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Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe

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I've always had a liking for Edgar Allan Poe, with his tales of horror, mystery and suspense, done in the atmospheric prose of a master writer. Since I live close enough, I've even made some trips to his gravesite, a place that is always surrounded by a sense of sadness.

Poe was a tormented genius who died young, under mysterious circumstances, and at the time of his death he wasn't deservingly popular. Certainly his work was not cute romances for the masses -- he explored the darkness of the human heart, love, satire, and the earliest whodunnit stories. And "Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe" brings together all of his poetry and writings in one book.

Poe's fiction writings include short stories and novellas, which tend to be rather weird -- a treasure-hunt and a golden insect, a ship caught in a whirlpool, a hypnotized man talks about the universe, and stories of despair, madness, and occasionally beauty. There is also his trilogy of Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin stories, which were the first to feature a brilliant detective solving an impossible crime.

Most people know about "The Raven" (which even has the Baltimore Ravens named after it) but Poe actually wrote a lot of poetry, most of which readers never heard of. Sometimes dark, or whimsical, or even both. "By a route obscure and lonely/Haunted by ill angels only/Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT/On a black throne reigns upright..."

And, of course, the horror. This is what Poe is best known for, including such well-known stories as "The Fall Of The House Of Usher." But there are also lesser-known gems -- tales of a plague invading a party, being buried alive, a portrait that siphoned the life out of its subject, and a nightly visit to an Italian crypt leading to madness.

Don't read "Complete Stories and Poems" all at once. It's too intense. It's better to soak it in a little at a time, so that you can get a better feel for the different kinds of writing that Poe did, and how he excelled at pretty much everything he put down on paper. Most great writers can't boast of that much.

Poe's writing is what makes even his least story or poem come alive -- he brought a gothic, misty vibrancy to his stories, and could make his quiet dialogue seem utterly chilling (" "I have no name in the regions which I inhabit. I was mortal, but am fiend..."). It's not hard to see why he was an influence on authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and Franz Kafka.

"Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe" is a must-have for anyone with an appreciation for great literature and beautiful, dark writing.

Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, died October 7, 1849.

What is it that makes an author famous? I don't mean famous in the sense a news article reports that "Jack Greylea's novels sold 15 million copies last year," but in the sense that he is thought of as being profound, and seminal. That he is quoted, and scholars analyse his works, and he is looked upon as being the original voice of his style, or the font from which many imitators have drawn inspiration.

Edgar Allan Poe is one such. The very hint of his name calls up images of midnight graveyards, of crumbling mansions lit by wax candles, the home of strange and tormented aristocrats, till the description "Poe-like" can draw as vivid a picture in our minds as "elephant-like."

Yet his output was not great. Basically a short story writer and poet, he produced only one full-length novel, which received more censure than praise, and which very few people today can name. Without wishing to run him down as an author (what he did, he did well, but what he did well, was to be Poe) he was a limited writer, and all of his works over twenty-two years can be contained in one thickish book.
So what is the secret of Poe, whereby a scanty writer becomes the cult-centre of a world of horror that carries his own stamp? It lies I think in two things.

Not to place these two in any order of importance as regards his continuing fame - I leave this to you - but I would say....
Firstly, that it was his choice of subject and execution of it. The mournful, weird and macabre, in which man becomes little more than an instrument of darkness, and that usually the worst darkness, that which wells up from within, whose black light shows us as being not the pawns of evil, but the source of evil itself. But to seize on this idea - or any other idea - as inspiration is nothing, merely the starting point from which the quill hits the paper. It is in the execution of his vision that Poe's genius emerges. Not with a great deal of subtlety, nor a much complexity, but with great and disciplined fixity on the horror of his intentions, Poe moves relentless to the nasty culmination of his stories, and they come to us with all the rawness of unconsoled misery. His art was that of the short story writer, and as such he wrote little, but when reading Poe a little is more than enough.

Secondly, that Poe more than any other author is identified as a man with his works. An orphan and an outcast from his adopted family, overly sensitive and reckless, he lived wildly, lied readily, lived in poverty, married strangely to his thirteen-year old cousin, was widowed miserably, and finally died mysteriously at age forty, from uncertain causes that speculation has named as anything from drug addiction to murder. As if this were not enough, his works were controlled after his death by his executor, who attempted to blacken his name. More than any other author that I can readily think of, Poe was his own tormented, tragic hero, and his oppressed characters were him.

