cask of Amontillado which is a story of revenge and the extreme lengths taken in order to get revenge on what people thought to be his friend. His strategic ways and his methods to his madness make this story very interesting. The way he gets revenge adds a whole new level to the story and really sets it apart from others like it.

Pros:
Which was good about the book was that it was very interesting in the way that all the stories were interesting and each had a different type of mystery to it that would make you want to read more because the originality of each story and complex characters of the story made you invested in the story more than an average mystery story.

Cons:
What I didn’t like about the book is that it was outdated. Much of the language used was old English and it was often hard to follow and many times you had to re read pages sometimes a couple times. Also it was not very relatable in the setting and other things since the stories were written over a century ago.

[Kian Assent · Rating 3 out of 5]

bro ist MESSED UP

tell-tale heart: ballert, klingt wie der gottloseste bad trip

pit and pendulum: he survived, but at what cost😭

cask of amontillado: danke herr kreutzer kannte ich noch aus 9. klasse englisch unterricht

[Reet · Rating 3 out of 5]

18 Best Stories by Edgar Allen Poe--3 🌟 overall, but some of these stories are lame...
The Black Cat 3 🌟(p.11)--A man has a black cat, who loves him and his wife. He starts drinking a lot and he's not a nice drunk. Still, the cat loves him, and so does his wife, no matter how much of an asshole he is.
The Fall of the House of Usher 2 🌟(p.21)-- A hypochondriac implores his friend (who apparently doesn't have a job) to come stay with him awhile in the hopes that his visit will alleviate his depression. The friend hangs around, reading to him, they paint together, the hypochondriac plays some guitar for him (the hypochondriac can't abide most types of music), but the hypochondriac doesn't get any better. Moreover, the hypochondriac's sister is dying, adding to his depression.
The Mask of the Red Death 2 🌟(p.41)--A deadly plague is sweeping a countryside so Prince Prospero invites 1000 of his favorite peeps and they lock themselves into his party-castle with party supplies, musicians and costumery to wait out the plague.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar 2 🌟(p.48)-- A hypnotist conducts an experiment with a dying human: he wants to hypnotise someone about to die. A tuberculin patient is found, and when Drs have given him 24 hours to live, the hypnotist gets to work. With plenty witnesses, and note-taking, he succeeds in hypnotising the man moments before he dies thus postponing his death. Get your gas masks out.
The Sphinx 3 🌟(p.96)--The cholera is raging in New York so the narrator goes to spend time with a friend who has a cabin on the Hudson. Sitting in a chair and looking out the window, he sees a monster descending the hill across from him. It emits a forlorn call and disappears.
The Murders in Morgue St 3 🌟(p.101)--Horrible murder of a mother and daughter happen in the 4th-story bedroom of a house on Morgue St in paris. Cops can't figure it out so Poe's friend Dupin puts his noggin to work. You'll never guess who is the murderer but it all happened because of Animal cruelty.
The Tell-Tale Heart 3 🌟(p.138)-- A tenant's cataract-filled eye bothers the landlord so he decides he should die.... karma takes its course.
The System of Dr Tar and Professor Feather 2 🌟(p.182)--If you know someone who is "insane," you know that they can fool anyone that they are perfectly"sane." A young man riding through the south of France passes by an insane asylum. He tells his friend he'd like to check it out, as he has heard about it's successful "soothing system." Invited to dine with the company, the young man is in for an entertaining time and it won't be long till you figure out why.
A Descent into the Maelstrom 3 🌟 (p.226)--Fishing is best nearest the whirlpool, so for two fishermen brothers that's where they go, only observing the caution of going home by 7pm to avoid the current that would pull them in, and to their deaths. Well, don't rely on watches...
The Pit and the Pendulum 5 🌟 (p.264)--A prisoner is sentenced to death and is put through different tortures. Really has to be his best story; the suspense is palpable.
THe Cask of Amontillado 5 🌟 (p.280)--Ok, his OTHER really good story. A wine merchant cheats his client. Montescu plans his revenge carefully. At the last moment, Fortunado implores"for the love of God," and where have you heard that before? Dolan's Cadillac, that's where.

