Edgar Allan Poe

First published in a 1842 edition of Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine, The Masque of the Red Death tells the story of Prince Prospero as he tries to avoid a plague by confining himself and his nobles to a masquerade in an abbey. Often considered a gothic allegory, the story reflects on not only life and death but also the illusion of control.

The only full-length novel by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" was first published in 1838. It is the story of a boy from Nantucket, Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship, the "Grampus", with the help of his friend Augustus, the ship captain's son. Pym and Augustus experience many unexpected adventures and misfortunes at sea, including mutiny, violent storms, cannibalism, and the destruction of the ship. Eventually,...

First published in a 1841 edition of Graham's Magazine, The Murders in the Rue Morgue is often cited as the first modern detective story. The first of three stories to center around C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective, The Murders in the Rue Morgue involves Dupin's investigation of two women's murders. Establishing many of the tropes that would later become common to detective fiction, the story begins with an explanation of Dupin's theory...

The story follows a man of noble descent who calls himself William Wilson because, although denouncing his past, he does not accept responsibilities blame for his actions, saying that "man was never thus [...] tempted before". After several paragraphs, the narration then segues into a description of Wilson's boyhood, which was spent in a school "in a misty-looking village of England." William meets another boy in his school who shared the same name,...

Maquiavélico, terrorífico, repugnante, horroroso... estas son pocos ejemplos de cómo podríamos describir las novelas de Edgar Allan Poe, donde, con aire de angustia, nos entrega obras en las que predomina sólo una cosa: la locura. En esta pequeña recopilación, podemos encontrar desde los relatos más conocidos, como El gato, negro, El cuervo y El corazón delator, acompañados de algunos no tan renombrados, pero con el mismo objetivo en común:...

"The Essential Tales and Poems" is a large, yet thorough, collection of the poems and stories written by horror master Edgar Allen Poe. Admirers will be happy to see Poe's most famous works present in the collection: "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Cask of Amontillado." These works have struck fear in audiences for generations, solidifying Poe's place in the American literature canon. Fans...

Our narrator plots to murder an old man, though the narrator states that he loves the old man, and hates only his evil pale blue eye. The narrator insists that his careful precision in committing the murder shows that he cannot possibly be insane. For seven nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, in order to shine a sliver of light onto the evil eye. However, the old man's vulture eye is always closed, making it impossible to do...

Poe's character, the detective C.August Dupin and his sidekick the unnamed narrator undertake the unsolved murder of Marie Rogêt in Paris. The body of Rogêt, a perfume  shop employee, is found in the River Seine and the media take a keen interest in the mystery. Dupin remarks that the newspapers "create a sensation... rather than to further the cause of truth." Even so, he uses the newspaper reports to get into the mind of the murderer. Dupin uses...

The unnamed narrator describes the qualities of Ligeia, a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed, that he thinks he remembers meeting "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine." He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family's name, but remembers her beautiful appearance. Her beauty, however, is not conventional. He describes her as emaciated, with some "strangeness." He describes...

The story opens with the narrator recounting a summer sea voyage from aboard the ship 'Independence'. The narrator learns that his old college friend Cornelius Wyatt is aboard with his wife and two sisters, though he has reserved three state-rooms. After conjecturing the extra room was for a servant or extra baggage, he learns his friend has brought on board an oblong pine box: "It was about six feet in length by two and a half in breadth." The narrator...