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Instinct vs Reason - A Black Cat
- GenresShort StoriesClassics
Unknown Binding
First published January 29, 1840
11 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,798 books28.7k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 21, 2021
A long-winded opinion essay for the first part, then a charming but seemingly unrelated story about his cat. I enjoyed the toying with logic in the essay, but it did have a bit of a supercilious tone.
July 27, 2019
Instinct vs Reason: A Black Cat, and The Black Cat are two different stories. Rather, the former one is an essay, and this review is for that only.
March 6, 2025
Narrando como su gata es capaz de abrir la puerta de la cocina con audaz ejecución, el autor se encarga de trazar una línea distintiva entre instinto y razón, dimensiones ambas que pone en tensión para demostrar el ingenio de los seres vivientes.
La razón ha sido considerada como máxima interpretación del mundo, las conclusiones realizadas a través de esta metodología son consideradas verdad divina. Contrario a lo que sucede con el instinto, que ha sido peyorado como una forma baja, salvaje y bestial de comprender el mundo.
Con su cuento, Poe desafia esta ley y usando el ejemplo de su gata demuestra cómo el instinto en un animal puede conducirlo a formas complejas de inteligencia como abrir el pestillo de una puerta para acceder a una cocina, lugar que previamente ha sido identificado por el animal como almacén de comida.
La razón ha sido considerada como máxima interpretación del mundo, las conclusiones realizadas a través de esta metodología son consideradas verdad divina. Contrario a lo que sucede con el instinto, que ha sido peyorado como una forma baja, salvaje y bestial de comprender el mundo.
Con su cuento, Poe desafia esta ley y usando el ejemplo de su gata demuestra cómo el instinto en un animal puede conducirlo a formas complejas de inteligencia como abrir el pestillo de una puerta para acceder a una cocina, lugar que previamente ha sido identificado por el animal como almacén de comida.
June 1, 2024
FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
I appraicfte reading this short story but nothing more than that. I didn’t like it as much as I’ve suspected I would.
It’s well written so it need to get point for doing that.
The plot in this however could be better because it didn’t go well with me. I don’t know why.
Ive read all of the poems and short stories which Edgar Allan Poe and this one feels like Edgar Allan Poe but there is something missing but I can’t name what
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
I appraicfte reading this short story but nothing more than that. I didn’t like it as much as I’ve suspected I would.
It’s well written so it need to get point for doing that.
The plot in this however could be better because it didn’t go well with me. I don’t know why.
Ive read all of the poems and short stories which Edgar Allan Poe and this one feels like Edgar Allan Poe but there is something missing but I can’t name what
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June 1, 2022watch the livestream discussion
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September 25, 2024
Jesus mister Poe having something to say about his cat. It's somewhat adorable.
May 20, 2025
If EAP had such a clever cat that he clearly loved dearly, why tf did he write a bunch of cats being murdered in his stories
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews