Метценгерштейн

by Edgar Allan Poe, Эдгар Аллан По, Р.Е. Облонская (Translator)

Файл электронной книги подготовлен в Агентстве ФТМ, Лтд., 2013

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Horror, Gothic, Fiction, Mystery, Audiobook

15 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1832

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

[Steven Serpens · Rating 3 out of 5]

CALIFICACIÓN REAL: 3.5 estrellas

Berlifitzing y Metzengerstein, dos nobles, importantes e ilustres familias de Hungría que han vivido en profunda enemistad desde que se tiene memoria y, en parte, algo de eso es atribuido a una antigua profecía, que involucra a ambos clanes. Aquella profecía se cumplirá, pero de una forma totalmente impensable.

Estamos ante el primer relato publicado del legendario Edgar Allan Poe. ¿Se verá a un escritor novato? ¿Habrá algo diferente en relación con sus posteriores títulos? Esas son algunas de las interrogantes que pretendo responder en esta reseña, según mi criterio y perspectiva; aunque, empezaré hablando netamente de la historia en sí. Esto, con la intención de dejar mis subjetivas y personales opiniones y críticas para después, dada la naturaleza e importancia de esta obra.
Asimismo, hay que reconocer que este es un título extraño, pero que se disfruta. Se agradece que no se haya hecho pesado ni nada parecido. Es disfrutable por lo interesante de su trama y gracias a la temática que ostenta. También se puede percibir el talento e imaginación del autor, aunque sus siguientes obras se alejen del camino que partió aquí para ir por otros rumbos.

Empezaremos con Frederick, el barón de la casa Metzengerstein que queda huérfano a la corta edad de 15 años, siendo así, el último representante de su familia. En consecuencia, comienza a manifestar extraños comportamientos: como el atribuírsele la responsabilidad de un incendio en los establos de la otra familia, donde fallece el conde Whilhelm, el más longevo de los Berlifitzing.
Sin embargo, parece que, durante esos momentos, el barón se encontraba contemplado un singular tapiz, de curiosos diseños sobre una antigua batalla entre ambas dinastías, del cual queda totalmente absorto ante la representación de un extraño caballo de infernal aspecto. Lo llamativo de esto, es que, cuando el joven desvía su mirada de tales representaciones, el caballo cambia su posición. Eso lo hará huir despavoridamente del lugar para tomar aire, pero en el exterior, descubre que, dentro de sus dominios, han capturado al mismo ejemplar del tapiz que admiró hace unos instantes. Y de ahora en adelante, el barón se recluirá, cuya presencia únicamente será vista en compañía de su nuevo equino.

Como ya he indicado, este es el primer relato publicado de su autor y eso es algo que se nota, ya que tiene un aura ciertamente diferente al de sus posteriores trabajos. La historia que presenta me pareció bastante buena, original y concisa. Al tratarse de la primera publicación de esta índole por parte de Poe, me esperaba algo totalmente diferente y extremadamente cursi o barroco, con decoraciones y embellecimientos por doquier. Haber creído esto último tiene mucho sentido si se tiene en cuenta que todas sus obras publicadas de forma previa a esta solamente eran poemas, sonetos y cosas de ese estilo.
Y para quienes ya hayamos leído una cantidad considerable de obras de este autor, podemos apreciar que en esta oportunidad nos ofrece algo que se hace realmente fresco y novedoso, si es que obviamos que todos sus demás relatos son sucesores del presente.

En cuanto al imponente semental de color rojo como el fuego, tenía una hierra con las iniciales ‘’W.V.B.’’, atribuidas erróneamente a un miembro de la otra familia. Creo que soy yo, pero si la W se da vuelta, se convierte en una M; y si se conserva de esta forma, la hierra se queda en M.V.B.; yendo más allá y alterando el orden de las letras de manera inversa, se puede leer como B.V.M., calzando a la perfección con ‘’barón von Metzengerstein’’.
Quizás mi teoría e interpretación que acabo de exponer sea demasiada rebuscada, pero claramente este caballo estaba destinado para el barón: él era el único que podía domarlo y montarlo. E incluso, puede que este caballo se haya materializado gracias al mismísimo Frederick, para que personifique su oscuridad o maldad que, con notoriedad, todos estaban comenzando a notar en él.

