Edgar Allan Poe: The Ultimate Collection

by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Poe was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Includes:

Comment On The Poem. (The Raven)
The Raven
The Tell-Tale Heart
Berenice
Eleonora
The Premature Burial
The Domain Of Arnheim
Landor’s Cottage
William Wilson
The Black Cat
The Purloined Letter
The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade
A Descent Into The Maelstrom.
Von Kempelen And His Discovery
Mesmeric Revelation
The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar
The Fall Of The House Of Usher
Silence—A Fable
The Masque Of The Red Death
The Cask Of Amontillado.
The Imp Of The Perverse
The Island Of The Fay
The Assignation
The Pit And The Pendulum
The Murders In The Rue Morgue
The Mystery Of Marie Roget.
The Balloon-Hoax
Ms. Found In A Bottle
The Oval Portrait

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Horror, Short Stories

307 pages, Paperback

Published May 17, 2021

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

[ahrya · Rating 3 out of 5]

there are some hits and some misses. but poe was so very iconic for some of his stories.

[Meg Carson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I started reading this book last October - over a year ago - and have only brought myself to pick it back up again with commitment because it's spooky season and I really, REALLY want to enjoy gothic horror. In fairness, some of the tales are decent, such as the two about Dupin's detective work, or classics like the Raven and the Tell-Tale Heart. However, the philosophical monologuing at the start of most of the stories is an absolute drag, and while these stories may have been scary to a contemporary reader, they fail to put the 'horror' in 'gothic horror' for a modern one. The visual descriptions given are also either shockingly lacking or painfully excessive. When I finished the book this morning, all I felt was joy that I wouldn't ever have to read it again. I would instead recommend picking up a smaller anthology of Poe's works.

[Jacque · Rating 2 out of 5]

FINALLY.. done, ugh! What a drag that was.. there is like 4 good stories that are actually stories and the poem which is interesting. The amount of nonsense and unending descriptions on things like tress and such was very boring to say the least. Some of the so called stories were just ramblings of nothing and had no sense in site. I know he died or was suffering from some sort of poisoning but the fact all these are called classics is beyond me. Nevermind I am not a fan of short stories.. not long enough to be a story. THE END. xD

[Rob · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I enjoyed 3 of his stories about the cat, heart and doppelganger the rest were a complete bore. More like essays or manifestos than an actual story. Honestly some of the most dull, dragging on and on and difficult stories I've ever had the displeasure of trying to get through. I like many author from various times but I despise the way Poe writes and he may be my least favourite author of all time as of now.

[Jade Hallett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are very hit or miss for me. They're either some of the most intriguing pieces of literature ever, or extremely boring and forgettable. Which is a shame, because I went into reading this with extreme enthusiasm.

[Bookworm Loves books 4ever. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took my time reading this. I've been reading it for like 4 years now. I read a short story from this collection once in a while. I absolutely loved some but there were others which didn't "hit" the same. I gave it 5 stars cause I love his writing style.

[zfyekaoce · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were very hit or misd for me. They're either some of the most intriguing pieces of literature ever, or they're extremely boring and forgettable. Which is a shame, because I came into reading this with extreme enthusiasm.

[Claire Haddag · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'était compliqué à lire mais sympathique