The Annotated Tales of Edgar Allan Poe

by Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen Peithman (Editor)

Marginal notes and illustrations accompany a collection of Poe's short stories, offering an interpretation of such tales as the Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum.

Contents
METZENGERSTEIN-MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE-THE ASSIGNATION-BERENICE-MORELLA-LIGEIA-THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER-WILLIAM WILSON-A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM-THE OVAL PORTRAIT-THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH-THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM-THE TELL TALE HEART-THE BLACK CAT-THE PREMATURE BURIAL-THE IMP OF THE PERVERSE-THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO-HOP FROG-THE MAN OF THE CROWD-THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE-THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET-THE GOLD BUG-THE OBLONG BOX-THE PURLOINED LETTER-THOU ART THE MAN-THE DUC DE LOMELETTE-A TALE OF JERUSALEM-BON BON-FOUR BEASTS IN ONE-LIONIZING-MYSTIFICATION-HOW TO WRITE A BLACKWOOD ARTICLE-A PREDICAMENT-THE DEVIL IN THE BELFRY-WHY THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN WEARS HIS HAND IN A SLING-THE BUSINESS MAN-NEVER BET THE DEVIL YOUR HEAD-THE SPECTACLES-THE SYSTEM OF DOCTOR TARR AND PROFESSOR FETHER-THE LITERARY LIFE OF THINGUM BOB ESQ-THE THOUSAND AND SECOND TALE OF SCHEHERAZADE-SOME WORDS WITH A MUMMY-X ING A PARAGRAB-LOSS OF BREATH-SHADOW A PARABLE-SILENCE A FABLE-THE UNPARALLELED ADVENTURE OF ONE HANS PFAALL-KING PEST-THE MAN THAT WAS USED UP-THE ISLAND OF THE FAY-ELEONORA-THREE SUNDAYS IN A WEEK-A TALE OF THE RAGGED MOUNTAINS-MESMERIC REVELATION-THE BALLOON HOAX-THE ANGEL OF THE ODD-THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF m. VALDEMAR-THE SPHINX-THE DOMAIN OF ARNHEIM-MELLONTA TAUTA-VON KEMPELEN AND HIS DISCOVERY-LANDOR'S COTTAGE.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

683 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1981

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

[Ryan Copping · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yup. This is just what it says on the cover, and awesome. If you want a near-complete collection of Poe’s short stories combined with very enlightening commentary, this is the one stop shop you’ve been looking for. The only thing that might be a slight drawback is that some of Poe’s more obscure short fiction are not included, perhaps because they does not fit the criteria for a “tale” (something the editors acknowlege in their introduction).

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am now an official Poe fan! My favorite story was "The Black Cat," it made me cringe and I couldn't put it down. It was also very nice to have the side notes for the stories that I've read before and gain an insight into the writings of Poe. I loved it!

[Charlie Eckhaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

MS Found in a Bottle: Masterpiece of sustained horror, easy to see why his career was launched in earnest by its winning a contest.

Morella is rife with allusive phrases which impedes the comprehension of what is going on. A degree of redundancy is no help.

(to be continued)

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure when I started this, or when I will finish it all, but I know it will be worth the wait.