Con respecto al final, es bastante interesante y creativo. Tiene estrecha relación con la profecía que decía: «Un augusto nombre caerá de manera aterradora cuando, cual jinete montado en su caballo, la mortalidad de Metzengerstein triunfe sobre la inmortalidad de Berlifitzing».
Según mi interpretación personal, la inmortalidad de Berlifitzing hace referencia a que esta familia será la que prevalezca con descendientes o herederos. Tendrán su linaje asegurado por siglos; pero, aunque los Metzengerstein ya no existan, perdurarán en la memoria colectiva gracias al barón Frederick, quien pervivirá de forma más notoria en el folclore e identidad local de aquellas zonas húngaras a modo de leyenda. Y justamente así es como serán recordados los Metzengerstein. Todo esto gracias al destino final que tuvo el barón, el cual claramente está representado en la profecía.
Todo lo que acabo de presentar sobre la profecía, es justamente lo que se me ha ocurrido para poder darle una coherencia a estos proféticos versos. No olviden que sólo es especulación personal, aunque tengan mucho sentido.

Algo que quedó en deuda, fue un detalle que no estuvo presente y que era muy necesario para la trama: contextualización sobre la enemistad entre ambas familias. Me hubiese gustado que se aclarara algo más aparte de la hipotética profecía que terminó cumpliéndose. Se sabe que han estado enemistados por siglos y que alguna vez lucharon, según las representaciones bélicas del tapiz; pero esto no es algo que sea muy explicativo ni mucho menos satisfactorio.
De todas maneras, mi calificación para Metzengerstein es de 3.5 estrellas, ya que este cuento es una verdadera curiosidad dentro de la bibliografía de su auto, digna de ser leída. Ya terminando, creo que la moraleja más importante de esta obra es acerca de tener cuidado con lo que se desea. Voy a citar para poner en contexto: «¡La hermosa lady Mary! ¿Cómo podía haber muerto? ¡Y de tuberculosis! Más debo decir que es un camino que he orado para que yo pudiese seguir. Desearía que todos aquéllos a quienes amo murieran a causa de esta discreta enfermedad. ¡Cuán glorioso partir en medio del apogeo de la sangre joven, de la imaginación a todo fuego, en medio de recuerdos de días aún más felices durante el otoño, y así ser enterrado para siempre en las maravillosas hojas otoñales!»… Para los que conocemos detalles biográficos de la vida del autor y de sus cercanos, sabemos cómo envejeció de mal su tan bizarro y anhelado deseo.

Para no perder el hilo con las demás reseñas que he hecho sobre las obras de Edgar Allan Poe:

1) El gato negro, cuya reseña está bugueada en el feed de Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2) El cuervo, el único poema que he reseñado de este autor: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
3) Narraciones extraordinarias, recopilatorio en donde reúno a los 28 relatos que he leído de Poe, además de incluir un top personal al respecto; junto con dar mi opinión en profundidad sobre él como autor: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Francesc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relato de Poe sobre un barón y su relación enfermiza con un caballo que aparece en su castillo. Un caballo con los ojos de fuego y de apariencia bestial.

Poe's tale of a baron and his unhealthy relationship with a horse that appears in his castle. A horse with eyes of fire and a bestial appearance.

[Sean Barrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Horror and fatality have been stalking abroad in all ages. Why then give a date to this story I have to tell?"

With just two sentences Poe gripped me in completely, as ever. His words carry such weight that I find myself enthralled at their delivery. His stories just take away my mind and provide true escapism. He makes the mundane seem exquisitely dark and twisted, beautifully so. Perhaps I’ve read too many of his short stories of late because I’m starting to find that I want to read nothing beyond his writing.

Well, on with my review of this. This one is a little different to the Poe I’m growing used to; it doesn’t fully illustrate the character’s mind sets. It’s narrated by an impartial entity rather than someone directly involved. It begins with two opposing noble houses, the Metzengersteins and the Berlifitzings. It quickly becomes clear as to who is going to win the feud, and to the victors go the spoils. The young Metzengerstein Baron receives a charger in his accomplishment. The beast reflects his own hot temperament. They get on well together. It appears that the story has been resolved and is coming to its ending, but this is Edgar Allan Poe. Nothing is that simple with him.

Indeed, the two draw on each other, and become something darkly spectacular. But, in doing so they are unwillingly fulfilling the prophecy Poe delivered at the begging:

A lofty name shall have a fearful fall when, as the rider over his horse, the mortality of the Metzengerstein shall triumph over the immortality of the Berlifitzing.”



This is rather ironic. Poe twists the short story completely around in this reversal of fortune; it’s almost funny in an evil sort of way. The victor thinks that in his steed he has a companion and a likeminded friend, but instead there is something else manifested within its dark fiery bosom. I’m not going to give the short story away, but I will say everything ends full circle. I did like this story, but it did lack the depth of some of the others; it relied on its twist too much. This was Poe’s first printed short story, so his writing could only get better. That’s says a lot considering how good this actually is even with, what I perceive, as its imperfections.

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

El primer cuento que publicó Edgar Allan Poe en 1832 para el Philadelphia Staurday Courier es uno de los que más me gustan de su vasta obra.
Los componentes fantásticos que posee hacen que cierre los ojos y me parezca "visualizar" lo que me cuenta.
La aparición fantasmal del caballo del tapiz justifica la lectura de este corto cuento, cargado de una imaginería fabulosa a la que Poe supo defender cuando los críticos quisieron emparentar la naturaleza de este relato con el de la temática impuesta por los alemanes (caso Hoffmann).
Por un lado, me remite a cierta mitología griega y por el otro tiene ciertos elementos hacia el final que me recuerdan a La Caída de la Casa Usher.
Además inicia su famosa saga de característica sobrenatural y gótica. El simple hecho de crear un caballo infernal surgido de un tapiz medieval, revela su astucia literaria.

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd, confusingly written story about a (potentially) supernatural horse. It wasn’t explained very well at times and was difficult to see where the story was going.

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Printed in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier (January 14, 1832), this is the first tale Poe published under his own name, and it marks a propitious start to the twenty-three-year-old prose writer’s career. It is no masterpiece, but still, it is a fine exciting tale, filled with Germanic atmosphere, gothic imagery, and romantic rhetoric, continually teetering atop the precipice of parody, but never falling over the edge.

It tells the story of the reckless young Baron Frederick Metzengerstein and his feud with the Berlifitzing family. Soon after Frederick inherits his estate, the Berlifitzing stables catch fire and Wilhelm Von Berlifitzing perishes in the blaze. That evening Frederick’s servants bring him a magnificent stallion discovered in his own stables. The young lord claims the horse as his own—with fateful and tragic consequences.

I like the story both for what it remembers, and what it presages. In its treatment of doomed dynasties and unavoidable curses, it draws on Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, but its imagery—filled with fire and monumental destruction, alternating the brooding and vague with the unsettlingly precise, looks forward to The Fall of the House of Usher to come.

This passage will give some idea of what I mean. Here Baron Frederick, the stables blazing, contemplates a tapestry showing his Metzengerstein ancestor assassinating a Saracen forefather of the Berlifitzings:

But as the Baron listened, or affected to listen, to the gradually increasing uproar in the stables of Berlifitzing- or perhaps pondered upon some more novel, some more decided act of audacity- his eyes became unwittingly rivetted to the figure of an enormous, and unnaturally colored horse, represented in the tapestry as belonging to a Saracen ancestor of the family of his rival. The horse itself, in the foreground of the design, stood motionless and statue-like- while farther back, its discomfited rider perished by the dagger of a Metzengerstein ...

[H]e could by no means account for the overwhelming anxiety which appeared falling like a pall upon his senses. It was with difficulty that he reconciled his dreamy and incoherent feelings with the certainty of being awake. The longer he gazed the more absorbing became the spell- the more impossible did it appear that he could ever withdraw his glance from the fascination of that tapestry. But the tumult without becoming suddenly more violent, with a compulsory exertion he diverted his attention to the glare of ruddy light thrown full by the flaming stables upon the windows of the apartment.

The action, however, was but momentary, his gaze returned mechanically to the wall. To his extreme horror and astonishment, the head of the gigantic steed had, in the meantime, altered its position. The neck of the animal, before arched, as if in compassion, over the prostrate body of its lord, was now extended, at full length, in the direction of the Baron. The eyes, before invisible, now wore an energetic and human expression, while they gleamed with a fiery and unusual red; and the distended lips of the apparently enraged horse left in full view his gigantic and disgusting teeth.

One final note. “Metzengerstein” was one of the stories Poe submitted to a contest held by the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, deadline December 1st 1831. Delia Bacon won the contest with her story “Love’s Martyr,” and Poe’s consolation prize was to see his story printed one week after the winner’s. I wonder: how many times did Delia Bacon—who outlived Poe by ten years—tell this story in the decades to come?

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Metzengerstein is the first Edgar Allan Poe short story ever published. He had submitted five stories for a writing contest at the Philadelphia Saturday Courier of which he did not win, but had this one published January of 1832. The narrative is essentially about two rival Hungarian families: the Metzengerstein and the Berlifitzing. Frederick Metzengerstein is the surviving heir to the family. He is a wealthy noble, but in his moments of mourning it is whispered, he may have done some criminal things, not the least of which is the possible immolation murder of Count Wilhelm Berlifitzing. The Gothic story, though brief is rife with symbolism. There is significant prose expended on setting and mood which would become hallmark tropes that Poe would repeatedly revisit in much of his writing such as the prophetic foreshadowing at the story's onset and the closing missive. The initial foreshadowing and closing missive would become paradigms of Poe's gothic writing. I don't believe that I have ever read this story before, but I consider it a perfect beginning to any exploration of Poe.

[Axl Oswaldo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an incredible and very well written short story. I’ve always enjoyed reading Poe works, especially his gothic tales where an atmosphere of mystery and fear is a main characteristic of them – of course, Metzengerstein is not an exception.

Metzengerstein is a story about two different houses (the Metzengersteins and the Berlifitzings) which have been pitted against each other; a prophecy which means the immortality through rebirth or metempsychosis, and Frederick Metzengerstein as an unforgettable protagonist. All these elements together create one of the best underrated Poe’s tales, which I highly recommend you.

By the way, I can’t help thinking about its first lines which, from my point of view, are really significant and memorable:

Horror and fatality have been stalking abroad in all ages. Why then give a date to this story I have to tell?

[Christy Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edgar Allan Poe is my favorite author of all time. I love it all - the poems, the stories, even the essays. I love when he’s melancholy and gothic. I love when he’s ironic and satirical. I love when he’s dark and romantic. I love it all!

I was feeling in the need of a few short stories today - truly a lost art. I decided against reading the more familiar ones: The Fall of the House of Usher, Ligeia, Berenice. Instead, I settled on Metzengerstein.

