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Great Tales of Terror
Welcome to a world of terror... Each descending sweep of the sharp pendulum brings the prisoner closer to death. One stroke neatly slices his robe. Another brings agonizing pain. Surely the next will end it all...
If you like stories of mystery and suspense, get ready for Great Tales of Terror, by Edgar Allen Poe. This nightmarish collection includes these famous tales: "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Black Cat," and "Ligeia."
--back cover
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Cask of Amontillado
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Black Cat
Ligeia
If you like stories of mystery and suspense, get ready for Great Tales of Terror, by Edgar Allen Poe. This nightmarish collection includes these famous tales: "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Black Cat," and "Ligeia."
--back cover
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Cask of Amontillado
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Black Cat
Ligeia
131 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1845
5 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,797 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 23, 2013
I hadn't read any Poe since like sixth grade, but it was totally some Edgar weather the other night so I pulled this shit off my shelf and read it while I made tacos and smoked weed. So sick! Hell is real!
November 28, 2014
I Poe'd my pants at how spooky they were!!
November 5, 2022
4.5/5 review coming soon
September 29, 2023
Ive not slept well, eaten much, or felt a moment of relief since reading this book.
None of these are related to finishing it, I have had food poisoning. The books aight tho I guess
None of these are related to finishing it, I have had food poisoning. The books aight tho I guess
September 2, 2015
The story of the black cat was really good, but none of these stories are actually SCARY!
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September 19, 2024This is the first time I’ve not been able to give a solid rating for a book I’ve read. I feel like with the writing style being so old and different it was just harder for me to get into some of the tales. I found it a little easier for my mind to wander or get distracted and then I’d have to back track because I had no idea what I just read. I’m not saying the stories sucked, I just had a hard time paying attention unless I had time completely to myself. I would like to read other stories by this author and maybe even give these same ones a try again when I have the opportunity to really sit down without any interruptions. I probably enjoyed the black cat one and The Fall of the House of Usher . If you’ve never read his work I still encourage you to give it a shot and see what you think.
June 5, 2017
I had read a few of the stories previously in school, and remember enjoying them. Poe definitely has some recurring themes throughout this collection, but that doesn't make them necessarily less memorable in execution. His prose evokes very vivid image in the mind of the reader not by detailed descriptions of characters and settings, but by the atmosphere the events play out in. Having not ready widely of his work, I suspect it is characteristic of them but don't know for sure.
Interestingly, the final short story in this book, MS. Found in a Bottle, isn't included in the table of contents.
Interestingly, the final short story in this book, MS. Found in a Bottle, isn't included in the table of contents.
July 9, 2020
Poe was definitely a talented writer with an immense vocabulary but his stories always seem to leave you hanging and feeling like something is missing.
December 10, 2020
Anyone who is a fan of horror can find something to love in this book. Edgar Allan Poe was a genius at building suspense and thankfully, his stories are timeless.
June 6, 2024
Always a good time 🐦⬛
October 21, 2025
It's been more than a decade since I last read Poe; I'd forgotten that macabre as his work is, it's still more poetic.
November 7, 2025
I've always been a fan of Poe, so since I haven't read this book since the mid 90s, I thought it was a good time to revisit it.
The Pit and the Pendulum
- one of Poe's most popular works. It appears to take place during the Inquisition which I don't know much about. I don't fully understand why the main character is being tortured in the first place. I do find it funny that Poe writes that the character "unclosed" his eyes instead of simply just "open".
The Cask of Amontillado
- another one of Poe's popular works and this is probably one of my favorites. Again, I'm not sure why the main character wants to bury his friend alive, but I love their back and forth.
The Fall of the House of Usher
- I feel this one is popular as well, but I'm not super sure why. Also, I don't fully understand what happens in the end. There's a giant crack mentioned at the start and in the end it just widens and that's the end of the house. I'm not sure why the main character's friend thinks he buried his twin sister alive, but since he does, that's what haunts him and that is which ends the House.
The Black Cat
- I liked this one a lot except that the main character cuts out a cat's eye and then hangs it, but he does get his just desserts in the end
Ligeia
- this story is one I'm not super familiar with. The main character laments the loss of his first wife Ligeia, who he goes on and on about her, and then remarries after Ligeia's death but since can't get over her. When his second wife then becomes ill, she somehow gets possessed by the main character's first wife. The main character is also using opium so that explains why he could be hallucinating
Ms. Found in a Bottle
- what's odd is that this story isn't listed in the table of contents of this book so I was surprised that after I finished Ligeia that this story was here. I'm glad I looked up what ms. meant in the Pit and the Pendulum as it's the abbreviation for manuscript. So in this story, the main character feels that his ship will sink, which it does, so he leaves behind a manuscript in a bottle for others to read.
The Pit and the Pendulum
- one of Poe's most popular works. It appears to take place during the Inquisition which I don't know much about. I don't fully understand why the main character is being tortured in the first place. I do find it funny that Poe writes that the character "unclosed" his eyes instead of simply just "open".
The Cask of Amontillado
- another one of Poe's popular works and this is probably one of my favorites. Again, I'm not sure why the main character wants to bury his friend alive, but I love their back and forth.
The Fall of the House of Usher
- I feel this one is popular as well, but I'm not super sure why. Also, I don't fully understand what happens in the end. There's a giant crack mentioned at the start and in the end it just widens and that's the end of the house. I'm not sure why the main character's friend thinks he buried his twin sister alive, but since he does, that's what haunts him and that is which ends the House.
The Black Cat
- I liked this one a lot except that the main character cuts out a cat's eye and then hangs it, but he does get his just desserts in the end
Ligeia
- this story is one I'm not super familiar with. The main character laments the loss of his first wife Ligeia, who he goes on and on about her, and then remarries after Ligeia's death but since can't get over her. When his second wife then becomes ill, she somehow gets possessed by the main character's first wife. The main character is also using opium so that explains why he could be hallucinating
Ms. Found in a Bottle
- what's odd is that this story isn't listed in the table of contents of this book so I was surprised that after I finished Ligeia that this story was here. I'm glad I looked up what ms. meant in the Pit and the Pendulum as it's the abbreviation for manuscript. So in this story, the main character feels that his ship will sink, which it does, so he leaves behind a manuscript in a bottle for others to read.
April 12, 2013
I still liked it, even though it was not my type of book. The tales kept me going to know what other stories there are, especially because of the first one (The Pit and the Pendulum) made me shiver. This book was okay because the stories were amusing and they also gave descriptive things to make you feel like how the main character was like. This book was also bad because i felt like the stories were a little too short, and I am also kind of biased against this book because it is not my type of book, especially when I read action and fantasy books, but it was still okay.
November 4, 2011
Top notch Poe classics. I love how the victim escapes from the lowering pendulum axe!
July 29, 2012
Still creeps me out that people can think and write of things like this... even back then...
May 1, 2015
Solid collection of some of Poe's more famous stories. Good mix of different types of horror. About as good as it gets for a quick introduction to Poe.
October 1, 2014
This is some serious horror; Poe was the original goth haha
I can't wait to introduce these books to my students -perfect Halloween reading :)
I can't wait to introduce these books to my students -perfect Halloween reading :)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews