Poe Reader

by Edgar Allan Poe

This grand tour of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works provides ample evidence for the assertion that Poe is the undisputed father of horror, mystery, and science fiction. His astonishing, often profoundly macabre stories of deduction, fantasy and satire portray a world of uncompromising poetic and spiritual intensity in American letters. Includes the Fall of the House of Usher, The Black Cat, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and the Tell-Tale Heart, as well as some lesser known tales. The Poe Reader highlights the full force and breadth of Edgar Allen Poe's extravagant imagination and wit.

Genres: Classics, Horror, Fiction, Poetry, Gothic, Short Stories, Classic Literature

598 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

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

[Franky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this hardcover collection for nearly 15 years. If you are a Poe fan, or love his stories, to me this is the definitive collection. I like how this book is organized into tales of suspense, tales of deduction, satires, tales of the imagination and poems. This one encompasses all the great classic stories such as "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Tell Tale Heart", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Black Cat", "The Purloined Letter", "Ligeia", "Berenice" and some other lesser knowns. There is also a nice selection of the Poe's polular poems such as "The Raven" , "Lenore" and the "The Bells." A few satire pieces are included as well. Overall, this is like a must for any Poe fan.

[Cordell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t read every story in this book, but I read enough of it to be able to say the book is a very good quality book. It is well bound high-quality material so as far as the Physical things go, this is a very good book.

And of course, the stories written by Edgar Allan Poe are all very, very good. I don’t know if it has every story that Edgar Allan Poe wrote, but it has all of them that he’s famous for, and they are all very good.

[J.R. Randle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edgar Allan Poe ...no review needed!

[Joe Martin]

The Poe Reader (2000)

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it. Still go back and read over certain things sometimes...

[Mercer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories I loved others, not so much. But, over all it was pretty good.

[Sara Bauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poe isn't an easy guy to read, but you gotta love him anyway. The creator of American horror ... and a total nutjob. Thanks, Edgar!

[Lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Mask of the Red Death" are my favorites.

[Funreader]

Lots of fun! and GORE!