Metzengerstein tells the story of a young baron, Frederick, who is the last of his family, gaining his vast inheritance after the untimely deaths of his parents. His family has had an ancient feud with the slightly less ancient aristocratic family of the Berlifitzing. No one knows how the feud began and no one cares. They hate each other and that’s perfectly fine. During his bereavement, Frederick behaves poorly and the entire village thinks ill of him, including the old Count Wilhelm Von Berlifitzing. One night, Frederick sits in a room in his gothic palace, contemplating a tapestry showing a fiery horse whose rider, a Berlifitzing, has been murdered by a Metzengerstein knife. The horse seems to move and looks right at Frederick. Upset and excited, Frederick rises to leave the room. His shadow falls over the form of the murderer in the painting, upsetting him further. He runs out of the palace to find a horse exactly like the tapestry with the initials WVB. His servants tell him that a fire has burned the Berlifitzing stables and Count Wilhelm has died. Another servant runs to tell him that the horse has been torn from the tapestry. Frederick is consumed with the fiery steed and rides him constantly. He stops socializing with anyone and is seen violently riding across the countryside. The village believes him to be mad or evil and blames the Berlifitzing stable fire on him. One day, he goes out for a ride and fails to return at his normal time. The palace shakes and cracks and a fire breaks out. As the village watches it burn, they see Frederick emerge from the forest, clearly not in control of the horse. Rider and steed jump into the burning castle. The form of the horse rises in the smoke of the fire.

I loved everything about this story: the gothic atmosphere, the haunting tapestry, the ancient feud, the supernatural elements (Wilhelm’s soul transferring to the horse in order to punish the young Baron Frederick), the corruption of the soul. I’m not sure if Poe made this to be satire of German gothic stories or if he meant for it to be serious. It doesn’t matter because it’s amazing. You can see that this is a precursor to The Fall of the House of Usher and The Masque of the Red Death, even The Cask of Amontillado. The symbolism and imagery are quite heavy but that is necessary for a gothic story. While it isn’t as deep or involved as The Fall of the House of Usher, Metzengerstein is a fantastic supernatural story about the allure of evil and darkness and the corruption of a soul. I loved every word!

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short story by Edgar Allan Poe which didn't please me much. I've read and listened to other stories of him that were far superior to this one. The writing style is exaggerated and hyperbolic. An audiobook in Portuguese.

[The Bibliophile Doctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thing about reading Poe's short stories is you are able to finish them quite quickly but they leave such an impression on you that you can not take your mind off them for a long time.

Metzengerstein might look a simple gothic story but there's so much more in this story that it made my mind numb. The story is about feud between two families-the Metzengersteins and the Berlifitzings—which is so old that no one knows how far back it dates. At the start an ancient prophecy is mentioned which concerns the rivalry between the two families. It suggests that Berlifitzings might be immortals- "A lofty name shall have a fearful fall when, as the rider over his horse, the mortality of Metzengerstein shall triumph over the immortality of Berlifitzing."

Frederick , an orphan and newly inherited baron of Metzengerstein, begins to show a cruel behavior as soon as he becomes a baron. Within few days, Berlifitzings' place is burned down killing every last of Berlifitzing. Although its not clear but it is indicated that Frederick is responsible for this cruel act.
Among the chaos, Frederick finds a horse unlike others with WVB branded on his forehead. He takes it as a sign that he will be ruling a Berlifitzings as he supposes WVB stands for William Von Berlifitzing.

He becomes obsessed with the horse spending almost whole time with it, controlling it and not caring for his duties. In doing so, he ultimately falls victim to the fulfilment of the prophecy.

The branding on horse's forehead and the tapestry described at the start referrences towards metempsychosis which is in itself a very weird concept. Metempsychosis is a kind of belief that means the soul of a person is attached to another living being. So we are left to wonder if that is what Poe's intentions were with the story.

At the end, as always the interpretation is left for us readers but one conclusion that is very obvious from the story is— nothing good ever comes from hatred and anger.

Again Poe's enchanting and dark tale takes us by surprise and we are left awed.

