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Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry, Tales, and Selected Essays
Read throughout the world, admired by Dostoyevsky and translated by Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe has become a legendary figure, representing the artist as obsessed outcast and romantic failure. His nightmarish visions, shaped by cool artistic calculation, reveal some of the dark possibilities of human experience. His enormous popularity and his continuing influence of literature depend less on legend or vision than on his stylistic and formal accomplishments as a writer of fiction and a great lyric poet.
In this complete and uniquely authoritative Library of America collection, well-known tales of “mystery and imagination” and his best-known verse are collected with early poems, rarely published stories and humorous sketches, and the ecstatic prose poem Eureka .
But his enormous popularity and his continuing influence on literature depend less on legend or vision than on his stylistic and formal accomplishments as a writer of fiction and as a great lyric poet (“always for all lands,” as Yeats said), famous for the sensuous musicality of “To Helen,” “The City in the Sea,” and “Annabel Lee” and for the hypnotic, incantatory rhythms of “The Raven” and “Ulalume.”
“The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Cask of Amontillado” show Poe’s mastery of Gothic horror; his “The Pit and the Pendulum” is a classic of terror and suspense. He invented the modern detective story, as in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and developed the form of science fiction that was to influence, among others, Jules Verne and Thomas Pynchon.
Poe was also adept at the humorous sketch of playful jeu d’esprit, such as “X-ing a Paragraph” or “Never Bet the Devil Your Head.” All his stories reveal his high regard for technical proficiency and for what he called “ratiocination.”
Poe’s fugitive early poems, stories rarely collected (such as “Bon-Bon,” “King Pest,” “Mystification,” and "The Duc De L’Omelette), his only attempt at drama, "Politian"—these and much more are included in this comprehensive collection, presented chronologically to show Poe’s development as a writer, his oeuvre culminates in his vision of an indeterminate universe, A Prose Poem , his culminating vision of an indeterminate universe, printed here for the first time as Poe revised it and intended it should stand.
A special feature of this volume is the care taken to select an authoritative text of each work. The printing and publishing history of every item has been investigated in order to choose a version that incorporates all of Poe’s own revisions without reproducing the errors or changes introduced by later editors. Here, then, is one of America’s and the world’s most disturbing, powerful, and inventive writers published in “the first truly dependable collection of Poe’s poetry and tales.”
In this complete and uniquely authoritative Library of America collection, well-known tales of “mystery and imagination” and his best-known verse are collected with early poems, rarely published stories and humorous sketches, and the ecstatic prose poem Eureka .
But his enormous popularity and his continuing influence on literature depend less on legend or vision than on his stylistic and formal accomplishments as a writer of fiction and as a great lyric poet (“always for all lands,” as Yeats said), famous for the sensuous musicality of “To Helen,” “The City in the Sea,” and “Annabel Lee” and for the hypnotic, incantatory rhythms of “The Raven” and “Ulalume.”
“The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Cask of Amontillado” show Poe’s mastery of Gothic horror; his “The Pit and the Pendulum” is a classic of terror and suspense. He invented the modern detective story, as in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and developed the form of science fiction that was to influence, among others, Jules Verne and Thomas Pynchon.
Poe was also adept at the humorous sketch of playful jeu d’esprit, such as “X-ing a Paragraph” or “Never Bet the Devil Your Head.” All his stories reveal his high regard for technical proficiency and for what he called “ratiocination.”
Poe’s fugitive early poems, stories rarely collected (such as “Bon-Bon,” “King Pest,” “Mystification,” and "The Duc De L’Omelette), his only attempt at drama, "Politian"—these and much more are included in this comprehensive collection, presented chronologically to show Poe’s development as a writer, his oeuvre culminates in his vision of an indeterminate universe, A Prose Poem , his culminating vision of an indeterminate universe, printed here for the first time as Poe revised it and intended it should stand.
A special feature of this volume is the care taken to select an authoritative text of each work. The printing and publishing history of every item has been investigated in order to choose a version that incorporates all of Poe’s own revisions without reproducing the errors or changes introduced by later editors. Here, then, is one of America’s and the world’s most disturbing, powerful, and inventive writers published in “the first truly dependable collection of Poe’s poetry and tales.”
Library Binding
First published January 1, 1914
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About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,876 books28.6k 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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February 14, 2020
Edgar Allan Poe is probably (with Washington Irving) the greatest initiator of the short story tradition in American literature, later followed by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, or Stephen King in the present day. To be sure, the tales included in this volume are fascinating and explore a wide range of genres. All are told in the first person, maybe to convey a sense of intense realism and immediacy. I’ll only (and briefly) review a few of them to give a rough idea of the subject and scope of these tales:
MS. Found in a Bottle and A Descent into the Maelström are tales of the sea, which depict sublime (romantic) and terrifying pictures of man’s derelict state when confronted with the extreme fury of the elements. These tales are in a vein not unlike The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and probably were later an inspiration to Herman Melville and Jules Verne.
The Pit and the Pendulum, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Cask of Amontillado and Hop-Frog are mainly suspense and horror stories, where some deathly or gruesome events take primacy and are described in detail within the narrative. These tales have infused most of the gothic movement, from Oscar Wilde to Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft and, (again) in present time, Stephen King. (I can’t help but think that Valdemar gave J.K. Rowling the initial idea for the character of Voldemort.)
The Murder in the Rue Morgue and The Purloin Letter are, as is well known, the forerunners of the detective story genre. As a result, looking back two centuries away, these stories feel a bit clumsy and tedious. Auguste Dupin (the French detective in Poe’s tales) is the ancestor of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle), Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie), Don Isidro Parodi (Jorge Luis Borges), Sam Spade (Dashiell Hammett) and so forth. The Man of the Crowd is an odd example of the same genre.
A striking aspect of these tales is that they are midway between Poe’s poems (through the precision of the composition) and his philosophical work, namely Eureka (through the somewhat fantastical conjectures and speculations). In any event, these tales are at the root of most of the contemporary literature. They are, above all, a genuine delight (although sometimes a nightmare) to read.
MS. Found in a Bottle and A Descent into the Maelström are tales of the sea, which depict sublime (romantic) and terrifying pictures of man’s derelict state when confronted with the extreme fury of the elements. These tales are in a vein not unlike The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and probably were later an inspiration to Herman Melville and Jules Verne.
The Pit and the Pendulum, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Cask of Amontillado and Hop-Frog are mainly suspense and horror stories, where some deathly or gruesome events take primacy and are described in detail within the narrative. These tales have infused most of the gothic movement, from Oscar Wilde to Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft and, (again) in present time, Stephen King. (I can’t help but think that Valdemar gave J.K. Rowling the initial idea for the character of Voldemort.)
The Murder in the Rue Morgue and The Purloin Letter are, as is well known, the forerunners of the detective story genre. As a result, looking back two centuries away, these stories feel a bit clumsy and tedious. Auguste Dupin (the French detective in Poe’s tales) is the ancestor of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle), Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie), Don Isidro Parodi (Jorge Luis Borges), Sam Spade (Dashiell Hammett) and so forth. The Man of the Crowd is an odd example of the same genre.
A striking aspect of these tales is that they are midway between Poe’s poems (through the precision of the composition) and his philosophical work, namely Eureka (through the somewhat fantastical conjectures and speculations). In any event, these tales are at the root of most of the contemporary literature. They are, above all, a genuine delight (although sometimes a nightmare) to read.
June 14, 2023
Labai specifinis kūrinys, patiks tikrai ne kiekvienam. Pagr. knygos istorija 'Žmogžudystė Morgo gatvėje' man labai priminė Šerloką Holmsą - ypatingas dėmesys visoms detalėms ir smulkmenoms, visą įvykių seką nuspėja net ten, kur policija bejėgė.
Pačio autoriaus gyvenimas labai sudėtingas - skurdas, žmonos mirtis, alkoholis, opijus, prarasta dvasinė pusiausvyra. Turbūt visa tai susidėjo ir paveikė jo kūrybą.
Tobulai aprašo siaubą, dvasines ir fizines kančias, irimą, mirtį, liguistas proto būsenas ir fantazijas.
Edgar Allan Poe - laikomas fantastikos ir siaubo, detektyvo žanro pradininku.
Labai savotiški, keisti, sudėtingi ir niūrūs kūriniai, bet susipažinti su šiuo autoriumi verta 🙂
🖋 ..gražios moters mirtis yra, be abejo, pati poetiškiausia tema pasaulyje.
🖋 ..riba, kur sumišusi tikrovė ir sapnas.
Pačio autoriaus gyvenimas labai sudėtingas - skurdas, žmonos mirtis, alkoholis, opijus, prarasta dvasinė pusiausvyra. Turbūt visa tai susidėjo ir paveikė jo kūrybą.
Tobulai aprašo siaubą, dvasines ir fizines kančias, irimą, mirtį, liguistas proto būsenas ir fantazijas.
Edgar Allan Poe - laikomas fantastikos ir siaubo, detektyvo žanro pradininku.
Labai savotiški, keisti, sudėtingi ir niūrūs kūriniai, bet susipažinti su šiuo autoriumi verta 🙂
🖋 ..gražios moters mirtis yra, be abejo, pati poetiškiausia tema pasaulyje.
🖋 ..riba, kur sumišusi tikrovė ir sapnas.
December 29, 2019
Pirmiausia pradėsiu nuo knygos apipavidalinimo. Leidykla tikrai pasistengė sukurti tikrą šedevrą- tokios prabangios knygos dar neturėjau: aukso spalvos metaliniai kampai, raudona atlasinė juostelė- skirtukas, popierius gan storas ir kiekvienas lapas atspausdintas su raudono atspalvio frame, kiekvienos istorijos pavadinimas parašytas raudonu old-style šriftu, nuostabios ir tuo pačiu kraupios Harry Clarke iliustracijos, knygos gale trumpa rašytojo biografija ir kiekvienos istorijos paaiškinimai. (Nors knygoje rašoma, kad istorijos sudėliotos chronologine tvarka, tačiau kai pradėjau ieškoti angliškų originalų pamačiau, kad truputį sumaišyta chronologija). Toks fantastiškas leidimas vertas kiekvieno mano cento ir dar daugiau. Dabar tai mano bibliotekos Šventasis Gralis.
Na, o pats Poe- mano autoritetas ir idol. Tik jo vieno kūryba tokia artima mano juodai sielai. Aš kaip ir jis pats gyvenu „tarp realybės ir sapno“, mano pačio knygose susilieja siaubas, romantika ir keistenybės. Poe yra mano sielos dvynys ir vienas iš mylimiausių autorių. Tad turėti tokią jo knygą kaip ši- man ekstaziškai didžiausia palaima šiame niekam tikusiame gyvenime.