In the nineteen-sixties, several of Poe's stories and poems - The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven, The Tomb of Legeia and others - were made into popular, low budget films, cementing Poe's reputation firmly into the mythology of modern horror movies. It's common of course for movies to be nothing like the original written work, but all of these are based on not on fully worked out novels, but ideas that Poe dealt with in comparatively few pages.

Incidentally, the principal actor in many of these was Vincent Price, whose tall, mournful frame instantly springs to mind as well nigh inseparable from Poe's weird gems.

Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven

Edgar Allan Poe is best remembered for his weird, creepy short stories, but he was also a great poet. Unfortunately, he lived much of his life in drunkenness and poverty, and died relatively young... or was murdered, we don't know for sure. All we know is he was found dead. But he left us with some very hauntingly atmospheric tales like "House of Usher" or "Pit and the Pendulum" and some memorable poems, including the gloomy pieces "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee", a fantasy about being put in the coffin with his beloved dead wife. But Poe was a pretty romantic guy in the normal sense too, as expressed in his love poems, and people who see him as simply a dark, morbid figure have missed out on his deep understanding of beauty and appreciation of beauty clearly visible in his poetry.

ok Edgar Allen Poe is a good writter no doubt and his stuff is good to read so take my advice buy it and you wont be disapointed k....

Whether you were forced to read him as a high school student, numbly opening to one of his many short stories or poems, or as an avid fan of the macabre, you delved into his darkest works, it doesn't take long to understand why Edgar Allen Poe is considered to be one of the great writers of all time, blending styles ranging from horror to comedy into his volume of work to create stories that capture the imagination and thrill the soul.

Many of his writings have been translated into film, or referenced in other literary works, television programs, even some of the great satires of the stage and screen. Here now, is a chance to share in the complete works of this masterful writer of the macabre.

From "The Raven" to "The Tell-Tale Heart", this collection of his stories and poems is beautifully laid out in a hard-cover edition that is far less expensive than comparible collections of his works in paperback. For anyone from the casual reader to the most dedicated fan of American literature, this collection is a must have for any home library.

Scott Kolecki

This is inevitably a favorite of high school students and it's a great way to tempt the reader who hates classics. Poe was the 19th Century Stephen King, except without the money (Poe died in a gutter) or the car accident (which would have put Mr. King dead in a gutter except that he was a lucky man.)

Favorite of mine is the evil and wacky "Pit and the Pendulum" which just about defines horror for me, and the of course the poems, which I like even better; "The Raven" which is worth memorizing or at least studying for the assonance ("And the silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of each purple curtain".) While this is fun to read for anyone of any age, the complete poems and stories of Poe are really good to introduce the classics into your reading.

In this book are all of Edgar Allan Poes stories and poems.It is one of the best books I have ever read.It has stories such as the Tell Tale Heart in which the person telling the story can not be trusted because he is mad and tries hard to convince you he is not.And also The Fall of The House of Usher,in which old frinds reunite and play out long days that end in an unexplainable twist.But other than the stories there are the poems such as Annabel Lee which was inspired by Poes favorite topic,The death of a beautiful woman.And of course the famous poem of lost love,The Raven.So if you are looking for a great book to read I suggest this one:)

If you like Edger Allan Poe's stories and poems then you will love this book. Its big, easy to read print and hardback.

One of the downfalls most poets go through is that only one or two of their poems are regularly published in literature books leaving the others lost and forgotten. This book gives us a look at all of Poe's poems, the ones not published but equally as good as the others. There is nothing like snuggling up at night and being horrified by one of his tales. Poe's work is priceless and most of the time his excellent writing is all but forgotten in english literaure. It is a must in anyones collection...

As a high school student, I have learned about many great authors and poets:Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Benjamin Franklin, to name a few. However, without a doubt and hands down, Edgar Allan Poe is by far the
greatest author. Poe has an amazing ability to catch his reader's attention, fulfill them during the story, and disappoint them at the ending. This disappointment is not because the story was unsatisfactory and dull, but because the reader craves more of Poe's phenomenal and entertaining writing. The first time I read Poe (The Tell-Tale Heart), I was fascinated with his ability to make me feel that I was caught up with Poe's insanity. His story was absolutely terrifying, yet there were no demons, devils, beasts, basilisks, or monsters involved. I was confused of where the disturbing terror was coming from. After reading many of his short stories and poems, I realized that the fear could not even be found in the story at all. It is found in the reader's soul, beliefs, and heart. This horror is not exposed every time you open a book by Poe. It is with you constantly, every day and second, as long as your heart is still beating...and perhaps even after.