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Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Tales of Mystery and Imagination. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. The Raven and Other Poems
Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0706415523
This edition first published in the United States of America in 1984 by Octopus Books LImited.
This edition reprinted 1985.
Copyright (c) 1981 Introduction, arrangement and illustrations Octopus Books Limited.
This edition first published in the United States of America in 1984 by Octopus Books LImited.
This edition reprinted 1985.
Copyright (c) 1981 Introduction, arrangement and illustrations Octopus Books Limited.
800 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 1981
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
10.1k books29k 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 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 3, 2012
Finally, after owning this book for 28 years, I worked my way through all of Poe's works -- and love him more now than ever before.
I now recognize his brilliance in a different way. Yes, there are the wicked, macabre tales that are classic Poe. But, he also was a maestro of sci-fi, mystery, adventure and romance. And talk about humor -- The Spectacles is now one of my favorites!
I now recognize his brilliance in a different way. Yes, there are the wicked, macabre tales that are classic Poe. But, he also was a maestro of sci-fi, mystery, adventure and romance. And talk about humor -- The Spectacles is now one of my favorites!
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March 27, 2026This is a review of three of the stories found here:
- The Pit and the Pendulum
- The Purloined Letter
- The Fall of the House of Usher
I have read the first 2 before more than 40 years ago, though I did not 'get' the first of them then. Usher is a new read for me.
Though they appear, each in their own right, in the ABC version of one of those '1001 books you must read before you die' books (2006 edition), all of them are short stories (not even close to novellas) rather than books, but the editors' excuse is that each are models or at least inspiration for a style of story/novel that would not have come to light but for these examples.
I will leave it to those better qualified than I to judge whether that is indeed the case.
The Pit and the Pendulum
I have tried to read The Pit and the Pendulum before but as I say did not get it and probably did not finish it. The story starts in the middle of nowhere: a protagonist who remains unnamed throughout; no sense of time, until mention is made of The Inquisition (it becomes apparent after a while it is indeed The Spanish Inquisition); no sense of place, either that of the protagonist or the wider world, until the protagonist senses he is in a cage or enclosure of some kind; nothing but a growing sense as to why he is there and being subjected to the ordeal; no other player present other than one who is present in the 3rd last line and named in the 2nd last name of the story.
It becomes clearer that the protagonist is imprisoned, endangered (but by what/how?), in darkness and unaware as to how to escape, if indeed that is possible.
The protagonist slowly becomes aware of the Pit and the Pendulum and he eventually realizes the different outcomes that face him. Can he escape and if not, is one to be preferred to the other?
The story focuses on, and is told through, the internal dialogue and thoughts of the protagonist.
The closest I can come to it is one of Steven Spielberg's earliest movies. In 'Duel', we meet Dave Mann (is the surname an allusion to an 'everyman'), a travelling salesman who comes across a semi trailer on a lonely highway, which at first allows Mann to overtake, but thereafter it becomes a deadly cat and mouse chase, with the unseen truck driver (we only ever see his hands and forearms) looking to run Mann off the road in any number of ways, with Mann finally deciding he has to fight back to save his own life. There is very little dialogue, and much of the tension is built though Mann's inner dialogue and thoughts as his fear (and sense of helplessness) deepens and deepens.
Both the story and the movie demonstrate that neither needs to have all of a person's life history depicted in order to provide a coherent and compelling narrative. Indeed, one can get away with very little back story. I think it was me not realizing that when first reading this story all those years ago. It was much more readable and enjoyable (if that is the right word) on the re-read.
The Purloined Letter
My comments on this and the third story will be shorter.
A precursor to Conan Doyle's Holmes (and lots of other sleuths), it somewhat sets the scene for much of detective stories that follow. There is the private sleuth (C Auguste Dupin); the bumbling police officer, who seeks his assistance with a troublesome crime (of the highest political significance); the sleuth's sidekick through whom much of the story is conveyed; the slight of hand in the sleuth's solution as to the mystery and the capture of the criminal.
As an early exponent of this type of story, Poe does very well, though it is the third and last that features Dupin, with Poe apparently becoming bored with that style of story and wanting to move onto others. Well worth reading as an early example, though I will stick with Holmes as the exemplar in this neck of the literary world.
The Fall of the House of Usher
This was a first read for me. It is very atmospheric: old mansion, dilapidated of course; an ancient family seemingly at the end of the line, with only a elderly brother and sister left (both childless and in poor health); the brother's earnest request of the narrator, a long ago friend ('my only friend') to travel a long distance to visit and help the brother in some unexplained but urgent manner.
The set up reminds me of Bram Stoker's Dracula, where the Count requests his London based lawyers to send (as it turns out) a lowly solicitor to the Count's castle in Transylvania to assist with some legal matters and the solicitor's prolonged stay there, as the mystery continues to deepen.
Luckily, Poe's Usher is some hundred's of pages shorter than Stoker's Dracula, but it packs in some familiar tropes: decaying buildings; are there zombies? (though not called that in either instance); nightmares; being buried alive?; a dramatic ending.
Without revealing the specifics of where it was going, one had a sense (beyond the title of course) that this was not going to end well for the House of Usher, and that little bit of curiosity made me want to read on. But would I read 2-300 pages of this? Probably not as something of that length would be, in these times, simply overwrought. But as a short story, fine.
Am I tempted to read more of Poe's short stories? Probably yes, but not in large quantities at the same time.
- The Pit and the Pendulum
- The Purloined Letter
- The Fall of the House of Usher
I have read the first 2 before more than 40 years ago, though I did not 'get' the first of them then. Usher is a new read for me.
Though they appear, each in their own right, in the ABC version of one of those '1001 books you must read before you die' books (2006 edition), all of them are short stories (not even close to novellas) rather than books, but the editors' excuse is that each are models or at least inspiration for a style of story/novel that would not have come to light but for these examples.
