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First published in a 1842 edition of Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine, The Masque of the Red Death tells the story of Prince Prospero as he tries to avoid a plague by confining himself and his nobles to a masquerade in an abbey. Often considered a gothic allegory, the story reflects on not only life and death but also the illusion of control.
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The story follows a man of noble descent who calls himself William Wilson because, although denouncing his past, he does not accept responsibilities blame for his actions, saying that "man was never thus [...] tempted before". After several paragraphs, the narration then segues into a description of Wilson's boyhood, which was spent in a school "in a misty-looking village of England." William meets another boy in his school who shared the same name,...
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It takes much deception, betrayal, and madness to commit a murder. Even more madness to cover up that murder. In this haunting tale we follow the detailed planning involved to rid the world of an Evil Eye. Will the beating of the tell-tale heart reveal the truth to the police? Find out in this striking graphic novel adaptation.
4) The Raven
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Perhaps Poe's most famous work, The Raven was first published in 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror. Known for its tight rhymes, rhythm, and the repetitive response given by the eponymous raven-Nevermore-the poem focuses on that raven and a forlorn man who is distraught over his lost lover, Lenore.
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First published in a 1846 edition of Godey's Lady's Book, The Cask of Amontillado is widely considered to be one of the most perfect short stories ever written. Told by the unreliable narrator Montresor-a man who sought vengeance against his acquaintance for an insult that the reader is not privy to-the story details how Montresor accomplished his revenge.
6) Ligeia
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The unnamed narrator describes the qualities of Ligeia, a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed, that he thinks he remembers meeting "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine." He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family's name, but remembers her beautiful appearance. Her beauty, however, is not conventional. He describes her as emaciated, with some "strangeness." He describes...
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First published in a 1842 literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843, The Pit and the Pendulum takes place during the Spanish Inquisition and follows the plight of a prisoner in a cell that has a pit and a pendulum. Unlike many of Poe's short stories, The Pit and the Pendulum does not rely on any supernatural elements to inspire fear but instead uses the narrator's heightened sensory experiences to do so.
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Der Ich-Erzähler besucht seinen Freund Legrand auf der Insel Sullivan's island. Sein Freund lebt in einer Hütte gemeinsam mit einem freigelassenen Sklaven namens Jupiter. Legrand berichtet dem Erzähler von einem ungewöhnlichen Fund: ein metallisch schimmernder Käfer. Da Legrand den Käfer an einen Entomologen (Insektenkundler) zur Bestimmung verliehen hat, fertigt er eine Skizze auf einem alten Stück Pergament von dem Käfer an. Es erscheint...
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The first-person unnamed narrator describes his struggle with "attacks of the singular disorder which physicians have agreed to term "catalepsy", a condition where he randomly falls into a death-like trance. This leads to his fear of being buried alive. He emphasises his fear by mentioning several people who have been buried alive. In the first case, the tragic accident was only discovered much later, when the victim's crypt was reopened. In others,...
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First published in a 1841 edition of Graham's Magazine, The Murders in the Rue Morgue is often cited as the first modern detective story. The first of three stories to center around C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective, The Murders in the Rue Morgue involves Dupin's investigation of two women's murders. Establishing many of the tropes that would later become common to detective fiction, the story begins with an explanation of Dupin's theory...
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First published in a 1844 literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1845, The Purloined Letter is the third and final story that features Poe's detective, C. Auguste Dupin. In it, Dupin is approached by the prefect of the police to help with a case that involves a stolen letter containing compromising information.
12) The Oblong Box
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The story opens with the narrator recounting a summer sea voyage from aboard the ship 'Independence'. The narrator learns that his old college friend Cornelius Wyatt is aboard with his wife and two sisters, though he has reserved three state-rooms. After conjecturing the extra room was for a servant or extra baggage, he learns his friend has brought on board an oblong pine box: "It was about six feet in length by two and a half in breadth." The narrator...
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Inspired by an account in The Broadway Journal of a surgeon putting a patient into an magnetic sleep, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar is a suspenseful tale concerning the forestallment of death by hypnosis. Originally published without a clear indication of its fictionality, the story was assumed to be a true account by some of its original readers.
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Alexander Dumas beschreibt das Leben Napoleon Bonapartes mit zahlreichen Schilderungen von seinen berühmten Schlachten. Das Werk muss vor dem Hintergrund von Land, Entstehungszeit und Autor gelesen werden, Dumas vergisst nicht zu erwähnen, dass er Bonaparte 1815 selbst von der Ferne aus noch gesehen habe. Als ein literarisches Dokument des Lebens Napoleon Bonapartes ist dieses Buch sehr lesenswert.
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Visions in poetry volume 4
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Resonant with themes of love, loneliness, and death, the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe continues to appeal to modern readers more than 150 years after his death. This edition of The Raven and Other Poems is the work of a master, and includes "The Raven," "Lenore," "Annabel Lee." One of the best-known American writers, Edgar Allan Poe's poetry influenced the American Romantic and French Symbolist movements in the nineteenth century.
HarperPerennial...
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"The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" is the only complete novel written by Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the 'Grampus'. Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism, before he is saved by the crew of another ship. Aboard this vessel, Pym and a sailor named Dirk Peters continue their adventures further south. Docking...
17) The Spectacles
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The narrator, 22-year old Napoleon Buonaparte, changes his last name from "Froissart" to "Simpson" as a requirement to inherit a large sum from a distant cousin, Adolphus Simpson. At the opera he sees a beautiful woman in the audience and falls in love instantly. He describes her beauty at length, despite not being able to see her well; he requires spectacles but, in his vanity "resolutely refused to employ them." His companion Talbot identifies the...
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Roderick Usher's fate is inextricably intertwined with that of his sister, Madeline, and that of their estate. As one falls, so do they all. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is considered Edgar Allan Poe's greatest work, and a masterpiece of Gothic horror.
A pioneer of the short story genre, Poe's stories typically captured themes of the macabre and included elements of the mysterious. His better-known stories include "The Fall of the House of...
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Fantasy and reality collide when an unnamed narrator believes his beloved wife, Ligeia, has risen from the dead. "Ligeia" was one of Edgar Allan Poe's first published short stories, and spurred much debate as to the symbolism of Ligeia's death and supposed resurrection.
A pioneer of the short story genre, Poe's stories typically captured themes of the macabre and included elements of the mysterious. His better-known stories include "The Fall of...
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After an unnamed illness, the narrator sits in a coffee shop in London. Fascinated by the crowd outside the window, he considers how isolated people think they are, despite "the very denseness of the company around". He takes time to categorise the different types of people he sees. As evening falls, the narrator focuses on "a decrepit old man, some sixty-five or seventy years of age," whose face has a peculiar idiosyncrasy, and whose body "was short...
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