[A. Dawes · Rating 4 out of 5]

4* A gothic tale on a hyperbolic scale. This one is devoid of subtlety and is rather heavy handed with regards to both the gothic tropes along with its overt symbolism. In this tale, Frederick, the sole living member of the Metzengerstein family line, has a long standing vendetta with the Berlifitzing clan. When a fire destroys the Berlifitzing patriarch, Frederick is suspected. Frederick, however, is obsessed with a wild horse, which has eerily gone unobserved. Metzengerstein's own home is then set alight, and with an ironic justice, the wild horse, with Frederick on it, charges into the flames. A clever case of guilt personified -or guilt hippofied...

[محمد خالد شريف · Rating 3 out of 5]

"الروع، والقتل، والخراب.. من الأحوال الذائعة التي تبقى تُطارد البشر على نطاق رحب فليست مقصورة على عصر دون آخر."

قصة "متزنغيرشتاين" هي القصة المطبوعة الأولى لإدغار ألن بو، وتتناول قصة الصراع بين عائلتين، وتفوق أحدهما على الآخر، ليكتشف وريث العائلة الفائزة، أنه في انتظاره هدية، ولكنها تحمل معها عواقب هائلة.

القصة تحمل الجو القوطي المُميز لأعمال بو، وملامح صراع الشخصيات مع أنفسهم، والتدمير الذاتي الذي يحمله الإنسان بداخله، وهو ما قد تراه في قصص عديدة لبو، منذ بدأت قراءة قصص الأعمال الكاملة، هذه أفضلهم.

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://poemuseum.org/metzengerstein/

I read this for the Edgar Allan Poe Short Story Marathon over at Horror or Heaven group, but sadly I am about one month behind on the actual reading.



I really liked this one, about two rival noble families in Hungary (late medieval? early modern period?). The elements of the story - the horse on the wall tapestry that mysteriously appears alive and present in the manor's courtyard, the obsession, destruction, and death that it brings - reminds me to a great extent of Charles L. Grant's The Pet, with obvious similar themes.

Enjoyable. On to the next EAP story!

[Amanna Nawshin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The origin of this enmity seems to be found in the words of an ancient prophecy--- "A lofty name shall have a fearfull fall when, as the rider over his horse, the mortality of Metzengerstein shall triumph over the immortality of Berlifitzing." ❤❤

[Mónica Cordero Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

En este relato Poe desarrolla ese miedo ilógico a que los objetos de los cuadros o de las fotografías se muevan cuando dejamos de verlos tan sólo por un instante,...
Como siempre, brillante.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very underrated Poe tale, fully encapsulating the classic elements of gothic literature and Victorian ghost stories. The vivid depiction of the infernal horse rising from the plumes of the burning castle was magnificent.

[Saranya ⋆☕︎ ˖ [hibernating] · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Gallop Through Gothic Gloom

Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the macabre and architect of atmosphere, makes me fall in love with his works again!

This tale is perhaps not his most celebrated, nevertheless bears the unmistakable hallmarks of his genius!!! Well, this book was one of Poe's earliest works... so yeah... but it gives a fascinating glimpse into the nascent stages of his literary evolution<3

We get into the ancient, feuding houses of Metzengerstein and Berlifitzing, a rivalry so ingrained it predates memory. Our protagonist, the young and dissolute Baron Frederick von Metzengerstein, inherits his family's vast estates and... more importantly, its simmering hatred at a remarkably tender age- a boy-tyrant whose vices matured faster than his years.

The true heart of the story is the spectral horse that mysteriously appears after a devastating fire at the Berlifitzing stables. This magnificent creature with its "hideous and unnatural" eye, becomes inextricably linked to the baron, forming a bond that transcends the conventional master-steed relationship. The question is- Is it merely a horse or something far more sinister – perhaps the reincarnated spirit of the elder Berlifitzing seeking vengeance from beyond the grave?

This is a foundational piece... with his early fascination with themes of guilt, retribution and the permeability of the veil between the living and the dead. The ending is quite dramatic and darkly poetic.

[Julia Sapphire · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

This was so engaging and interesting. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this!!

[R.F. Gammon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oct. 2025 Poe Short Story #1

Before I read this I wanted to know why I’d never heard of it. Then I read it and understood. So meh. You don’t get to hear anything. This is an earlier version of Masque of the Red Death but desperately try to stir in some Romeo and Juliet.