Knyga prasideda įžymiąja poema „Varnas“. Kelios dienos po šios knygos pradėjimo skaityti vaikščiojau gatvėmis ir man virš galvos sukos varna. xD Pajuto ką šiuo metu skaičiau, nelaboji.
1. MECENGERŠTEINAS. (Metzengerstein. 1832)
Trumpa mistiška istorija apie baroną ir keistą (velnio apsėstą xD) jo žirgą. Lyg kokia keista siaubo pasakėlė (iš rūsio) prieš miegą.
2. RANKRAŠTIS, RASTAS BUTELYJE. (Manuscript Found in a Bottle. 1833)
Jūra. Laivas. Ir kažkieno dienoraštis. Pasinėręs į šią istoriją ėmiau galvoti apie Davy Jones iš „Karibų Piratų“. xD Nes būtent taip įsivaizdavau tą keistą Poe laivą pasiklydusį kažkokioj keistoj vietoj.
3. PASIMATYMAS. (The Assignation. 1834)
Venecija... Italija... ACH... Bet labai keista istorija su dar keistesne pabaiga.
4. BERENIKĖ (Berenice. 1835)
Viena iš mano mėgstamiausių istorijų, nes ji kraupi ir su siaubinga pabaiga verta siaubo filmo. Šitoje istorijoje rašytojas atrodo aprašė mane ŽODIS ŽODIN. O_O Štai citatos, kurių negaliu užmiršti iki šiol, ir kurias skaičiau gal dešimt ar dvidešimt kartų, nes negalėjau patikėti akimis kaip TIKSLIAI tai esu.. aš. Atrodo lyg PATS būčiau užrašęs šiuos sakinius. (47 psl.)
„ Tuo tarpu mano paties liga- buvau lieptas jos kitaip nevadinti- mane visai baigė priveikti ir galop virto mįslinga, sulig kiekviena akimirka ir valanda stiprėjančia monomanija. Ji liguitai dirgino mano dvasios savybes, kurias metafizikai vadina atida. Tikriausiai daugeliui mano žodžiai bus nesuprantami, tačiau bijau, kad nepajėgsiu suprantamai paaiškinti neišmanančiam skaitytojui, kaip nežmoniškai turėdavau įsitempti, norėdamas sutelkti dėmesį į kokį nors daiktą, kiek kūno ir sielos pastangų (netiksliai sakant) reikėdavo sutelkti, mąstant apie paprasčiausius aplinkos daiktus.“
„Valandų valandas nepavargdamas galėjau stebeilytis į knygos paraštę arba šriftą. Visą vasaros dieną praleisdavau atidžiai žiūrinėdamas šešėlį, nutįsusį ant gobeleno ar grindų, ligi pat paryčių leisdavau naktis, įbedęs akis į lempos liepsną ar židinio žarijas, ištisas dienas mąstydavau apie gėlių kvapus, nuobodžiai kartodavau kokį nors paprastą žodį tol, kol garsų junginys netekdavo prasmės, sėdėdavau sustingęs ir suakmenėjęs, praradęs buvimo pojūtį- tokius tat pražūtingus įgeidžius sukeldavo man manoji dvasios būsena, gal ne tiek retai sutinkama, kiek sunkiai paaiškinama.“
„O visų mano minčių objektas dažniausiai būdavo nereikšmingas dalykas, kuris tačiau, iškreiptas sudirgusios vaizduotės, man tapdavo ypatingai svarbus. “
5. MORELA (Morella. 1835)
Trumpa, bet šiurpi ir įdomi istorija. Mirtis pagimdo gyvenimą ir vėl ratas sukasi iš pradžių- turbūt taip apibūdinčiau šią istoriją.
6. LIGIJA. (Ligeia. 1838)
Kaip ir daugelyje Poe kūrinių- jis pasakoja apie savo žmonos mirtį. Tai galima pastebėti „Berenikėje“, „Moreloje“ ir štai vėl ta pati situacija čia. Tai, kad autorius šitiek darbų dedikavo savo mirusiai žmonai ir nesibaigiančiam savo gedului, yra neišpasakytai tobula ir gražu. Galbūt mirtis ir yra siaubinga, bet štai kiek įkvėpimo ji gali duoti, jei tik sugebi panaudoti savo skausmą kūrybai. O šioje istorijoje tai labai aiškiai atsiskleidžia. O pabaiga kaip visada šiurpiai klaiki.
7. NEPRILYGSTAMAS HANSO PFALIO NUOTYKIS. (The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall. 1835)
Tikrai LABAI ilga, bet prikaustanti dėmesį istorija. Kuriozinis sci-fiction balandžio 1-ajai. Pakėlė nuotaiką kaip reta ir prisijuokiau iki soties. Kaip trumpai apibūdinti šitą istoriją? Galbūt taip: Tas jausmas, kai užknisa gyventi, bet nenori mirtis, tad pasidarai balioną, pasiimi nėščią katę bei balandžių ir skrendi gyventi į Mėnulį. xD (Kažkam reiktų sukurti meme pagal šitai. xD)
8. KARALIUS MARAS. (King Pest. 1835)
Siaubo komedija. xD Kitaip nepavadinsi. Tikrai man patiko ir prisijuokiau iki soties. Ypač tas lavonas kabantis ant lubų- grynai japonų „Pagieža“ kur buvo pakabinusi negyvą vyrą ant lubų su savo plaukais, o tas supos ir su kojom bildino sieną kas sukėlė įtarimą kaimynams. xD Kažkas turėtų sukurti filmą pagal šitą apsakymą.
9. ŠEŠĖLIS. (Shadow: A Parable 1835)
Vieno lapo siaubo istorija Graikijoje. Ne kažką čia apibūdinsi plačiau iš tiek...
10. TYLA. (Silence. 1838)
Tai vos poros lapų istorija, kurią sunku suprasti, bet galima pajausti niūrią atmosferą.
11. AŠERIŲ NAMŲ ŽLUGIMAS. (The Fall of the House of Usher. 1839)
Niūraus namo niūrių žmonių niūrus pasakojimas. Nelabai ir suprasi kas ten kuom sirgo ir kodėl mirė- tų laikų medicinos terminai visiškai skiriasi nuo dabartinių ir sunku suprasti kaip žmogus gali mirti iš baimės. xD Galbūt belieka tik paaiškinimas, kad bepročiai mirė beprotiška mirtimi.
12. VILJAMAS VILSONAS. (William Wilson. 1839)
Man gan patiko ši istorija, nes veikėjas labai priminė mane patį. Iš pradžių galvojau gal tai koks paralelinio pasaulio pasireiškimas, po to baigus skaityti pagalvojau gal tai buvo psichikos liga... tačiau iki šiol nesuprantu kas tai buvo. Labiausiai man įstrigo šita citata, nes ji 100% apibūdina mane patį:
„ Suaugusiems mažų dienų prisiminimai retai bent kiek giliau įsirėžia atmintin. Telieka pilkas šydas- vargani prisiminimų trupiniai, padrikos liekanos smulkių džiaugsmelių ir fantasmagoriškų kančių. Mano likimas susiklostė kitaip. Tikriausiai jau jaunumėje galėjau jausti stipriai, kaip suaugęs žmogus, ir vaikiškos dienos giliai, amžiams atsispaudė mano sąmonėje, nelyginant exergues, išgraviruoti katarginietiškuose medaliuose. “
13. MINIOS ŽMOGUS. (The Man of the Crowd. 1840)
Istorijos pavadinimas kalba pats už save. Man kilo mintis, jog istorijos veikėjas (senis) buvo energetinis vampyras ir būtent dėl to jis nušvisdavo atsidūręs tarp žmonių, nes taip gaudavo iš jų energijos. (Turbūt taip pagalvojau, nes pats esu energetinis vampyras xD) Bet nors ir trumpa istorija- išlaikė dėmesį ir susidomėjimą iki galo. (Nors tas galas pasirodė visai neįdomus xD)
Labiausiai man patiko La Briujeno citata pačioje istorijos pradžioje:
„ Ce grand malheur, de ne pouvoir être seul. “ (Visos mūsų nelaimės atsiranda todėl, kad mes nemokame būti vieni.)
14. ŽMOGŽUDYSTĖ MORGO GATVĖJE. (The Murders in the Rue Morgue. 1841)
Ilga detektyvinė istorija, kuri neleido atsitraukti nuo knygos, nes knietėjo sužinoti, kad žudikas ir pabaiga nustebino... nors tai nebuvo nieko antgamtiško, bet tikrai sukūrė įdomią pabaigą. Istorijos veikėjai lyg Šerlokas ir Vatsonas. :D
15. MALSTREMO GELMĖSE. (A Descent into the Maelström. 1841)
Istorija apie vandens verpetą ir iš tikrųjų nieko įdomesnio... Meh.
16. FĖJOS SALA. (The Island of the Fay. 1841)
Labai trumpa istorija be jokio veiksmo, apie paslaptingą salą. Tačiau tai, tik vietovės aprašymas ir nieko įdomesnio...
17. MONOSO IR UNOS POKALBIS. (Colloquy of Monos and Una. 1841)
Trumpa istorija parašyta dialogo forma kaip dviejų žmonių pokalbis apie reinkarnaciją. Tam, kas bijo mirties ir kas vyksta po to- neskaityti. xD
18. ELEONORA. (Eleonora. 1841)
Labai romantiška trumpa istorija, kurioje greičiausiai autorius pasakoja apie save ir savo žmoną.
19. OVALUS PORTRETAS. (The Oval Portrait. 1842)
Vos poros lapų istorija apie dailininką ir jo žmonos portretą.
20. RAUDONOSIOS MIRTIES KAUKĖ. (The Masque of the Red Death. 1842)
Norėjo žmogeliai pabėgti ir užsidaryti nuo ligos, bet deja... xD Ta „raudonoji mirtis“ man labai priminė Ebolą, bet tais laikais ji dar neegzistavo...
21. ARNHEIMO DVARAS. (The Domain of Arnheim. 1842)
Ilga nuobodybė be jokio veiksmo. Vos laikiausi neužmigęs. Vien „grožio sąvokos filosofija“ ir likusi dalis kraštovaizdžio aprašinėjimas itin detaliai... Žiauriai nemėgstu tokių dalykų knygose.
