The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection audiobook

I know I've read too much Poe in too short a period of time when words like adduce and avidity have crept into my everyday conversation. At a Holiday party this week I actually said "That is a capital cheese" and couldn't understand why strangers looked at me funny. Reader beware, a Poe=lit infection is virulent.If you've spent any amount of time with Poe you'll agree with me that he composes sentences with such a solid structure that if you were to diagram one of them with pointy sticks instead of pencil lines you could create an impregnable breastworks. Somehow I feel that if Americans spoke the way that Poe's characters do that we would have meaningful discourse rather than blathery tweets. But I digress, let's take a stroll through Poe, shall we?First I want to talk about this absolutely gorgeous volume I picked up from Barnes & Noble sometime in the mid '90s. Take a look at this beauty: engraved cover, heavy acid free paper and gold edging so bright, so reflective - you could use the book edge as a shaving mirror. It is one of the heaviest books I own (well, pre-Arno Schmidt, anyway). My normally pliant cat wouldn't even let me take my obligatory "Kitten Squisher" photo without pushing back against its uncomfortable weight.Most English reading humans with a high-school diploma have probably come across Poe's most famous works ("The Raven", Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado) - it had been years since I'd read those and a few others; returning to them after a long interlude presented some new perspectives on the works. But the ten or so famous pieces are just the scratched surface on the world of Poe. Here's a few things that I learned:1) His only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket was much, much better than I expected. It is a ripping-yarn-at-sea; a page turner with a tremendous conclusion. 2) I knew that Poe was an alcoholic - what I didn't know was how prevalent dipsomania pervades his work. I didn't keep track, but it seemed that most of his short fiction had a bottle (or three) of spirits consumed. It would be interesting to learn from a Poe scholar how his personal battle against the bottle paralleled his works...3) A hidden gem of a story that I had never before read The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion quickly became my favorite work of Poe. Brilliant and sadly neglected / forgotten.4) I had no idea that Poe is credited as being the author of the first detective "novel". The Purloined Letter is a well known story where the reader is first introduced to C. Auguste Dupin. What I didn't know was that Poe penned two other stories containing Dupin and his friend/narrator of the stories M. Le Bon. The other two stories, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, combined with the Purloined Letter could make a novella in themselves. Dupin is seen as paving the way for Holmes and Poirot.5) Poe loved balloons. Hot air balloons. Loads of stories with hot air balloons. Including a trip to the moon in a hot air balloon.6) Poe wrote a book review of Washington Irving's Astoria that was so exhaustive that I felt like I actually read the entire novel. Not so much a review as a comprehensive, blow-by-blow book report.I wasn't a huge fan of Poe's poetry {insert POEtry joke here}, but I know so little about poetry, so my opinion doesn't mean much here. There was one very lengthy essay that he penned on the creation of poetry that I found so dull that I will admit to skimming. But out of 1,260+ pages I'm allowed just once, aren't I?I tackled this volume of work as a preamble to reading Arno Schmidt's Bottom's Dream in 2017. I have two other books that need finishing before I embark on that voyage; Poe's works built the ship that I'll sail into those waters. When I finished this monster my wife asked, "What person reads a 1,200 page book as preparation to read a 1,700 page book?" She doesn't know all you wonderful people....

Well fuck. How do i describe Edgar Allen Poe? Guess i really cant. What i CAN say, however, is how amazing he is. His stories are corrupt, depressing, haunting, chilling, goddamn terrifying, and downright inhumane. AWESOME, RIGHT?!?If you don't have the time to get off ya bum and read the entire collection, at LEAST read the following:The Murders at Rue MorgueThe Pit and the PendulumCask of AmontilladoThe Telltale HeartThe Raven

Edgar Allan Poe is a mixed bag for me. The stories and poems that I like, I like very, very much; but there are others that are just yawnfests. Still, this is the definitive collection for all Poe fans, so be sure to check it out.

This thing is between four and five thousand pages so I did not read it in it's entirety. But I did read several selections. These are the stories I read that are contained herein.Masque of Red DeathMurders in the Rue MorgueA Descent Into the MaelstromThe Black CatThe Devil in the BelfryThe RavenThe Pit and the PendulumThe Tell Tale HeartAnnabel LeeThe Oblong Box The Cask of AmontilladoThe Imp of the PerverseThe Premature BurialThe Fall of the House of UsherIt is amazing how well these stories which were written in the 1830s hold up in 2020. Have to give this 5 stars when you consider the long term influence and readability of his work after all this time. Plus they are just well done entertaining stories.

Poe is the undisputed king of Gothic Horror. A must read for all fans of horror fiction and classic literature.

Edgar Allen Poe lived a difficult life, and his suffering informs the darkness of his work. As an author, I believe suffering informs my work. This is not to say you have to suffer to write well. Or that you should look to suffer. We all suffer in our own personal journeys through life, suffering is inevitable. Heartbreak. Fear. Terrifying moments, sometimes. Edgar Allen Poe's writing inspires me like no other. Very concrete. I care about the narrator. I can feel the horror, I am walking beside him. And yet there is this way in which shadows have a tendency of amplifying the light. A great writer can fill my heart with joy, by painting shadows with the pen. Because the darkness amplifies the light. Poe is a great place for young readers to cultivate a love for the written word. Poe is a master. If you hope to write, let the masters mentor you. Read their work.

Flicking through - mighty fun / terrifying / incredible writing / chilling / ooOoooo soo good / masterful

My main issue with this book is the very thin pages and the ease that they can tear if not handled properly. Other than that this is a collection I am proud to own. I was already familiar with Poe’s short gothic/horror stories and some of his poetry and this opened up a whole new aspect of him to me. Being only aware of certain stories and poems I couldn’t say if it was a complete collection at the title suggests but it does contain a variety and I have subsequently found some new favourites within his writings such as ‘The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaall’, ‘The Devil in the Belfry’ and ‘Three Sundays in a Week’. I will always prefer the Horror stories (my favourite being the Cask of Amontillado) but I am glad this collection of works has opened up Poe for me and help me realise to quality of his writings and the ability to switch and mix up different genres.

I read 5 short stories and The Raven so I didn't read the entire thing.... Poe was quite the author.

I had no particular knowledge of Poe beyond The Raven when I started this collection, but it contains a whole hell of a lot of his classics - The Pit And The Pendulum is here, The Tell-Tale Heart is here, The Fall Of The House Of Usher's here, The Raven's obviously here, Annabel Lee is here, Ligeia's here, The Masque of the Red Death, The Gold Bug and quite a lot more besides - all read by either Vincent Price or Basil Rathbone.He's quite the shock-goth, is Poe. Lots of his stories build and build to a sharp pencil-point and then leave you flailing, gasping for breath at the end, as he moves on to something new, like being driven on and on towards a horrorgasm and then being allowed no comedown from the pitch of utmost sweaty, shivering, what-the-hell-just-happened fear. There's absolutely no cuddling with Poe, it's all just wham, bam aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh, there's a RAT ON MY FACE!He also has recurring themes which undoubtedly spoke more to his age than to ours - people put pre-emptively in their tombs and finding their way back out is a big thing for Poe, and of course now we know this did happen - people were assumed to be dead, and occasionally found themselves with no alternative but to scratch and thump and scream in their coffins in the hope that somebody would hear them before their oxygen ran out or they died of thirst.He's also big on the punishing power of the soul - what else is the Tell-Tale Heart but the impact of guilt on a murderer, while sitting blagging his way through an interview with the police? Believe it or not, it's only while listening to this collection that I really GOT how weird The Raven is, as a story-poem. Mourning man, hiding from the world, wailing inwardly in his grief...in walks a talking bird, refuses to leave, ever. It's a depression metaphor, I assume - long before Churchill's black dog or Susan Calman's crab of hate, there's Poe and his oppressive, lowering bird of accusation, hate and soul-sapping accusation.Of them all, I'd have to declare a particular...well, liking is probably the wrong word, but a particular appreciation for The Pit And The Pendulum, which is horrifyingly dark more or less all along the way - imprisonment by the Inquisition, stuck at the bottom of a pit, given salty food and no water, just so people can imagine you thirsting to madness, a slowly lowering axe-bladed pendulum coming closer, and closer, and closer, and...the way in which salvation comes, which is almost as bad as being slowly sliced in two - there's hardly a moment's respite in the whole story, which makes for a very shivery, sweaty read. I also really enjoyed The Tell-Tale Heart - not so much for the moral or the growing guilt-reaction, but for the confidential, almost winking way the murderer co-opts you into their crimes at the beginning of the story. You really quite grow to like them, and more or less go along with their hideous crime by virtue of the cleverness with which they accomplish it. Orrrr...maybe that's just me and I need psychotherapy.Check out The Gold Bug too - it's less a horror story, more a positively deranged Sherlock Holmes-style piece of deduction, resulting in fortune for all concerned. Fairly screamingly racist - a major plot twist hangs on a man of colour not being able to tell his left from his right - but in its essence a good story.If I'm honest, it's when Poe gets more openly romantic that he grows quickly tiresome. Ligeia, for instance, I can be happy having heard only the one in my life. Nevertheless, as a collection, this felt like a thorough introduction to the man, his themes, his style and some of the reasons why his work is as well regarded as it is. Like several bestselling authors, he did that thing where he had a solid handful of instances where he bottled lightning and blew the doors off the place, and certainly that handful still stand up today.Oh also, did I mention - Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone. Price of course was not the overpronouncing stereotype people thing of him as being, his diction was clear and rich and juicy, and he brings it to bear here, delivering a narration that engages and carries you with it. Of the two though, Rathbone's the revelation - he acts his heart out in these stories, and some of them need it to fully hit you with the power of the writing. Certainly it's Rathbone who reads the stories that have made most of the positive impact on me, and hearing him speak and act makes me want to seek out his work on screen, which is an additional bonus of experiencing this collection of stories in the audio format.

Edgar Allen Poe is definitely the 1800s version of Stephen King. What a dark mind! But what great stories comes from it! I'm not into poetry so didn't read much of that section but like his most famous one, The Raven. I read most of the stories. Some are short and some are quite long. Here are favorites: The Oval Portrait, The Oblong Box, The Gold Bug, The Lighthouse, The Masque of the Red Death and The Murders in the Rue Morgue. But be warned! This is a complete collection--everything Poe ever wrote--and he was very prolific!