[Literary Ames · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hatfields & McCoys meets Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton's movie, not the awful book or TV show).

Metzengerstein is Poe’s first published short story, and it was not good. Seven pages of confusing, and almost nonsensical, Hatfields and McCoys tale of two feuding families.

Why give it two stars instead of one? Wikipedia. Yeah, I shouldn’t have to resort to another source in order to understand the story, but I identified the important pieces but didn’t know how to put them together. Once I did, it all made sense.

Vengeance was had on the young head of the Metzengerstein by a manifestation of the dead Berlifitzing patriarch in the form of a demonic horse, who had previously resided (and moved) inside a tapestry. That kind of reminded me of the film adaption of Roald Dahl's The Witches with girl living inside the painting.

Anyway, had this story been written more clearly, it would've been an awesome Halloween read. I loved the imagery of the horse's gothic triumph at the end.

*Read in the Barnes & Noble leatherbound The Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe.

[Tristram Shandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tall in the Saddle

Metzengerstein, which was first published in 1832, was indeed Edgar Allan Poe’s first short story, and the author sent it, along with some other tales, to the Saturday Courier as an entry to a writing competition. Poe did not win the competition with any of his contributions, but the editors of the Courier must have taken a fancy to the story for they published it in one of their later editions.

The story is written in the vein of a Gothic tale and set in (medieval?) Europe, and it plays with the ideas of metempsychosis. Interestingly, it is not quite clear whether Poe meant it to be taken seriously as a dark tale or whether he intended it to be read as a tongue-in-cheek, satirical exaggeration of this genre. There are certainly quite a lot of eggs in the pudding but Poe definitely only used the yolk, treating us to a dense atmosphere that is so typical of his writing.

Like the anti-hero of his story, Poe’s short stories generally show him as sitting tall in the saddle and riding the dancing flames of the fire of his keen imagination.

[Dana Al-Basha | دانة الباشا]

When I was a kid, there was this anime Japanese cartoon that told stories from all over the world, one of them was this story. It was titled "جواد اللهب" which means "horse of flames". I remember that it fascinated me and frightened my younger brother. It was so dark and Frederick was so evil. Now, that I know it's a Poe, I wonder why they did make it into a cartoon, it's too dark for children.



link: حكايات عالمية ـ الحلقة 91 ـ جواد اللهب

[Sauerkirsche · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schöne schaurige Atmosphäre, passend zum herbstlichen Wetter.

[Minh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, the concept of metempsychosis.

[umrah : castiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very vague but fascinating story, and I was very much intrigued in it! Actually read some analyses of it :D

[Mr. Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cautionary tale for unchecked ambition.

[Omar Amat · Rating 4 out of 5]

as good as I remembered.

maybe I'm misinterpreting something, but I didn't got that the rival was burned by the initial fire

[Aletheiia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado aprender el concepto de metempsicosis.

Me hacía ilusión leer el primer relato de este autor, y no me ha decepcionado.
Es verdad que es muy corto y en algunas escenas me he quedado con ganas de que se profundizase más. Aun así, cada uno de los sucesos se puede visualizar con mucha facilidad y el mensaje que transmite se entiende claramente.

Demuestra que el ser humano puede ser tan obstinado e ignorante, como para conducir sus actos según unas palabras o creencias antiguas sin fundamento.

Lo mejor del relato es que consigue que te quedes reflexionando sobre él después de terminarlo, aunque haya sido tan corto.👌

🐎

[Lee Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A free short story ePub file. Lots of introductory French I half-understood, longstanding feuding houses, a meditating young heir in some remote chamber on a hill as unutterable atrocities occur, stables on fire, a supernatural horse. Overwrought syntax. Serious atmospherics. Final image of a cloud of smoke in the form of a colossal horse a plus! Read thanks to mention in Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror in Literature.