22. MARO ROŽĖ PASLAPTIS. (The Mystery of Marie Roget. 1842-1843)
Antra dalis „Žmogžudystės Morgo gatvėje“. Labai ilga apie merginos nužudymą, kurios gale... laukia nusivylimas, nes nieko konkretaus negavau. Taip, kad istorijos galas „pats darykis išvadas kaip sau nori“. xD
23. ŠULINYS IR ŠVYTUOKLĖ. (The Pit and the Pendulum. 1842-1843)
Istorija grynai kaip iš „Pjūklo 5“. xD Beskaitant iškart prisiminiau identišką sceną iš to filmo.
24. IŠDAVIKĖ ŠIRDIS. (The Tell-Tale Heart. 1843)
Trumpa bepročio istorija apie kažkokį senį. Jų santykiai nebuvo įvardinti: ar tai tėvas ir sūnus, ar beprotis-slaugas ir senis ligonis... tad KODĖL jie gyveno kartu- palikta mūsų vaizduotei.
25. AUKSINIS VABALAS (The Gold-Bug, 1843)
Ilga, bet labai įdomi nuotykių istorija, iš kurios pavadinimo nebūtum atspėjęs, jog pasisuks tokia linkme. Buvo neįmanoma padėti į šoną, nes su kiekvienu sakiniu norėjosi sužinoti „kuom tai baigsis“. Be to šioje istorijoje nebuvo siaubo, vien tik detektyvinis-nuotykis.
26. JUODASIS KATINAS. (The Black Cat, 1843)
Kaip ilgai aš norėjau perskaityti šią istoriją! Tačiau tai baisiausia istorija, kokią tik kada nors teko skaityti.. o_o Kūną ėmė purtyti šiurpas kai skaičiau, o mano katės gulėjo lovos krašto... Labiausiai man patiko citata:
„ Nesavanaudiška ir pasiaukojanti gyvūno meilė būtinai pavergs širdį žmogaus, ne sykį patyrusio žmogiškosios draugystės ir tariamos ištikimybės trapumą. “
27. MULKINIMAS KAIPO TIKSLUSIS MOKSLAS. (Diddling. 1843)
Tai lyg kažkokia esė apie sukčius.
28. AKINIAI (The Spectacles. 1844)
Nuostabi ir pamokanti komedija. Pagrindinis veikėjas kaip ir aš nenorėjo nešioti akinių. Geras moralas visiems, kad nemėgsta jų nešioti. xD Ir tikrai tikroviškai papasakota, nes būtent be akinių/kontaktinių lęšių aš irgi matau tik pasaulio iliuziją, o ne tikrąjį vaizdą. Taip, kad NEŠIOKIT KOREKCINES PRIEMONES, O BUS KAIP TAM VYRUI. xD
29. APYSAKA APIE UOLĖTUOSIUS KALNUS. (A Tale of the Ragged Mountains. 1844)
Keista istorija, kurios nesupratau.
30. GYVŲJŲ LAIDOJIMAS. (The Premature Burial. 1844)
Pavadinimas viską sako už save. Poe čia pateikia trumpus aprašymus apie žmones, kuriems taip nutiko.
31. MESMERIŠKAS APREIŠKIMAS. (Mesmeric Revelation, 1844)
Gydytojo ir ligonio pokalbis apie gyvenimo prasmę, mirtį ir patį gyvenimą. Tas mesmerizmas kažko man atrodo lyg bus paprasčiausia hipnozė, nes užhipnotizuotas žmogus „per miegus“ išlieka sąmoningas.
32. PAILGA DĖŽĖ. (The Oblong Box. 1844)
Istorija apie laivo katastrofą ir paslaptingą dėžę bei kas ten viduj.
33. „TU ESI ANAS VYRAS“ (Thou Art the Man. 1844)
Detektyvinė istorija su kraupia pabaiga. Tikrai buvo įdomi ir prikaustė dėmesį iki pat galo. Man labiausiai patiko citata, kuri 100% apie mane:
“ Turbūt ne sykį esate pastebėję, kaip žmonėms, sugniuždytiems skausmo ir širdperšos, atsiranda polinkis į lūkuriavimą ir delsimą. Rodos, kažkas surakina jų protus, tokius žmonius pagauna siaubas vien pamanius, kad reikia ką nors daryti, ir labiausiai už viską pasaulyje jie trokšta gulėti lovose ir, senučių kalba šnekant, „slaugyti savo širdies žaizdą“- kitaip sakant, mąstyti apie savo graužatį. “
34. PAVOGTAS LAIŠKAS. (The Purloined Letter. 1844-1845)
Trečia dalis „Žmogžudystės Morgo gatvėje“. Vėl įdomi neilga detektyvinė istorija apie laišką ir jo radimą.
35. TŪKSTANTIS ANTROJI ŠACHEREZADOS PASAKA (The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade, 1845)
Šita „pasaka“ tikras 19 a. sci-fiction. xD Negalėjau nustoti skaityti, nes buvo itin įdomu. O dar ir mano orchidėjos paminėtos! xD
36. PAŠNEKESYS SU MUMIJA. (Some Words with a Mummy, 1845)
Gan kuriozinė istorija apie pokalbį su mumija. xD Prisikėlė kaip koks Imotepas, tik šiuo atveju jie naudojo ne knygą, o bateriją. xD
37. DAKTARO DERVOS IR PROFESORIAUS PLUNKSNOS SISTEMA. (The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether. 1845)
Pagaliau gavau perskaityti įžymiąją istoriją pagal, kurią sukurtas filmas „Eliza Graves“!!!! Kaip ilgai laukiau kol gausiu paskaityti. Ir galiu pasakyti, kad filmas buvo GEROKAI įdomesnis! Nes filme pateikta daugiau veikėjų, jų istorijų ir veiksmas vyksta ilgesnį laiką. Be to nebuvo mano mylimos anglių krūvos.. >_> Žiauriai nuvylė originali istorija, kai filmas man taip patiko. -_-
38. TIESA APIE TAI, KAS NUTIKO PONUI VALDEMARUI (The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, 1845)
Hipnozės seansas su mirusiu LENKŲ VERTĖJU. xD Kitaip nepavadinsi. Bjauri ir šlykšti pabaiga.
39. AMONTILJADO STATINAITĖ. (The Cask of Amontillado. 1846)
Šaltakraujiškas italų masono kerštas. Paskutiniai žodžiai kaip Ezio iš „Assassin‘s Creed“: „In pace requiescat“.
40. VARLIŪKŠTIS. (Hop-Frog. 1849)
Žiaurus juokdario kerštas. Išlaikė dėmesį iki pat galo, nes buvo įdomu kuom viskas baigsis.
41. FON KĖMPELENAS IR JO ATRADIMAS. (Von Kempelen and His Discovery. 1849)
Lyg kažkoks straipsnis laikraščiui ar kažkas panašaus... Meh.
Na, o pats Poe- mano autoritetas ir idol. Tik jo vieno kūryba tokia artima mano juodai sielai. Aš kaip ir jis pats gyvenu „tarp realybės ir sapno“, mano pačio knygose susilieja siaubas, romantika ir keistenybės. Poe yra mano sielos dvynys ir vienas iš mylimiausių autorių. Tad turėti tokią jo knygą kaip ši- man ekstaziškai didžiausia palaima šiame niekam tikusiame gyvenime.
Knyga prasideda įžymiąja poema „Varnas“. Kelios dienos po šios knygos pradėjimo skaityti vaikščiojau gatvėmis ir man virš galvos sukos varna. xD Pajuto ką šiuo metu skaičiau, nelaboji.
1. MECENGERŠTEINAS. (Metzengerstein. 1832)
Trumpa mistiška istorija apie baroną ir keistą (velnio apsėstą xD) jo žirgą. Lyg kokia keista siaubo pasakėlė (iš rūsio) prieš miegą.
2. RANKRAŠTIS, RASTAS BUTELYJE. (Manuscript Found in a Bottle. 1833)
Jūra. Laivas. Ir kažkieno dienoraštis. Pasinėręs į šią istoriją ėmiau galvoti apie Davy Jones iš „Karibų Piratų“. xD Nes būtent taip įsivaizdavau tą keistą Poe laivą pasiklydusį kažkokioj keistoj vietoj.
3. PASIMATYMAS. (The Assignation. 1834)
Venecija... Italija... ACH... Bet labai keista istorija su dar keistesne pabaiga.
4. BERENIKĖ (Berenice. 1835)
Viena iš mano mėgstamiausių istorijų, nes ji kraupi ir su siaubinga pabaiga verta siaubo filmo. Šitoje istorijoje rašytojas atrodo aprašė mane ŽODIS ŽODIN. O_O Štai citatos, kurių negaliu užmiršti iki šiol, ir kurias skaičiau gal dešimt ar dvidešimt kartų, nes negalėjau patikėti akimis kaip TIKSLIAI tai esu.. aš. Atrodo lyg PATS būčiau užrašęs šiuos sakinius. (47 psl.)
„ Tuo tarpu mano paties liga- buvau lieptas jos kitaip nevadinti- mane visai baigė priveikti ir galop virto mįslinga, sulig kiekviena akimirka ir valanda stiprėjančia monomanija. Ji liguitai dirgino mano dvasios savybes, kurias metafizikai vadina atida. Tikriausiai daugeliui mano žodžiai bus nesuprantami, tačiau bijau, kad nepajėgsiu suprantamai paaiškinti neišmanančiam skaitytojui, kaip nežmoniškai turėdavau įsitempti, norėdamas sutelkti dėmesį į kokį nors daiktą, kiek kūno ir sielos pastangų (netiksliai sakant) reikėdavo sutelkti, mąstant apie paprasčiausius aplinkos daiktus.“
„Valandų valandas nepavargdamas galėjau stebeilytis į knygos paraštę arba šriftą. Visą vasaros dieną praleisdavau atidžiai žiūrinėdamas šešėlį, nutįsusį ant gobeleno ar grindų, ligi pat paryčių leisdavau naktis, įbedęs akis į lempos liepsną ar židinio žarijas, ištisas dienas mąstydavau apie gėlių kvapus, nuobodžiai kartodavau kokį nors paprastą žodį tol, kol garsų junginys netekdavo prasmės, sėdėdavau sustingęs ir suakmenėjęs, praradęs buvimo pojūtį- tokius tat pražūtingus įgeidžius sukeldavo man manoji dvasios būsena, gal ne tiek retai sutinkama, kiek sunkiai paaiškinama.“
„O visų mano minčių objektas dažniausiai būdavo nereikšmingas dalykas, kuris tačiau, iškreiptas sudirgusios vaizduotės, man tapdavo ypatingai svarbus. “
5. MORELA (Morella. 1835)
Trumpa, bet šiurpi ir įdomi istorija. Mirtis pagimdo gyvenimą ir vėl ratas sukasi iš pradžių- turbūt taip apibūdinčiau šią istoriją.
6. LIGIJA. (Ligeia. 1838)
Kaip ir daugelyje Poe kūrinių- jis pasakoja apie savo žmonos mirtį. Tai galima pastebėti „Berenikėje“, „Moreloje“ ir štai vėl ta pati situacija čia. Tai, kad autorius šitiek darbų dedikavo savo mirusiai žmonai ir nesibaigiančiam savo gedului, yra neišpasakytai tobula ir gražu. Galbūt mirtis ir yra siaubinga, bet štai kiek įkvėpimo ji gali duoti, jei tik sugebi panaudoti savo skausmą kūrybai. O šioje istorijoje tai labai aiškiai atsiskleidžia. O pabaiga kaip visada šiurpiai klaiki.
7. NEPRILYGSTAMAS HANSO PFALIO NUOTYKIS. (The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall. 1835)
Tikrai LABAI ilga, bet prikaustanti dėmesį istorija. Kuriozinis sci-fiction balandžio 1-ajai. Pakėlė nuotaiką kaip reta ir prisijuokiau iki soties. Kaip trumpai apibūdinti šitą istoriją? Galbūt taip: Tas jausmas, kai užknisa gyventi, bet nenori mirtis, tad pasidarai balioną, pasiimi nėščią katę bei balandžių ir skrendi gyventi į Mėnulį. xD (Kažkam reiktų sukurti meme pagal šitai. xD)
8. KARALIUS MARAS. (King Pest. 1835)
Siaubo komedija. xD Kitaip nepavadinsi. Tikrai man patiko ir prisijuokiau iki soties. Ypač tas lavonas kabantis ant lubų- grynai japonų „Pagieža“ kur buvo pakabinusi negyvą vyrą ant lubų su savo plaukais, o tas supos ir su kojom bildino sieną kas sukėlė įtarimą kaimynams. xD Kažkas turėtų sukurti filmą pagal šitą apsakymą.
9. ŠEŠĖLIS. (Shadow: A Parable 1835)
Vieno lapo siaubo istorija Graikijoje. Ne kažką čia apibūdinsi plačiau iš tiek...
10. TYLA. (Silence. 1838)
Tai vos poros lapų istorija, kurią sunku suprasti, bet galima pajausti niūrią atmosferą.
11. AŠERIŲ NAMŲ ŽLUGIMAS. (The Fall of the House of Usher. 1839)
Niūraus namo niūrių žmonių niūrus pasakojimas. Nelabai ir suprasi kas ten kuom sirgo ir kodėl mirė- tų laikų medicinos terminai visiškai skiriasi nuo dabartinių ir sunku suprasti kaip žmogus gali mirti iš baimės. xD Galbūt belieka tik paaiškinimas, kad bepročiai mirė beprotiška mirtimi.
12. VILJAMAS VILSONAS. (William Wilson. 1839)
Man gan patiko ši istorija, nes veikėjas labai priminė mane patį. Iš pradžių galvojau gal tai koks paralelinio pasaulio pasireiškimas, po to baigus skaityti pagalvojau gal tai buvo psichikos liga... tačiau iki šiol nesuprantu kas tai buvo. Labiausiai man įstrigo šita citata, nes ji 100% apibūdina mane patį:
„ Suaugusiems mažų dienų prisiminimai retai bent kiek giliau įsirėžia atmintin. Telieka pilkas šydas- vargani prisiminimų trupiniai, padrikos liekanos smulkių džiaugsmelių ir fantasmagoriškų kančių. Mano likimas susiklostė kitaip. Tikriausiai jau jaunumėje galėjau jausti stipriai, kaip suaugęs žmogus, ir vaikiškos dienos giliai, amžiams atsispaudė mano sąmonėje, nelyginant exergues, išgraviruoti katarginietiškuose medaliuose. “
13. MINIOS ŽMOGUS. (The Man of the Crowd. 1840)
Istorijos pavadinimas kalba pats už save. Man kilo mintis, jog istorijos veikėjas (senis) buvo energetinis vampyras ir būtent dėl to jis nušvisdavo atsidūręs tarp žmonių, nes taip gaudavo iš jų energijos. (Turbūt taip pagalvojau, nes pats esu energetinis vampyras xD) Bet nors ir trumpa istorija- išlaikė dėmesį ir susidomėjimą iki galo. (Nors tas galas pasirodė visai neįdomus xD)
Labiausiai man patiko La Briujeno citata pačioje istorijos pradžioje:
„ Ce grand malheur, de ne pouvoir être seul. “ (Visos mūsų nelaimės atsiranda todėl, kad mes nemokame būti vieni.)
14. ŽMOGŽUDYSTĖ MORGO GATVĖJE. (The Murders in the Rue Morgue. 1841)
Ilga detektyvinė istorija, kuri neleido atsitraukti nuo knygos, nes knietėjo sužinoti, kad žudikas ir pabaiga nustebino... nors tai nebuvo nieko antgamtiško, bet tikrai sukūrė įdomią pabaigą. Istorijos veikėjai lyg Šerlokas ir Vatsonas. :D
15. MALSTREMO GELMĖSE. (A Descent into the Maelström. 1841)
Istorija apie vandens verpetą ir iš tikrųjų nieko įdomesnio... Meh.
16. FĖJOS SALA. (The Island of the Fay. 1841)
Labai trumpa istorija be jokio veiksmo, apie paslaptingą salą. Tačiau tai, tik vietovės aprašymas ir nieko įdomesnio...
17. MONOSO IR UNOS POKALBIS. (Colloquy of Monos and Una. 1841)
Trumpa istorija parašyta dialogo forma kaip dviejų žmonių pokalbis apie reinkarnaciją. Tam, kas bijo mirties ir kas vyksta po to- neskaityti. xD
18. ELEONORA. (Eleonora. 1841)
Labai romantiška trumpa istorija, kurioje greičiausiai autorius pasakoja apie save ir savo žmoną.
19. OVALUS PORTRETAS. (The Oval Portrait. 1842)
Vos poros lapų istorija apie dailininką ir jo žmonos portretą.
20. RAUDONOSIOS MIRTIES KAUKĖ. (The Masque of the Red Death. 1842)
Norėjo žmogeliai pabėgti ir užsidaryti nuo ligos, bet deja... xD Ta „raudonoji mirtis“ man labai priminė Ebolą, bet tais laikais ji dar neegzistavo...
21. ARNHEIMO DVARAS. (The Domain of Arnheim. 1842)
Ilga nuobodybė be jokio veiksmo. Vos laikiausi neužmigęs. Vien „grožio sąvokos filosofija“ ir likusi dalis kraštovaizdžio aprašinėjimas itin detaliai... Žiauriai nemėgstu tokių dalykų knygose.
22. MARO ROŽĖ PASLAPTIS. (The Mystery of Marie Roget. 1842-1843)
Antra dalis „Žmogžudystės Morgo gatvėje“. Labai ilga apie merginos nužudymą, kurios gale... laukia nusivylimas, nes nieko konkretaus negavau. Taip, kad istorijos galas „pats darykis išvadas kaip sau nori“. xD
23. ŠULINYS IR ŠVYTUOKLĖ. (The Pit and the Pendulum. 1842-1843)
Istorija grynai kaip iš „Pjūklo 5“. xD Beskaitant iškart prisiminiau identišką sceną iš to filmo.
24. IŠDAVIKĖ ŠIRDIS. (The Tell-Tale Heart. 1843)
Trumpa bepročio istorija apie kažkokį senį. Jų santykiai nebuvo įvardinti: ar tai tėvas ir sūnus, ar beprotis-slaugas ir senis ligonis... tad KODĖL jie gyveno kartu- palikta mūsų vaizduotei.
25. AUKSINIS VABALAS (The Gold-Bug, 1843)
Ilga, bet labai įdomi nuotykių istorija, iš kurios pavadinimo nebūtum atspėjęs, jog pasisuks tokia linkme. Buvo neįmanoma padėti į šoną, nes su kiekvienu sakiniu norėjosi sužinoti „kuom tai baigsis“. Be to šioje istorijoje nebuvo siaubo, vien tik detektyvinis-nuotykis.
26. JUODASIS KATINAS. (The Black Cat, 1843)
Kaip ilgai aš norėjau perskaityti šią istoriją! Tačiau tai baisiausia istorija, kokią tik kada nors teko skaityti.. o_o Kūną ėmė purtyti šiurpas kai skaičiau, o mano katės gulėjo lovos krašto... Labiausiai man patiko citata:
„ Nesavanaudiška ir pasiaukojanti gyvūno meilė būtinai pavergs širdį žmogaus, ne sykį patyrusio žmogiškosios draugystės ir tariamos ištikimybės trapumą. “
27. MULKINIMAS KAIPO TIKSLUSIS MOKSLAS. (Diddling. 1843)
Tai lyg kažkokia esė apie sukčius.
28. AKINIAI (The Spectacles. 1844)
Nuostabi ir pamokanti komedija. Pagrindinis veikėjas kaip ir aš nenorėjo nešioti akinių. Geras moralas visiems, kad nemėgsta jų nešioti. xD Ir tikrai tikroviškai papasakota, nes būtent be akinių/kontaktinių lęšių aš irgi matau tik pasaulio iliuziją, o ne tikrąjį vaizdą. Taip, kad NEŠIOKIT KOREKCINES PRIEMONES, O BUS KAIP TAM VYRUI. xD
29. APYSAKA APIE UOLĖTUOSIUS KALNUS. (A Tale of the Ragged Mountains. 1844)
Keista istorija, kurios nesupratau.
30. GYVŲJŲ LAIDOJIMAS. (The Premature Burial. 1844)
Pavadinimas viską sako už save. Poe čia pateikia trumpus aprašymus apie žmones, kuriems taip nutiko.
31. MESMERIŠKAS APREIŠKIMAS. (Mesmeric Revelation, 1844)
Gydytojo ir ligonio pokalbis apie gyvenimo prasmę, mirtį ir patį gyvenimą. Tas mesmerizmas kažko man atrodo lyg bus paprasčiausia hipnozė, nes užhipnotizuotas žmogus „per miegus“ išlieka sąmoningas.
32. PAILGA DĖŽĖ. (The Oblong Box. 1844)
Istorija apie laivo katastrofą ir paslaptingą dėžę bei kas ten viduj.