[Ryan Howell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this collection has some really fantastic stories and some bland ones. The introduction by Vincent Price was a nice touch and I now feel like I have a much better understanding of Poe and his body of work. He's famous for his short stories that changed the horror genre but I was unaware of his importance to the modern detective novel. Poe has a wonderful grasp on the English language and even in stories that I didn't necessarily enjoy, I appreciated his writing style. I wrote my thoughts on each individual story below.

The Black Cat
A fairly good short story about how people’s vices and nonsensical desires to be perverse can cause grief. (4/5)

The Fall of the House of Usher
A story full of classic gothic elements. Poe’s at his best with this type of story. (4/5)

The Masque of the Red Death
One of Poe’s most famous short stories, The Masque deals with the discussion of death and how, as hard as one may try to avoid it and not think about, it eventually touches us all. (5/5)

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
This story focuses on the relationship between soul and body when a person nears death. This probably wasn’t Poe’s intent but, due to the advancement in modern medicine, it really makes the reader question whether artificially lengthening the lifetime of a person is really worth it. Are some of these people who hang on by a thread who have trouble functioning in society really living? What is the difference between body and soul? (4/5)

The Premature Burial
A tale of dealing with phobias and overcoming them. Not my favorite story in the collection. (2/5)

MS Found in a Bottle
This short story is one of the spookiest story in the collection. Despite this, it isn’t too remarkable a story. It’s very reminiscent of The Curse of the Black Pearl to modern readers and I’m sure that the movie took a lot of inspiration from it. (3/5)

A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
This story is very unclear and muddled, one of the weakest entries in this collection. A weird combination of science and superstition that do not do well to play off each other. There is nothing too significant about this story. (2/5)

The Sphinx
One of the shorter entries in the collection, this story highlights how perspective and personal believes can alter the realities around us. (3/5)

The Murders in the Rue Morgue
A whole bunch of monkey business if you ask me. Odd story. (3/5)

The Tell-Tale Heart
One of the shortest stories contained in this book but don’t let that fool you; this one packs a punch. Poe’s ability to economically create a fantastic horror story in just a few pages is quite amazing. Our narrator, in a fit of paranoia, kills the old man who lives with him. Not for money, not out of anger, but because he can no longer look at the man’s Evil Eye. Many have interpreted this to mean “I”, a part of the narrator’s self in the old man that he cannot cope with. While reading, I interpreted this to mean the man’s judgmental eye of this younger narrator. The narrator cannot avoid not living up to the man’s expectations even after death. The sound of his own heart he misinterprets as the old man’s as the old man’s judgment now lives within the narrator. Regardless of how you interpret this one, I recommend everyone to read this short 4-5 page story. (5/5)

The Gold-Bug
Not too many elements of horror in this one as Poe explores his action-adventure side. The first half of this story is very misleading on what path the story will take. In retrospect, I wish it would have taken a path involving the gold bug that made it a little more eerie than the one we end up on. The ending is a bit humdrum. (2/5)

The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether
This one had a plot twist that you could see coming from a mile away. The story isn’t a very intriguing one. This, mixed with a obvious plot twist, equals a poor entry into this series. (2/5)

The Man That Was Used Up
A critique and warning of the coming technological age, this story feels rather dull and uninspired to me. (1/5)

The Balloon-Hoax
Without context, this piece feels very un-Poeish. It is the story of a hot air balloon crossing the Atlantic and goes into particularly minute detail on the construction of the craft. It has a very Jules Verne, sci-fi feel. After reading about the piece and learning Poe published this in a newspaper as fact and tricked his audiences into believing it, I do find it a bit more humorous. Still not a great story, however. (2/5)

A Descent into the Malestrom
This story is similar to MS Found in a Bottle but finishes with a different outcome. Both share similar themes: that death brings a whole new type of knowledge that man is unaware before he confronts it. MS Found in a Bottle is the far better version however. (2/5)

The Purloined Letter
The better of the two detective stories involving Dupin. It seems more methodical, logical, and interesting. This story is much more in-tune with the future detective stories this would go on to influence. (4/5)

The Pit and the Pendulum
This may be the most eerie story found in this collect. The utter hopelessness of the pit, the lack of information provided to the reader (Why are we here? Where are we?), the details of the senses around us, all this combines together to provide us with a spectacular and scary story. Probably my favorite story in this book. (5/5)

The Cask of Amontillado
What I’ve identified by reading all these short stories of Poe is that it’s not the information you know, it’s what you don’t know that make these stories great. The confusion and opaqueness that Poe creates in his short stories gives the reader a sense of dread and disorientation. This can be seen in The Cask of Amontillado. We don’t know the injuries that Fortunato have caused our narrator. We don’t know if what he is doing is just. We’re forced to read as this narrator plays a trick on the jester and leads him to his demise. (4/5)

Aggregrate Score: 3.167

[Pedram · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant collection! Poe is perfect storyteller, perfect researcher, many years ahead of his time. He did not cut the drama side in favor of any direct philosophical nonsense! He tells story, complex plots and bitter or morbid to many's taste! What strikes me the most is that every element is measured and intelligently placed in order to help the story, providing clues for the alert reader. Components plays in harmony with each other. Hence the whole structure of stories are rock solid with logical foundation. It's not an easy read by all means. Not written to lighten your heart or invigorate you by hope. It's about gore, torture, the fleeting "joie de vivre" and the impending doom. It's a honest account of life the way Poe saw and I believe the account is original. Hard to imagine how much his anxiety-ridden persona suffered in his lifetime. Yet fortunately all things turned to artsy inspirations: sophisticated and beautiful. A lot of Stories are told and rapidly lose their grip on readers' mind. Very few works remain unaffected by the passage of time; A jewel among the paltry!

[Jon-Philip Tiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Eerie Exposés of Edgar Allan Poe

Though this book had many stories, The Black Cat stood out to me the most. It is about a man and his wife. The man grew up with lots of pets and he loved them. When he got married to a wonderful woman, they adopted some pets and loved them all. One cat stuck out from the bunch. Its name was Pluto. Pluto followed the man around the house and he loved Pluto. Soon the man developed a drinking problem. One day when he came home drunk, he noticed the cat did not follow him. He tried to pick up the cat and the cat, frightened, scratched his hand. Overwhelmed with anger, he grabbed a knife and stabbed the cat's eye. Not able to live with his actions, he hung Pluto by the neck with a rope. That same night, a fire burned down the man’s home. All the walls collapsed but one, which displayed a cat with a noose around his neck. The man soon found a cat similar to Pluto. He brought it home. One day his wife and the cat accompanied him to the cellar for some chores. The cat rushed in front of him making him fall. The man raised an axe to the cat, but something stops him. To find out more, you have to read the story.
There are two aspects of this story that I would like to talk about. First conflict. In this tale, the man shows a man vs self conflict. One side of him wants to be calm and sober but on the other side his drinking and anger issues. This conflict is displayed when he hangs his cat. When he hung his cat, there were tears streaming down his face which shows that his two sides disagreed. One wanted him to let the cat live but the other wanted to commit a “Deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul” as it said in the text.
The next aspect of the text I wanted to break down is character. In this story, the main character starts out as a happy, animal-loving person. When his alcohol addiction got the best of him, he became bitter and hateful. He lets anger and feelings drive him, which leads him to impulsive decisions.
For this book as a whole, it was average. It had its moments of greatness with this story and ones like The Fall of The House of Usher or the Masque of the Red Death. But some have very slow and boring storytelling. I would give it a 7/10.


Poe, Edgar Allan. (1965) 18 Best Stories By Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Dell Publishing.
Tiller, J.(2021, January 21)” The Eerie Exposés of Edgar Allan Poe” [Review of the book 18 Best Stories By Edgar Allan Poe]. Good Reads.
Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x...

[Elmer Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lucky find for a few more Poe tales. As a classic horror fan, seeing the introduction by, and an edited by credit, Vincent Price, this was a no brainer. I found myself a bit underwhelmed as the intro rambled on into lauding the production staff for their abilities to recreate Poe's words into reality. True as that may be, it left me wondering what "edits" were done by Vincent himself or was his name an add-on just to sell a variant Poe collection? And the cover looks to be a cross of Price and Karloff, not bad though.

For the casual reader this one is fairly stocked with the classics: The Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Murders in the Rue Morgue - The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and The Pendulum, and The Cask of Amontillado. These stories alone carry the star rating and the book.

Some lesser known or preferred tales sprinkled in such as: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Premature Burial, Ms. Found in a Bottle, The Gold-Bug, A Descent into the Maelstrom, and The Purloined Letter, help round out the collection.