I will leave it to those better qualified than I to judge whether that is indeed the case.
The Pit and the Pendulum
I have tried to read The Pit and the Pendulum before but as I say did not get it and probably did not finish it. The story starts in the middle of nowhere: a protagonist who remains unnamed throughout; no sense of time, until mention is made of The Inquisition (it becomes apparent after a while it is indeed The Spanish Inquisition); no sense of place, either that of the protagonist or the wider world, until the protagonist senses he is in a cage or enclosure of some kind; nothing but a growing sense as to why he is there and being subjected to the ordeal; no other player present other than one who is present in the 3rd last line and named in the 2nd last name of the story.
It becomes clearer that the protagonist is imprisoned, endangered (but by what/how?), in darkness and unaware as to how to escape, if indeed that is possible.
The protagonist slowly becomes aware of the Pit and the Pendulum and he eventually realizes the different outcomes that face him. Can he escape and if not, is one to be preferred to the other?
The story focuses on, and is told through, the internal dialogue and thoughts of the protagonist.
The closest I can come to it is one of Steven Spielberg's earliest movies. In 'Duel', we meet Dave Mann (is the surname an allusion to an 'everyman'), a travelling salesman who comes across a semi trailer on a lonely highway, which at first allows Mann to overtake, but thereafter it becomes a deadly cat and mouse chase, with the unseen truck driver (we only ever see his hands and forearms) looking to run Mann off the road in any number of ways, with Mann finally deciding he has to fight back to save his own life. There is very little dialogue, and much of the tension is built though Mann's inner dialogue and thoughts as his fear (and sense of helplessness) deepens and deepens.
Both the story and the movie demonstrate that neither needs to have all of a person's life history depicted in order to provide a coherent and compelling narrative. Indeed, one can get away with very little back story. I think it was me not realizing that when first reading this story all those years ago. It was much more readable and enjoyable (if that is the right word) on the re-read.
The Purloined Letter
My comments on this and the third story will be shorter.
A precursor to Conan Doyle's Holmes (and lots of other sleuths), it somewhat sets the scene for much of detective stories that follow. There is the private sleuth (C Auguste Dupin); the bumbling police officer, who seeks his assistance with a troublesome crime (of the highest political significance); the sleuth's sidekick through whom much of the story is conveyed; the slight of hand in the sleuth's solution as to the mystery and the capture of the criminal.
As an early exponent of this type of story, Poe does very well, though it is the third and last that features Dupin, with Poe apparently becoming bored with that style of story and wanting to move onto others. Well worth reading as an early example, though I will stick with Holmes as the exemplar in this neck of the literary world.
The Fall of the House of Usher
This was a first read for me. It is very atmospheric: old mansion, dilapidated of course; an ancient family seemingly at the end of the line, with only a elderly brother and sister left (both childless and in poor health); the brother's earnest request of the narrator, a long ago friend ('my only friend') to travel a long distance to visit and help the brother in some unexplained but urgent manner.
The set up reminds me of Bram Stoker's Dracula, where the Count requests his London based lawyers to send (as it turns out) a lowly solicitor to the Count's castle in Transylvania to assist with some legal matters and the solicitor's prolonged stay there, as the mystery continues to deepen.
Luckily, Poe's Usher is some hundred's of pages shorter than Stoker's Dracula, but it packs in some familiar tropes: decaying buildings; are there zombies? (though not called that in either instance); nightmares; being buried alive?; a dramatic ending.
Without revealing the specifics of where it was going, one had a sense (beyond the title of course) that this was not going to end well for the House of Usher, and that little bit of curiosity made me want to read on. But would I read 2-300 pages of this? Probably not as something of that length would be, in these times, simply overwrought. But as a short story, fine.
Am I tempted to read more of Poe's short stories? Probably yes, but not in large quantities at the same time.
March 2, 2024
Poe has such a great writing style. He is probably the greatest short story writer of all time. My favourites are his detective stories which directly inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. If you are a fan of 19th century literature, then I highly recommend this collection of his short stories.
May 7, 2024
Poe jamás decepciona, sin embargo, debo admitir que me costó un poco terminar este libro, no disfruté de todos los datos referentes a la navegación y navíos y eso disminuyó mi interés. Calificación final: 3.4
April 19, 2025
There's nothing I can say about Poe that hasn't already been said. Some of these stories are obviously quite dark, but I was surprised at the amount of hilarity he managed to inject in others.
Not sure if anybody could ever rival Poe for sheer intensity.
Not sure if anybody could ever rival Poe for sheer intensity.
September 11, 2021
plictisitor prost scris si enervant (+ ORIBIL de rasist)
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June 16, 2008Henry James said, "An enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive stage of reflection." I think it is the primitive nature of Poe's writing that captures readers. He reaches 'back to the basics' if you will. He realizes that the mind and the body are connected and man can never escape the animal instinct so many authors are trying to hide.
Poe's willingness to enter into the realm of the grotesque and the way in which he presents his characters make his works creepy, even though modern audiences seem to be jaded by all the gratuitous horror movies.
Poe's willingness to enter into the realm of the grotesque and the way in which he presents his characters make his works creepy, even though modern audiences seem to be jaded by all the gratuitous horror movies.
March 6, 2009
Read: The Raven and Other Poems - 4 stars, Annabel Lee definitely my favourite. 6 March 2009.
January 30, 2008
excellent variety
May 25, 2010
This was so much fun to read! I recommend this to anyone who's a Poe fan.
December 27, 2008
Great stories in a great format.
March 28, 2017
Re-visiting a dear old friend.
July 3, 2025
A novel consistiny of short stories with sequential events and easy language, I personally liked it and the member of stories included in it, it can be finished in just one sitting.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews