Edgar Allan Poe "Tales of Mystery and Imagination"

 

Edgar Allan Poe

The short stories of Edgar Allan Poe are often strange, wild and highly imaginative. Many of them examine in an extremely detailed way the dark side of human existence. In his time, Poe was a very original writer. His stories communicate a world of terror that comes straight from the depths of his own troubled mind. 'William Wilson' (1839) is set in England, where Poe also went to school. It is a disturbing story about the struggle between the good and bad sides of a young man's character. 'The Gold-Bug' (1843) is one of Poe's most popular stories, selling over 300,000 copies in its first year. The story shows how clear thinking can make sense of things we do not at first understand. In this case, the clear thinking leads to the discovery of immense treasures. Another strange and very frightening story is 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (1839).The character Roderick Usher has often been compared with Poe himself; both lived in continual fear of death and kept apart from human company. Two more shocking stories in which death claims victory are 'The Red Death' (1842) and 'The Barrel of Amontillado' (1846). 'The Whirlpool' (1841) is an adventure story set on the Norwegian coast, in which the main character experiences terrible fear and lives to tell the tale. 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1843) describes in horrible detail the cruelty of human beings to each other, and examines fear and hopelessness at the point of death. 'Metzengerstein' is one of Poe's early tales. Set in Hungary, it is a story about the power of evil. 'The Stolen Letter' (1841) is mystery story featuring C. Auguste Dupin, on whom other great fictional characters such as Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes were later modelled.

 

 

  

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