And the grandeur that was Poe...

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	• Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe Doubleday, 1966 - 832 pages average customer review:based on 70 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Chilled to the Bone

The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, is a good book to read on a rainy night. This book takes us back to the time of giant monsters, supernatural monsters, and dead people who come back to life seeking revenge against the people who murdered them. We can hear the monster's heart beat through Edgar Allan Poe's poetic form. The stories keep us in suspense until the bitter end. My favorite in the collection remains "The Fall of the House of Usher," about a family and how they get ripped apart. The family tree grows without branches; Roderick and Madeleine live as direct descendents of the original Usher, which the narrator says constitutes a flaw in the strength of the family. A large crack runs through the house, itself, a symbol of the family breaking apart. Roderick suffers from hyper-sensitivity to light, sound, and touch, keeping himself enclosed in a dark padded room. Madeleine Usher suffers from catatonia, which leaves her often appearing dead. Roderick constantly worries about putting her in the family tomb while she still lives. The old house makes Roderick even more afraid to the point that he shakes uncontrollably. People who like to have their socks scared off will enjoy Poe's tales.

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Very Pleasing

I bought the $50 leather bound Barnes& Noble edition but all the same, it is a very good book to get into the best story teller and (one of the best)poets ever's complete works.

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And the grandeur that was Poe...

If you want THE Poe collection, then this is it. I was amazed at the depth of this book. It even contains my old favorite "The Gold-Bug" which often seems to fall through the cracks when other collections were gathered. That story alone is worth several re-readings. His work is not quoted nearly enough these days. Take for example this quote from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" while discussing the attributes of truth, "The depth lies in the valleys where we seek her and not upon the mountain-tops where she is found." That quotation alone could be applied to almost every aspect of life and science. Furthermore, his discussion on the differences between analytical and genius types is so very true...and in today's scientific world, these fundamental differences form the chasm between those who wish to recreate a natural phenomenon and those who wish to understand it. On a different note, it is good to see a kid's review on this book. His material boosts the creative and imaginative abilities with such works as "The Black Cat", "The Tell-tale Heart", "Annabel Lee" and as you grow older, you respect the depth of his mature works.

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Chilled to the Bone

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Quoth the raven...

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.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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