I was captured by Vincent's offering and the few following "new to me" tales:
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains - an interesting take on past lives and reincarnation possibilities.

The Sphinx - Some things are scarier when taken out of perspective.

The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether - This felt like a precursor to M. Night Shyamalan and his "twists", although why one would visit such as place begs other questions, surely.

The Man That Was Used Up - This felt like a story going in three different directions and ended up at none of them. Never believe what you are told and only half of what you see.

And the addition of the news articles that make up The Balloon Hoax - I can see where in that day and age it could be believed. Certainly, it was before the Orson Welles radio hoax. But was this another prompt from Poe into future efforts?

Excellent starting point for the uninitiated Poe reader.

Thanks for reading.

[Raul Melendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

So . . . this is a hard one for me. I have been a fan of Poe's since I was first introduced to his writing my my reading teacher in junior high school when I was twelve. The first story that I read from it was The Tell-Tale Heart, which was AWESOME!!! Subsequently, I read The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Death, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

For decades these were the only stories I read from the book. I don't know why I never read more, I just hadn't. And based on the few stories I HAD read, I always thought of Poe as a master, and assumed everything he wrote was similarly fantastic. Unfortunately, that just isn't the case. Practically everything else of his I have read has either been downright bad, or long-winded, or boring, or, dare I say, pointless.

It was not until recently that I learned that Poe himself published many of his stories in newspapers and magazines for which he was an active editor. This leads me to believe that, had the circumstances been otherwise, perhaps he would have been forced to produce better-developed stories.

I still think he was a great writer; but I do not believe everything he wrote was great. In fact, I think he was seriously overrated. I do recommend his writing . . . but selective titles.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Black Cat - 4
The Fall of the House of Usher - 4
The Masque of the Red Death - 3
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - 3
The Premature Burial - 3
MS Found in a Bottle - 2
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains - 3
The Sphinx - 2
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - 1
The Tell-Tale Heart - 3
The Gold-Bug - 0
The System of Dr. Tart and Prof. Fether - 1
The Man That Was Used Up - 2
The Balloon-Hoax - 1
A Descent into the Maelström - 2
The Purloined Letter - 1
The Pit and the Pendulum - 4
The Cask of Amontillado - 3

Strongest stories bookend the weaker ones. A lot of the middle stories in this collection are rough, and it turns out I hate Auguste Dupin.

[ファティマ · Rating 3 out of 5]

-The Black Cat 3.6
-The Fall of the House of Usher 3
- The Masque of the Red Death 4
- The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar 3.5
- The Premature Burial 3
- Ms. Found in a Bottle 1
- A Tale of the Ragged Mountains 1
- The Sphinx 1.5
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue 3.5
- The Tell-Tale Heart 4
- The Gold-Bug 3.7
- The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether 2
- The Man That Was Used Up 2.5
- The Balloon Hoax 2.5
- A Descent Into the Maelstrom 2
- The Purloined Letter 4
- The Pit and The Pendulum 3.8
- The Cask of Amontillado 3.5

[Siobhán Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a guy. Some of these are truly amazing (The Premature Burial, The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether, The Pit and the Pendulum) some are just really good (The Black Cat, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Sphinx) and some were painfully boring (The Man That Was Used Up, The Balloon-Hoax)

The famed Tell-Tale Heart was a liiiiittle disappointing since while it is well written, it so similar to The Black Cat that it didn't do too much for me. My favourites were excellently crafted tales of suspense told through beautiful turns of phrase. Would definitely read again.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

18 Best Stories By Edgar Allan Poe Edited by Vincent Price with Intro by Vincent Price. I Have the original May 1965 book of this compilation of Poe's work, small softcover. 287 pages no index. Great Intro and good art on cover. Nice quick read and compact.

[Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, we readers must have to read Poe some time...

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories were great but some were too drawn out/wordy. Poe really knows how to put readers in suspense though - I can still hear my heart beating from nerves.

[Lumos Ktbspa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. And creepy.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pb, laurel ed. 1970

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always enjoyed Poe's stories and this set of his stories was a great read, included a couple I have never heard of!

[Duncan Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for studying literary history but not so much for entertainment.