33. „TU ESI ANAS VYRAS“ (Thou Art the Man. 1844)
Detektyvinė istorija su kraupia pabaiga. Tikrai buvo įdomi ir prikaustė dėmesį iki pat galo. Man labiausiai patiko citata, kuri 100% apie mane:
“ Turbūt ne sykį esate pastebėję, kaip žmonėms, sugniuždytiems skausmo ir širdperšos, atsiranda polinkis į lūkuriavimą ir delsimą. Rodos, kažkas surakina jų protus, tokius žmonius pagauna siaubas vien pamanius, kad reikia ką nors daryti, ir labiausiai už viską pasaulyje jie trokšta gulėti lovose ir, senučių kalba šnekant, „slaugyti savo širdies žaizdą“- kitaip sakant, mąstyti apie savo graužatį. “
34. PAVOGTAS LAIŠKAS. (The Purloined Letter. 1844-1845)
Trečia dalis „Žmogžudystės Morgo gatvėje“. Vėl įdomi neilga detektyvinė istorija apie laišką ir jo radimą.
35. TŪKSTANTIS ANTROJI ŠACHEREZADOS PASAKA (The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade, 1845)
Šita „pasaka“ tikras 19 a. sci-fiction. xD Negalėjau nustoti skaityti, nes buvo itin įdomu. O dar ir mano orchidėjos paminėtos! xD
36. PAŠNEKESYS SU MUMIJA. (Some Words with a Mummy, 1845)
Gan kuriozinė istorija apie pokalbį su mumija. xD Prisikėlė kaip koks Imotepas, tik šiuo atveju jie naudojo ne knygą, o bateriją. xD
37. DAKTARO DERVOS IR PROFESORIAUS PLUNKSNOS SISTEMA. (The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether. 1845)
Pagaliau gavau perskaityti įžymiąją istoriją pagal, kurią sukurtas filmas „Eliza Graves“!!!! Kaip ilgai laukiau kol gausiu paskaityti. Ir galiu pasakyti, kad filmas buvo GEROKAI įdomesnis! Nes filme pateikta daugiau veikėjų, jų istorijų ir veiksmas vyksta ilgesnį laiką. Be to nebuvo mano mylimos anglių krūvos.. >_> Žiauriai nuvylė originali istorija, kai filmas man taip patiko. -_-
38. TIESA APIE TAI, KAS NUTIKO PONUI VALDEMARUI (The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, 1845)
Hipnozės seansas su mirusiu LENKŲ VERTĖJU. xD Kitaip nepavadinsi. Bjauri ir šlykšti pabaiga.
39. AMONTILJADO STATINAITĖ. (The Cask of Amontillado. 1846)
Šaltakraujiškas italų masono kerštas. Paskutiniai žodžiai kaip Ezio iš „Assassin‘s Creed“: „In pace requiescat“.
40. VARLIŪKŠTIS. (Hop-Frog. 1849)
Žiaurus juokdario kerštas. Išlaikė dėmesį iki pat galo, nes buvo įdomu kuom viskas baigsis.
41. FON KĖMPELENAS IR JO ATRADIMAS. (Von Kempelen and His Discovery. 1849)
Lyg kažkoks straipsnis laikraščiui ar kažkas panašaus... Meh.
December 30, 2022
This dude was down bad for like every woman he ever met
November 9, 2020
Nu pagaliau. Vasarą kai bandžiau skaityt, tai labai nesiskaitė, dabar irgi sunkokai įveikiau. Buvo nelabai įdomių istorijų, bet buvo ir vertų dėmesio. Kelias istorijas esu skaičiusi angliškai, tai lietuviškas vertimas žiauriai nelipo, tad akmuo skrenda į vertėjų daržą. Manau, kad galėjo ir labiau pasistengti.
December 30, 2024
Kaip ir tikėjausi: vienos istorijos patiko labiau, kitos mažiau. Vieni skaitiniai buvo suprantami lengviau, kiti sunkiau.
June 4, 2021
Nors ir nevisi apsakymai ir apysakos patiko, tačiau rinkinys surinktas tikrai idomus, leidžiantis panagrinėti tam tikrų literatūros žanrų ištakas. Silpnoki 5, bet rinkinys tikrai patiko ir kas svarbiausia maloniai skaitosi
March 11, 2023
I rate all collections of Poe 5 Stars since I value his overall work as an invaluable legacy that he has left us with in which to entertain and educate us. The individual ratings are my own which reflects my own personal tastes and mood when reading them. I endeavored to research as much as I could to better understand the times and attitudes in which Poe lived (antebellum Civil War in the U.S.) as well as the language of the time in which to help interpret his ideas.
PREFACES
Preface (Tamerlane and Other Poems—1827) - 3 Stars A quaint introduction to his first published volume of poems.
Letter to Mr. — — (Poems 1831) - 3.5 Stars
Preface (The Raven and Other Poems—1845) - 5 Stars
POEMS
O. Tempora! O. Mores! - 3 Stars A Juvenile Poem by Edgar Allan Poe mocking a store clerk named Pitts
"To Octavia" - 3 Stars
Tamerlane - 3.5 Stars
Song - 3.5 Stars
Dreams - 3 Stars
Spirits of the Dead - 4 Stars
Evening Star - 4 Stars
Imitation - 3.5 Stars
"Stanzas" -3 Stars
A Dream - 3 Stars
"The Happiest Day" - 3 Stars
The Lake—To — - 3 Stars
Sonnet—To Science - 4.5 Stars
Al Aaraaf - 2.5 Stars
"Mysterious Star" - 3.5 Stars In the volume of 1831, Poe substituted for the first fifteen lines of Al Aaraaf a different and longer introductory passage, retaining only two and a half lines of the earlier version unchanged. This has enough unity to justify its collection as a separate composition. The author never reprinted it; hence the only text, that of Poems (1831)
Romance - 4 Stars
Introduction - 5 Stars This poem, published by its author in this form only once — in Poems (1831), pp. 33-36 — incorporates as lines 1-10 and 35-45 the two stanzas of the poem called Preface in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829) and later called Romance. The thirty-six new lines have great merit, but are extremely personal. Perhaps that is why Poe never reprinted them. https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/t...
To — ("the bowers whereat") - 3 Stars
To the River — - 3 Stars
To — ("I heed not") - 3.5 Stars
Fairy Land - 4 Stars
Fairy-Land - 4 Stars
"Alone" - 4 Stars
"To Isaac Lea" - 3.5 Stars
Elizabeth - 3 Stars
An Acrostic - 3 Stars
"Lines on Joe Locke" - 3 Stars
To Helen - 4 Stars
Israfel - 3.5 Stars
The Sleeper - 5 Stars
The Valley of Unrest - 4.5 Stars
The City in the Sea - 5 Stars
Lenore - 4.5 Stars
The One in Paradise - 4.5 Stars
Hymn - 4 Stars
Enigma [on Shakespeare] - 4 Stars The answers to the puzzles [in each line of the poem] are: 1, Spenser; 2, Homer; 3-4, Aristotle; 5-6, Kallimachos; 7-8, Shelley; 9, Pope; 10, Euripides; 11, Mark Akenside, author of Pleasures of the Imagination; 12, Samuel Rogers, author of Pleasures of Memory; 13-14, Euripides again; 15-16, [The answer of course is] Shakespeare. The spelling “Shakspeare” was common in Poe’s day. https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/t...
Serenade - 4 Stars This poem, never collected during Poe’s lifetime, was discovered by John C. French in 1917.
The Coliseum - 4 Stars
To F— — s S. O — — d - 3 Stars
To F — - 4 Stars
Bridal Ballard - 4 Stars
Sonnet—To Zante - 3.5 Stars
The Haunted Palace - 5 Stars
Sonnet—Silence - 4.5 Stars
The Conqueror Worm - 4 Stars
Dream-Land - 4.5 Stars
Eulalie—A Song - 4 Stars
The Raven - 5 Stars
A Valentine to — — - 3 Stars This valentine was written for Frances Sargent Osgood.
"Deep in Earth" - 4 Stars a couplet, presumably part of an unfinished poem Poe was writing in 1847. In January of that year, Poe's wife Virginia had died in New York of tuberculosis. It is assumed that this couplet was inspired by her death.
To Miss Louise Olivia Hunter - 3 Stars
To M. L. S. — 5 Stars (1847)
To — — ("Not long ago") - 3.5 Stars To Marie Louise Shew (1848)
Ulalume—A Ballard - 4 Stars
An Enigma - 3 Stars
The Bells - 5 Stars
To Helen - 4 Stars
A Dream within a Dream - 5 Stars
For Annie - 4 Stars
Eldorado - 5 Stars
To My Mother - 3.5 Stars
Anabel Lee - 5 Stars
SCENES FROM POLITAN, Unfinished 5 Scenes - 2.5 Stars
Tales & Sketches
Preface to Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque - 3 Stars
The Folio Club - 3.5 Stars This most interesting fragment was evidently intended by Poe to form the introduction to the sixteen tales known as The Tales of the Folio Club, better known now as the Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.
Metzengerstein - 4 Stars
The Duc De L'Omelette - 3 Stars
The Tale of Jerusalem - 3 Stars
Loss of Breath - 4 Stars
Bon-Bon - 4 Stars
Four Beasts in One—The Homo-Cameleopard - 4 Stars
MS Found in a Bottle - 5 Stars
The Assignation - 5 Stars
Lionizing - 4 Stars
Shadow—A Parable - 5 Stars
Silence—A Fable - 4.5 Stars
Berenice - 5 Stars
Morella - 4.5 Stars
King Pest - 4.5 Stars
Mystification - 3.5 Stars
Ligeia - 5 Stars
How to Write a Blackwood Article - 3 Stars
The Devil in the Belfry - 3.5 Stars
The Man That Was Used Up - 5 Stars
The Fall of the House of Usher - 5 Stars
William Wilson - 5 Stars
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion - 4 Stars
Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling - 3 Stars
Instinct vs. Reason—A Black Cat - 5 Stars
The Business Man - 3.5 Stars
The Philosophy of Furniture - 4 Stars
The Man of the Crowd - 5 Stars
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - 5 Stars
A Descent into the Maelstrom - 5 Stars
The Colloquy of Monos and Una - 4 Stars
Never Bet the Devil Your Head - 3.5 Stars
Eleonora - 4 Stars
Three Sundays in a Week - 3.5 Stars
The Oval Portrait - 4 Stars
The Masque of the Red Death - 5 Stars
The Pit and the Pendulum - 5 Stars
The Mystery of Marie Roget - 5 Stars
The Tell-Tale Heart - 5 Stars
The Gold Bug - 5 Stars
The Black Cat - 5 Stars
Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences - 4 Stars
The Spectacles - 4 Stars
The Oblong Box - 4.5 Stars
The Tale of the Ragged Mountains - 3.5 Stars
The Premature Burial - 5 Stars
The Purloined Letter - 4 Stars
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether - 4.5 Stars
Mesmeric Revelation - 4 Stars
The Balloon-Hoax - 3.5 Stars
The Angel of the Odd - 4 Stars
The Literary of Thingum Bob, Esq. - 3.5 Stars
The Thousand-and-Second Scheherazade - 5 Stars
Some Words with a Mummy - 4 Stars
The Power of Words - 4 Stars
The Imp of the Perverse - 5 Stars
The Facts of the Case of M. Valdemar - 5 Stars
The Sphinx - 4 Stars
The Cask of Amontillado - 5 Stars
The Domain Arnheim - 5 Stars
Mellonta Tauta - 3.5 Stars
Landor's Cottage - 4 Stars
Hop-Frog - 5 Stars
Von Kempelen and His Discovery - 3 Stars
'X-ing a Paragrab' - 4 Stars
The Lighthouse - 4 Stars
PLATE ARTICLES
Some Account of Stonehenge, the Giant's Dance - 3 Stars
The Island of the Fay - 4.5 Stars
Morning on the Wissahiccon - 4 Stars
Byron and Miss Chaworth - 4 Stars
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall - 4 Stars
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym - 5 Stars
The Journal of Julius Rodman - 4 Stars
Eureka: A Prose Poem - 3.5 Stars
PREFACES
Preface (Tamerlane and Other Poems—1827) - 3 Stars A quaint introduction to his first published volume of poems.
Letter to Mr. — — (Poems 1831) - 3.5 Stars
Preface (The Raven and Other Poems—1845) - 5 Stars
POEMS
O. Tempora! O. Mores! - 3 Stars A Juvenile Poem by Edgar Allan Poe mocking a store clerk named Pitts
"To Octavia" - 3 Stars
Tamerlane - 3.5 Stars
Song - 3.5 Stars
Dreams - 3 Stars
Spirits of the Dead - 4 Stars
Evening Star - 4 Stars
Imitation - 3.5 Stars
"Stanzas" -3 Stars
A Dream - 3 Stars
"The Happiest Day" - 3 Stars
The Lake—To — - 3 Stars
Sonnet—To Science - 4.5 Stars
Al Aaraaf - 2.5 Stars
"Mysterious Star" - 3.5 Stars In the volume of 1831, Poe substituted for the first fifteen lines of Al Aaraaf a different and longer introductory passage, retaining only two and a half lines of the earlier version unchanged. This has enough unity to justify its collection as a separate composition. The author never reprinted it; hence the only text, that of Poems (1831)
Romance - 4 Stars
Introduction - 5 Stars This poem, published by its author in this form only once — in Poems (1831), pp. 33-36 — incorporates as lines 1-10 and 35-45 the two stanzas of the poem called Preface in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829) and later called Romance. The thirty-six new lines have great merit, but are extremely personal. Perhaps that is why Poe never reprinted them. https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/t...
To — ("the bowers whereat") - 3 Stars
To the River — - 3 Stars
To — ("I heed not") - 3.5 Stars
Fairy Land - 4 Stars
Fairy-Land - 4 Stars
"Alone" - 4 Stars
"To Isaac Lea" - 3.5 Stars
Elizabeth - 3 Stars
An Acrostic - 3 Stars
"Lines on Joe Locke" - 3 Stars
To Helen - 4 Stars
Israfel - 3.5 Stars
The Sleeper - 5 Stars
The Valley of Unrest - 4.5 Stars
The City in the Sea - 5 Stars
Lenore - 4.5 Stars
The One in Paradise - 4.5 Stars
Hymn - 4 Stars
Enigma [on Shakespeare] - 4 Stars The answers to the puzzles [in each line of the poem] are: 1, Spenser; 2, Homer; 3-4, Aristotle; 5-6, Kallimachos; 7-8, Shelley; 9, Pope; 10, Euripides; 11, Mark Akenside, author of Pleasures of the Imagination; 12, Samuel Rogers, author of Pleasures of Memory; 13-14, Euripides again; 15-16, [The answer of course is] Shakespeare. The spelling “Shakspeare” was common in Poe’s day. https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/t...
Serenade - 4 Stars This poem, never collected during Poe’s lifetime, was discovered by John C. French in 1917.
The Coliseum - 4 Stars
To F— — s S. O — — d - 3 Stars
To F — - 4 Stars
Bridal Ballard - 4 Stars
Sonnet—To Zante - 3.5 Stars
The Haunted Palace - 5 Stars
Sonnet—Silence - 4.5 Stars
The Conqueror Worm - 4 Stars
Dream-Land - 4.5 Stars
Eulalie—A Song - 4 Stars
The Raven - 5 Stars
A Valentine to — — - 3 Stars This valentine was written for Frances Sargent Osgood.
"Deep in Earth" - 4 Stars a couplet, presumably part of an unfinished poem Poe was writing in 1847. In January of that year, Poe's wife Virginia had died in New York of tuberculosis. It is assumed that this couplet was inspired by her death.
To Miss Louise Olivia Hunter - 3 Stars
To M. L. S. — 5 Stars (1847)
To — — ("Not long ago") - 3.5 Stars To Marie Louise Shew (1848)
Ulalume—A Ballard - 4 Stars
An Enigma - 3 Stars
The Bells - 5 Stars
To Helen - 4 Stars
A Dream within a Dream - 5 Stars
For Annie - 4 Stars
Eldorado - 5 Stars
To My Mother - 3.5 Stars
Anabel Lee - 5 Stars
SCENES FROM POLITAN, Unfinished 5 Scenes - 2.5 Stars
Tales & Sketches
Preface to Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque - 3 Stars
The Folio Club - 3.5 Stars This most interesting fragment was evidently intended by Poe to form the introduction to the sixteen tales known as The Tales of the Folio Club, better known now as the Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.
Metzengerstein - 4 Stars
The Duc De L'Omelette - 3 Stars
The Tale of Jerusalem - 3 Stars
Loss of Breath - 4 Stars
Bon-Bon - 4 Stars
Four Beasts in One—The Homo-Cameleopard - 4 Stars
MS Found in a Bottle - 5 Stars
The Assignation - 5 Stars
Lionizing - 4 Stars
Shadow—A Parable - 5 Stars
Silence—A Fable - 4.5 Stars
Berenice - 5 Stars
Morella - 4.5 Stars
King Pest - 4.5 Stars
Mystification - 3.5 Stars
Ligeia - 5 Stars
How to Write a Blackwood Article - 3 Stars
The Devil in the Belfry - 3.5 Stars
The Man That Was Used Up - 5 Stars
The Fall of the House of Usher - 5 Stars
William Wilson - 5 Stars
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion - 4 Stars
Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling - 3 Stars
Instinct vs. Reason—A Black Cat - 5 Stars
The Business Man - 3.5 Stars
The Philosophy of Furniture - 4 Stars
The Man of the Crowd - 5 Stars
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - 5 Stars
A Descent into the Maelstrom - 5 Stars
The Colloquy of Monos and Una - 4 Stars
Never Bet the Devil Your Head - 3.5 Stars
Eleonora - 4 Stars
Three Sundays in a Week - 3.5 Stars
The Oval Portrait - 4 Stars
The Masque of the Red Death - 5 Stars
The Pit and the Pendulum - 5 Stars
The Mystery of Marie Roget - 5 Stars
The Tell-Tale Heart - 5 Stars
The Gold Bug - 5 Stars
The Black Cat - 5 Stars
Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences - 4 Stars
The Spectacles - 4 Stars
The Oblong Box - 4.5 Stars
The Tale of the Ragged Mountains - 3.5 Stars
The Premature Burial - 5 Stars
The Purloined Letter - 4 Stars
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether - 4.5 Stars
Mesmeric Revelation - 4 Stars
The Balloon-Hoax - 3.5 Stars
The Angel of the Odd - 4 Stars
The Literary of Thingum Bob, Esq. - 3.5 Stars
The Thousand-and-Second Scheherazade - 5 Stars
Some Words with a Mummy - 4 Stars
The Power of Words - 4 Stars
The Imp of the Perverse - 5 Stars
The Facts of the Case of M. Valdemar - 5 Stars
The Sphinx - 4 Stars
The Cask of Amontillado - 5 Stars
The Domain Arnheim - 5 Stars
Mellonta Tauta - 3.5 Stars
Landor's Cottage - 4 Stars
Hop-Frog - 5 Stars
Von Kempelen and His Discovery - 3 Stars
'X-ing a Paragrab' - 4 Stars
The Lighthouse - 4 Stars
PLATE ARTICLES
Some Account of Stonehenge, the Giant's Dance - 3 Stars
The Island of the Fay - 4.5 Stars
Morning on the Wissahiccon - 4 Stars
Byron and Miss Chaworth - 4 Stars
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall - 4 Stars
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym - 5 Stars
The Journal of Julius Rodman - 4 Stars
Eureka: A Prose Poem - 3.5 Stars
October 14, 2022
Knygos apimtis, rašytojo pasakojimo stilius nėra iš lengvųjų, tad perskaityti šią rinktinę gerokai užtrukau. Tačiau didžioji dalis sutalpintų apsakymų tikrai vertos dėmesio (nepatiko tik kelios, kur jau per daug prifilosofuota). Bet kokiu atveju, džiugu dėl tokių knygų išleidimo lietuvių kalba. Klasika.
April 11, 2009
The problem is that my edition (the Library of America one) is the COMPLETE Poe. 1400 pages of Poe. That is far, far too much Poe.
If you took the very best stories and poems from here and put them in one edition, you would for sure have a five star book on your hands. But he was hardly the master of consistency and you're left with a mass of B and C material that bogs the whole thing down.
Most of the stories are actually comedies and frankly I don't find Poe to be very funny. Also there's a sameness to the material that is especially tiresome. There are a shit-ton of hoax/travel stories presented as fiction all recounting similar details of travel with the same preface about how it's totally true and Poe is just the editor and blah blah it's just too much at once. The mysteries particularly annoyed me as they're just this giant mass of exposition and I suppose we're supposed to think the protagonist is oh so clever but half the clues aren't even given in the first place until they're brought up as part of the solution and it's all rather boring.
The poetry is actually much more consistent. There's some weak early stuff, but it's all pretty solid. And the best stories (especially the Pit and the Pendulum) are fantastic. But go buy a small selected stories edition or something and leave this to Poe aficionados.
Also an orangutan did it. A fucking orangutan.
If you took the very best stories and poems from here and put them in one edition, you would for sure have a five star book on your hands. But he was hardly the master of consistency and you're left with a mass of B and C material that bogs the whole thing down.
Most of the stories are actually comedies and frankly I don't find Poe to be very funny. Also there's a sameness to the material that is especially tiresome. There are a shit-ton of hoax/travel stories presented as fiction all recounting similar details of travel with the same preface about how it's totally true and Poe is just the editor and blah blah it's just too much at once. The mysteries particularly annoyed me as they're just this giant mass of exposition and I suppose we're supposed to think the protagonist is oh so clever but half the clues aren't even given in the first place until they're brought up as part of the solution and it's all rather boring.
The poetry is actually much more consistent. There's some weak early stuff, but it's all pretty solid. And the best stories (especially the Pit and the Pendulum) are fantastic. But go buy a small selected stories edition or something and leave this to Poe aficionados.
Also an orangutan did it. A fucking orangutan.
December 17, 2022
He is the greatest living author, and shall remain so for as long as his stories remain—and fortunately, “the paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.”
I read this over the past four months or so. Here are two quotes at random:
“A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul—a sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which the lessons of by-gone time are inadequate, and for which I fear futurity itself will offer me no key. To a mind constituted like my own, the latter consideration is an evil. I shall never—I know that I shall never—be satisfied with regard to the nature of my conceptions. Yet it is not wonderful that these conceptions are indefinite, since they have their origin in sources so utterly novel. A new sense—a new entity is added to my soul.”
“Whatever of warmth, whatever of soul-passion, whatever of the truer nare and essentiality of romance was elicited during the youthful association is to be attributed altogether to the poet. If she felt at all, it was only while the magnetism of his actual presence compelled her to feel. If she responded at all, it was merely because the necromancy of his words of fire could not do otherwise than exhort a response. In absence, the bard bore easily with him all the fancies which were the basis of his fame—a flame which absence itself but served to keep in vigor—while the less ideal but at the same time the less really substantial affection of his ladye-love, perished utterly and forthwith, through simple lack of the element which had fanned it into being. He to her, in brief, was a not unhandsome, and not ignoble, but somewhat portionless, somewhat eccentric and rather lame young man. She to him was the Egeria of his dreams—the Venus Aphrodite that sprang, in full and supernal loveliness, from the bright foam upon the storm-tormented ocean of his thoughts.”
I read this over the past four months or so. Here are two quotes at random:
“A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul—a sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which the lessons of by-gone time are inadequate, and for which I fear futurity itself will offer me no key. To a mind constituted like my own, the latter consideration is an evil. I shall never—I know that I shall never—be satisfied with regard to the nature of my conceptions. Yet it is not wonderful that these conceptions are indefinite, since they have their origin in sources so utterly novel. A new sense—a new entity is added to my soul.”
“Whatever of warmth, whatever of soul-passion, whatever of the truer nare and essentiality of romance was elicited during the youthful association is to be attributed altogether to the poet. If she felt at all, it was only while the magnetism of his actual presence compelled her to feel. If she responded at all, it was merely because the necromancy of his words of fire could not do otherwise than exhort a response. In absence, the bard bore easily with him all the fancies which were the basis of his fame—a flame which absence itself but served to keep in vigor—while the less ideal but at the same time the less really substantial affection of his ladye-love, perished utterly and forthwith, through simple lack of the element which had fanned it into being. He to her, in brief, was a not unhandsome, and not ignoble, but somewhat portionless, somewhat eccentric and rather lame young man. She to him was the Egeria of his dreams—the Venus Aphrodite that sprang, in full and supernal loveliness, from the bright foam upon the storm-tormented ocean of his thoughts.”
January 21, 2023
The Great E. A. Poe. He was one of the first writers I read. I was a lad. Here, in reading everything, some re-reads, some not, I found the ones I remembered extra sweet. Plus I found some new favorites. Some classics deserve to be classics.
February 10, 2022
Varnas 5/5
Mecengeršteinas 4/5
Rankraštis, rastas butelyje 2/5
Pasimatymas 2/5
Berenikė 2/5
Morela 3/5
Ligija 2/5
Neprilygstamas Hanso Pfalio nuotykis 3/5
Karalius Maras 5/5
Šešėlis 2/5
Tyla 2/5
Ašerių namų žlugimas 3/5
Viljmas Vilsonas 4/5
Minios Žmogus 3/5
Žmogžudystė Morgo gatvėje 5/5
Malstremo gelmėse 3/5
Fėjos Sala 2/5
Monoso ir Unos pokalbis 4/5
Eleonora 3/5
Ovalus portretas 3/5
Raudonosios mirties kaukė 5/5
Arnheimo dvaras 2/5
Mari Rožė paslaptis 3/5
Šulinys ir švytuoklė 5/5
Išdavikė širdis 5/5
Auksinis vabalas 5/5
Juodasis katinas 5/5
Mulkinimas, kaipo tikslusis mokslas 3/5
Akiniai 5/5
Apysaka apie uolėtuosius kalnus 5/5
Gyvųjų laidojimas 4/5
Mesmeriškas apreiškimas 3/5
Pailga dėžė 4/5
„Tu esi anas vyras“ 5/5
Pavogtas laiškas 3/5
Tūkstantis antroji Šacherezados pasaka 2/5
Pašnekesys su mumija 5/5
Daktaro Dervos ir profesoriaus Plunksnos sistema 5/5
Tiesa apie tai, kas nutiko Ponui Valdemarui 3/5
Amontiljado statinaitė 5/5
Varliūkštis 5/5
Fon Kėmpelenas ir jo atradimas 2/5
Mecengeršteinas 4/5
Rankraštis, rastas butelyje 2/5
Pasimatymas 2/5
Berenikė 2/5
Morela 3/5
Ligija 2/5
Neprilygstamas Hanso Pfalio nuotykis 3/5
Karalius Maras 5/5
Šešėlis 2/5
Tyla 2/5
Ašerių namų žlugimas 3/5
Viljmas Vilsonas 4/5
Minios Žmogus 3/5
Žmogžudystė Morgo gatvėje 5/5
Malstremo gelmėse 3/5
Fėjos Sala 2/5
Monoso ir Unos pokalbis 4/5
Eleonora 3/5
Ovalus portretas 3/5
Raudonosios mirties kaukė 5/5
Arnheimo dvaras 2/5
Mari Rožė paslaptis 3/5
Šulinys ir švytuoklė 5/5
Išdavikė širdis 5/5
Auksinis vabalas 5/5
Juodasis katinas 5/5
Mulkinimas, kaipo tikslusis mokslas 3/5
Akiniai 5/5
Apysaka apie uolėtuosius kalnus 5/5
Gyvųjų laidojimas 4/5
Mesmeriškas apreiškimas 3/5
Pailga dėžė 4/5
„Tu esi anas vyras“ 5/5
Pavogtas laiškas 3/5
Tūkstantis antroji Šacherezados pasaka 2/5
Pašnekesys su mumija 5/5
Daktaro Dervos ir profesoriaus Plunksnos sistema 5/5
Tiesa apie tai, kas nutiko Ponui Valdemarui 3/5
Amontiljado statinaitė 5/5
Varliūkštis 5/5
Fon Kėmpelenas ir jo atradimas 2/5
August 22, 2007
Man, Edgar Allan Poe is way better than you'd probably think he is! The popular stories are awesome, the not-so-popular stories are awesome (maybe the two hot air balloon stories aren't quite as awesome, but still way the hell more interesting than the last thing you probably read), the descriptions of the macabre absolutely unequalled. If you don't like Edgar Allan Poe you're probably a communist.
May 11, 2024
I started reading this volume on Halloween night 2023; I finished it seven months later. This was my first time through the COMPLETE Poe and, frankly, the journey was occasionally dull. Sure, the highlights of The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven and others are rightfully well-known and quite good, particularly for their time--but who else has suffered through "Eureka: a Prose Poem" or "The Domain of Arnheim" or a dozen other dull-blade fictions gathered here? Poe occasionally requires fortitude and endurance. But there are plenty of rewards to be found here, too--a surprising faux Rocky Mountain explorer's journal ("Julius Rodman") and of course Poe's greatest work (you'll have to pry me with a crowbar from that opinion): "Arthur Gordon Pym." This latter has been one of my favorite 19th-century novels ever since I first read it in graduate school 30-ish years ago. It's thrilling, scary, and still makes my brain exploded on the final weird page of that short novel. "Pym" makes these 1,300 pages worth it.
November 8, 2023
Atsiliepimą prisiversti parašyti buvo taip pat sunku, kaip ir skaityti knygą.
Knygos apipavidalinimas labai gražus, atrodo prabangiai ir tikrai norisi turėti lentynoje, jei ne dėl turinio, tai bent dėl išvaizdos. Paveikslėliai knygos viduje irgi verti dėmesio. Sakyčiau, pridėjo šiurpumo, kurio pasigedau vertime.
Po kūrinius skaičiau rašydama bakalaurą, anglų kalba. Gal dėl to jautėsi toks didžiulis skirtumas tarp to, ką skaičiau ir kokias emocijas man sukėlė tada ir dabar. Nors tikrai nėra lietuviškas vertimas blogas, bet nesukėlė jokių emocijų ir vaizdų mintyse. Daug įmantrių žodžių, bet nieko nejaučiau. Turėjau save versti skaityti knygą ir gavosi, kad skaitau, nes reikia pabaigti. Gal jei nebūčiau skaičiusi originalo kalba, jausmas būtų kitoks. Bet dabar jaučiuos taip, kaip jaučiuosi.
Vertinu 4 žvaigždutėm, nors labiau linkčiau ir prie 3...
Knygos apipavidalinimas labai gražus, atrodo prabangiai ir tikrai norisi turėti lentynoje, jei ne dėl turinio, tai bent dėl išvaizdos. Paveikslėliai knygos viduje irgi verti dėmesio. Sakyčiau, pridėjo šiurpumo, kurio pasigedau vertime.
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Vertinu 4 žvaigždutėm, nors labiau linkčiau ir prie 3...
August 17, 2020
The last time I remember reading Poe was as a junior in high school in 1963-64. Because they depend so heavily on a last page dramatic turn of events, which I still remembered, the classic "horror" tales have not weathered well. I was quite surprised by three features in Poe's stories. First, he quite self-consciously parades his learning and his knowledge of Greek, Latin, and French. I had a sense that this was a young American showing Europeans that he was not just a country bumpkin. Second, he had little sympathy for the Transcendentalists, often treating them with derision and/or contempt. Third, quite a few of his stories were whimsical and even funny. That was a delightful surprise.
November 24, 2021
Didn't read all 1350 pages of Poetry and Tales, but chose to read old favorites, The Raven, The Pit and The Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell Tale Heart, The Mask of the Red Death, Fall of the House of Usher and mixed in some stories I had never read before.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and The Maelstrom were nautical tales written before Moby Dick. Not nearly as good as Melville but period thrillers with raging seas, mutiny, lost at sea survival and a kind of science fiction about a hidden land south of the 8oth parallel.
I enjoyed early mysteries like The Gold Bug, The Purloined Letter and The Murders in The Rue Morgue, all seemed kind of formulaic, but written in the 1830's and 40's, maybe they laid down the formula.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and The Maelstrom were nautical tales written before Moby Dick. Not nearly as good as Melville but period thrillers with raging seas, mutiny, lost at sea survival and a kind of science fiction about a hidden land south of the 8oth parallel.
I enjoyed early mysteries like The Gold Bug, The Purloined Letter and The Murders in The Rue Morgue, all seemed kind of formulaic, but written in the 1830's and 40's, maybe they laid down the formula.
August 2, 2024
The best stories are excellent. Poe had some brilliant ideas and could do suspense as well as anyone. Unfortunately for a book with this many tales, I think I only enjoyed one that I wasn't already familiar with. The poems are a bit better on the whole, with The Raven rightly being the standout. I enjoyed the longer writings at the end least. Pym has some great moments but both it and The Journal of Julius Rodman were often incredibly dull. Eureka was a major struggle to finish.
April 10, 2018
A no-nonsense anthology. Only extra feature was a chronology of Poe's life. This suited my purpose of reacquainting me with Poe's writings.
October 15, 2018
This book was really deep, but it was very long. I don't really have much time to read such a lengthy book, and I wish I could've read through it all.
June 20, 2023
Only wanted to read a couple poems I remembered from high school! Quite an amazing author…
June 8, 2025
The Russians all came out from under Gogol’s overcoat and we from Poe’s massive lapels
October 17, 2017
Other than Murder on the Rue Morgue, I don’t think I’ve read any Poe since my high school days. Now that I am, ahem, a little bit older I thought I’d re-examine this American icon.
What other poet can say he/she inspired the name of an NFL team? Only Poe, so I guess we Americans are stuck with Poe the Poet and his Raven evermore, though some of us might wish otherwise.
In many ways, Poe contains a genius. The variety and scope of his writing is amazing – his invention of the detective novel, his explorations of cryptology and even science fiction, humor writing, and of course his gothic writings.
Yet I can’t really buy into what Poe is selling. I’m not a fan of the gothic genre, and, take the detective stories for example, while they may be revolutionary, he seems to miss the mark with them. Like late Mark Twain, I get the sense of a writer producing works with a gun to his head.
As I re-read his works:
The Fall of the House of Usher – A story in which everything is atmospheric. Everything is told through this atmosphere and through the narrator. The story is full of conversations between Usher and the narrator, but it is interesting to note that the reader only gets two direct quotes from Usher in the entire story. All other conversations are explained through the prism of the narrator and the atmosphere. There is a good build up to the terror at the end, but I thought fall of the House of Usher was rather sudden.
William Wilson – A doppelganger story of a man killing his own conscience. Meh.
The Murders on the Rue Morgue – A classic detective story – possibly one of the first. The murderer is somewhat unusual.
Never Bet the Devil Your Head – A funny story but I don’t understand the connection with/satire of transcendentalism. Definitely worth reading.
The Oval Portrait – Perhaps I’m spoiled by Poe, but this seems a rather standard gothic tale imitated many times.
Masque of the Red Death – Another gothic tale of morality and death.
The Pit and the Pendulum – Very sensual. It was pretty much as I remembered.
The Mystery of Marie Roget – Even though Poe invented the mystery, he didn’t perfect it. This is a rather uninteresting rambling of uninteresting details. Poe goes to great pains (and I mean painful to the reader) to explain in minutia Dupin’s thought process. Later mystery writers, I think, learned that it’s better to have the mystery unraveled in an entertaining manner (even if it meant leaving some holes.)
The Tell-Tale Heart – Much shorter than I recalled. The part where he’s driven mad by the heartbeat is only about two paragraphs long. He cracked pretty quickly.
The Gold Bug – Kind of a detective story told backwards. Another innovative story by Poe, but like his detective stories, he spends a long time explaining how Legrand uncovered and solved each clue.
The Black Cat – A classic gothic tale with a gruesome ending.
The Purloined Letter – Like his other detective stories, this is drawn out a bit too long. Otherwise, I like it more than Marie Roget and it’s as good as the Murder on the Rue Morgue.
What other poet can say he/she inspired the name of an NFL team? Only Poe, so I guess we Americans are stuck with Poe the Poet and his Raven evermore, though some of us might wish otherwise.
In many ways, Poe contains a genius. The variety and scope of his writing is amazing – his invention of the detective novel, his explorations of cryptology and even science fiction, humor writing, and of course his gothic writings.
Yet I can’t really buy into what Poe is selling. I’m not a fan of the gothic genre, and, take the detective stories for example, while they may be revolutionary, he seems to miss the mark with them. Like late Mark Twain, I get the sense of a writer producing works with a gun to his head.
As I re-read his works:
The Fall of the House of Usher – A story in which everything is atmospheric. Everything is told through this atmosphere and through the narrator. The story is full of conversations between Usher and the narrator, but it is interesting to note that the reader only gets two direct quotes from Usher in the entire story. All other conversations are explained through the prism of the narrator and the atmosphere. There is a good build up to the terror at the end, but I thought fall of the House of Usher was rather sudden.
William Wilson – A doppelganger story of a man killing his own conscience. Meh.
The Murders on the Rue Morgue – A classic detective story – possibly one of the first. The murderer is somewhat unusual.
Never Bet the Devil Your Head – A funny story but I don’t understand the connection with/satire of transcendentalism. Definitely worth reading.
The Oval Portrait – Perhaps I’m spoiled by Poe, but this seems a rather standard gothic tale imitated many times.
Masque of the Red Death – Another gothic tale of morality and death.
The Pit and the Pendulum – Very sensual. It was pretty much as I remembered.
The Mystery of Marie Roget – Even though Poe invented the mystery, he didn’t perfect it. This is a rather uninteresting rambling of uninteresting details. Poe goes to great pains (and I mean painful to the reader) to explain in minutia Dupin’s thought process. Later mystery writers, I think, learned that it’s better to have the mystery unraveled in an entertaining manner (even if it meant leaving some holes.)
The Tell-Tale Heart – Much shorter than I recalled. The part where he’s driven mad by the heartbeat is only about two paragraphs long. He cracked pretty quickly.
The Gold Bug – Kind of a detective story told backwards. Another innovative story by Poe, but like his detective stories, he spends a long time explaining how Legrand uncovered and solved each clue.
The Black Cat – A classic gothic tale with a gruesome ending.
The Purloined Letter – Like his other detective stories, this is drawn out a bit too long. Otherwise, I like it more than Marie Roget and it’s as good as the Murder on the Rue Morgue.
September 28, 2015
I remember Poe from the short stories, and, of course, the Raven. What I did not realize until reading this was how accomplished a poet he was. This book includes poetry, prose poems, unfinished plays, tales, tales, longer fiction, and essays on poetry. I particularly like two of his essays where he defines and describes poetry in a way I had never thought about. Interestingly, he refers to Aristotle in one of them, and I can see the influence there, in how Poe analyzes the purpose of poetry. From memory (possibly flawed) -- poetry deals with the beauty (for the soul), not passion (for the heart), not logic, and not morals. Beauty. A couple of his longer works were in the form of log books (including a voyage to the South Pole and another to the Moon via balloon!) and one that describes a journey on the Missouri River prior to Lewis & Clarke. Both fiction. The last piece in this book (Eureka) is a description of his view about the universe which is very much like the later big bang theory. Amazing.
May 10, 2007
Read first when we were young, Poe's stories tend to be forgotten among grownups, which is a shame. Shame is also the buried theme of most of his non-detective stories, worked out in the trembling prose of first-person narratives who try to come to terms with feelings felt but not fully comprehended. Beauty and terror overwhelm Poe's characters, embodied, he wrote, most perfectly in the death of a beloved woman. "Ligeia," "Berenice," "The Black Cat" stand out, but also such lost gems as "The Man of the Crowd" and "Hop-Frog." Fits America's shrinking attention span, then and now.
June 10, 2009
Poe is the crazy little voice inside one's head, the urge to scream out something inappropriate at a fancy dinner. His world is seemingly unreal and airless, yet it is full of very real fears, paranoia, and obsessions. Like a chiaroscuro, it's all very dark, with brief flashes of bright light, a literary Caravaggio. "Masque of the Red Death" is my favorite, along with "Tell-Tale Heart" and "William Wilson." For Poe, sure the world can be a scary place, but ultimately, it is you who are your own worst enemy. There is no escaping, and the innkeeper is mad.
October 18, 2012
Whew! A long read, all the prose and poetry of this master of American letters. Poe was far more than a spinner of tales of the macabre, and this collection reveals the full extent of his great eloquence and erudition, his imaginative wit, his scientific, historical and classical knowledge, and his prowess as a mystery writer. The book could be read in intermittent visits, one short story now and then, but I chose to read the works cover to cover, and thereby became fully immersed in this masterful author's world of dreams, romance, humor, adventure, mystery and terror.
May 21, 2014
Someone should read this book because there is different poems in it. The raven is a good poem There is a lot of ghostly ideas in this poem.
To F_____s S. O____d is another good poem. There are more softer and more hopeful side and he is not depressed.He don't get worked up over anything.
To one Paradise is another good poem. He lost a loved one in the poem.
Bridal ballad is another good poem. Bridal ballad is more about marriages and love.
Sonnet-To Zanteis another good poem. Sonnet-To Zaneteis is a calm story.
To F_____s S. O____d is another good poem. There are more softer and more hopeful side and he is not depressed.He don't get worked up over anything.
To one Paradise is another good poem. He lost a loved one in the poem.
Bridal ballad is another good poem. Bridal ballad is more about marriages and love.
Sonnet-To Zanteis another good poem. Sonnet-To Zaneteis is a calm story.
June 23, 2013
Not only is this a helpful, comprehensive collection of Poe stories and poems, it also contains (as all LOA editions do) extremely helpful endnotes. The binding and paper are of very high quality as well. Reading this collection in its entirety (in college) introduced me to the Poe that is more funny than most any other American author and helped me to understand why it is that he's one of our nation's most treasured authors.
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