Edgar Allan Poe
EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)
BIOGRAPHY
Although one of America's first important writers, Poe's tragic private life provokes almost as much discussion as his writing. Born in Boston the son of peniless actors, Poe was orphaned at the age of three and taken into the home of Scotish tobacco merchant John Allan. An increasingly strained relationship with Allan lead to expulsion from both the University of Virginia and West Point and, after a brief but distinguished period in the army, Poe turned to journalism. Though he became well known both as an journalist and a writer of fiction, his salary never matched his fame and Poe spent most of his life in extreme poverty. In 1836 he married his then thirteen year old cousin Virginia Clemm - a relationship into which much has been read. After a period of increasing mental instability following the death of Virginia, Poe died of 'delerium' in Baltimore in unexplained circumstances.
Poe is widely remembered as the master of Gothic Horror, but he also developed many of the conventions of Science Fiction and, with 'Rue Morgue', created the detective fiction genre. Poe had both a deep fascination with science and a suspicion of its dogmatism and materialism. This conflict of the rational and the imaginative, natural and supernatural and a desire to see it resolved lies at the heart of much of his work.
STORIES
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Seeking shelter for the night, a wounded man breaks into a bizarre, abandoned chateau decorated by an unusually large number of paintings.
- Length: 2 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror
5 Stars
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As a hideous pestilence sweeps his lands, Prince Prospero seals himself in his castle and prepares a fabulous party.
- Length: 4 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror
5 Stars
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So you think he's mad? Nervous? True! - but you should see how wisely he carries out his plan.
- Length: 5 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime, Fiction, Horror
5 Stars
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A man takes his enemy to taste a rare wine - which he happens to keep at the far end of a vast, damp cellar.
- Length: 8 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime, Fiction, Horror
5 Stars
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An apparently gentle man becomes increasingly less so as he sinks deeper into an obsession with a mysterious black cat.
- Length: 10 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror
5 Stars
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While on a voyage to a remote archipelago, the narrator is overcome by a premonition of evil. But the ship's captain pays no attention.
- Length: 10 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
4 Stars
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A short history of and a personal tale concerning the phenomenon of being buried alive.
- Length: 13 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror
4 Stars
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A first person account of a man's torture at the hands of The Spanish Inquisition.
- Length: 15 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror
4 Stars
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The narrator describes what he remembers of his beautiful, intelligent wife, Ligeia.
- Length: 16 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror
5 Stars
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A man sets out to uncover the secrets of the strange natural phenomenon that is the Maelstrom vortex.
- Length: 17 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Fiction
4 Stars
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The original gothic tale of madness, death and the atmospheric possibilities of an old house.
- Length: 17 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror
5 Stars
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A potentially explosive letter has been stolen. The police know who has it - but where he has it remains a mystery.
- Length: 24 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
5 Stars
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Often cited as the first detective story. The genre arrives pretty much fully formed: a brilliant detective, the bumbing police officer and a (particularly) gruesome murder.
- Length: 32 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
4 Stars