In this essential collection, Edgar Allan Poe masterfully blends Gothic horror, psychological suspense, and brilliant deduction. Open this book and discover why the master of the macabre still rules our deepest fears. This book contains: - The Tell-Tale Heart: Driven by an obsession with an old man's "vulture eye," a narrator details a brutal murder-only to be haunted by the relentless beating of a severed heart. - The Cask of Amontillado: A chilling tale of revenge where Montresor lures his rival, Fortunato, deep into the dark family catacombs for a final, macabre trap. - The Masque of the Red Death: A haunting allegory about the inevitability of death, following a wealthy prince who hosts a luxury masquerade while trying to lock out a fatal plague. - The Pit and the Pendulum: Trapped in a pitch-black cell during the Spanish Inquisition, a prisoner faces ultimate psychological terror as a razor-sharp pendulum descends toward his chest. - The Fall of the House of Usher: A Gothic masterpiece tracking the mental decay of the last Usher siblings, whose crumbling mansion mirrors the tragic collapse of their lineage. - The Murders in the Rue Morgue: Widely recognized as the world's first detective story, this groundbreaking tale introduces C. Auguste Dupin using pure logic to solve an impossible double murder. - The Black Cat: A terrifying descent into guilt and madness, where a man's life unravels into horrific violence, driven by his inner demons and a sinister pet. Plus footnotes that deepen your appreciation of the text and bonus poetry content!
Autorentext
Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 October 7, 1849) was an American writer, 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 American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.Poe was born in Boston, the second child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. Thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood. Tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to lack of money. Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at this time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous collection Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian". With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement. However, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways with John Allan.Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Richmond in 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. Poe died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, at age 40; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.
Zusammenfassung
This is a collection of the 7 best short stories of one of the most read horror, detective and science fiction authors ever to have been published, Edgar Allan Poe. This selection specially chosen by the literary critic August Nemo, contains the following stories:The Tell-Tale HeartThe Cask of AmontilladoThe Masque of the Red DeathThe Pit and the PendulumThe Fall of the House of UsherThe Murders in the Rue MorgueThe Black CatEdgar Allan Poe has influenced many great writers and creative minds like Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Machen, H.P. Lovecraft, Jules Verne, Clark Ashton Smith, Charles Baudelaire, Ambrose Bierce, Jorge Luis Borges, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, among many others.