18 Best Stories by Edgar Allen Poe--3 🌟 overall, but some of these stories are lame...
The Black Cat 3 🌟(p.11)--A man has a black cat, who loves him and his wife. He starts drinking a lot and he's not a nice drunk. Still, the cat loves him, and so does his wife, no matter how much of an asshole he is.
The Fall of the House of Usher 2 🌟(p.21)-- A hypochondriac implores his friend (who apparently doesn't have a job) to come stay with him awhile in the hopes that his visit will alleviate his depression. The friend hangs around, reading to him, they paint together, the hypochondriac plays some guitar for him (the hypochondriac can't abide most types of music), but the hypochondriac doesn't get any better. Moreover, the hypochondriac's sister is dying, adding to his depression.
The Mask of the Red Death 2 🌟(p.41)--A deadly plague is sweeping a countryside so Prince Prospero invites 1000 of his favorite peeps and they lock themselves into his party-castle with party supplies, musicians and costumery to wait out the plague.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar 2 🌟(p.48)-- A hypnotist conducts an experiment with a dying human: he wants to hypnotise someone about to die. A tuberculin patient is found, and when Drs have given him 24 hours to live, the hypnotist gets to work. With plenty witnesses, and note-taking, he succeeds in hypnotising the man moments before he dies thus postponing his death. Get your gas masks out.
The Sphinx 3 🌟(p.96)--The cholera is raging in New York so the narrator goes to spend time with a friend who has a cabin on the Hudson. Sitting in a chair and looking out the window, he sees a monster descending the hill across from him. It emits a forlorn call and disappears.
The Murders in Morgue St 3 🌟(p.101)--Horrible murder of a mother and daughter happen in the 4th-story bedroom of a house on Morgue St in paris. Cops can't figure it out so Poe's friend Dupin puts his noggin to work. You'll never guess who is the murderer but it all happened because of Animal cruelty.
The Tell-Tale Heart 3 🌟(p.138)-- A tenant's cataract-filled eye bothers the landlord so he decides he should die.... karma takes its course.
The System of Dr Tar and Professor Feather 2 🌟(p.182)--If you know someone who is "insane," you know that they can fool anyone that they are perfectly"sane." A young man riding through the south of France passes by an insane asylum. He tells his friend he'd like to check it out, as he has heard about it's successful "soothing system." Invited to dine with the company, the young man is in for an entertaining time and it won't be long till you figure out why.
A Descent into the Maelstrom 3 🌟 (p.226)--Fishing is best nearest the whirlpool, so for two fishermen brothers that's where they go, only observing the caution of going home by 7pm to avoid the current that would pull them in, and to their deaths. Well, don't rely on watches...
The Pit and the Pendulum 5 🌟 (p.264)--A prisoner is sentenced to death and is put through different tortures. Really has to be his best story; the suspense is palpable.
THe Cask of Amontillado 5 🌟 (p.280)--Ok, his OTHER really good story. A wine merchant cheats his client. Montescu plans his revenge carefully. At the last moment, Fortunado implores"for the love of God," and where have you heard that before? Dolan's Cadillac, that's where.
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Well, wrapping up this book. It's not Edgar's fault of course, but I actually like the adaptations better. It's partly the writing style that is hard for me and mostly the language. He used many French, Latin and other words that are not part of my vocab and my vocab is pretty darn good!

I enjoyed the Vincent Price preface as he has played a few of the characters in Poe's collection. Once I cleared up the terms and what the heck the writer was talking about, I did enjoy the Pit and the Pendulum the best, as well as the Cask of Amontillado.

What's best about Poe is how he builds suspense and puts forth the horror of the protagonist and how he or she escapes it (or falls victim to it).

Maybe it's laziness on my part but I have to work hard to get through a story -- so pack a good Websters when you slog through this book as well as a book on Latin phrases! ( )

I read a variety of Poe’s works when I was in middle school and high school, but this collection had a number of stories I don’t recall ever reading before - The Facts of the Case of M Valdemar (couldn’t help but think of Valdemort), The Black Cat, A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, The Sphinx, The System of Dr Tarr and Prof Fether, The Man That was Used Up, The Balloon Hoax, and A Descent Into the Maelstrom.

Not all of his tales are horror stories, and several - especially The Murders in the Rue Morgue - evoke Sherlock Holmes (who made his first appearance in 1887, some 46 years after Poe’s short story was published). Still it’s his horror tales that stay with me – The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell Tale Heart, and The Mask of the Red Death.

I’m glad I revisited these classic tales. ( )

Well, wrapping up this book. It's not Edgar's fault of course, but I actually like the adaptations better. It's partly the writing style that is hard for me and mostly the language. He used many French, Latin and other words that are not part of my vocab and my vocab is pretty darn good!

I enjoyed the Vincent Price preface as he has played a few of the characters in Poe's collection. Once I cleared up the terms and what the heck the writer was talking about, I did enjoy the Pit and the Pendulum the best, as well as the Cask of Amontillado.

What's best about Poe is how he builds suspense and puts forth the horror of the protagonist and how he or she escapes it (or falls victim to it).

Maybe it's laziness on my part but I have to work hard to get through a story -- so pack a good Websters when you slog through this book as well as a book on Latin phrases! ( )

http://books.moonsoar.com/archives/2010/01/18/18-best-stories-by-edgar-allan-poe... ( )