🎧 The Best of Edgar Allan Poe,
by Edgar Allan Poe
Narrated by Todd McLaren
Horror short-stories
1835-1846
110 pages / 5H30
Listened to
for #ShortstorySeptember
and #RIPXX
Counts for my Classics Club 5th list
- I have had a collection of Major Tales and poems by Edgar Allan Poe (Borders Classics, 2009) for many years on my physical shelves, but I decided to listen to them. At least for the ones I could find in audio through my public library.
So I started with this audiobook, which contains 11 stories present in my book.
I’ll just say a few words about each story, but as I read notes about each story, I’m discovering how much Poe included in his stories, how he used legends, or personal experience, or lots of elements from other authors.
So you get much more than it seems at first glance, and each story would be worth being analyzed at a deeper level.
There will be spoilers, so read at your own risk.
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1) The Fall of the House of Usher
It was first published in 1839 and is so very gothic in its ambiance, description of the house, and the theme of madness (a theme common to many stories in the collection) and isolation.
It could have been inspired by events at the Usher estate in Boston in 1830.
But Poe’s story has many elements in common with two German stories:
“Das Majorat” in 1819, by E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Poe knew Hoffmann’s works.
There’s also “Das Raubschloß“, a 1812 story by Heinrich Clauren, translated into English by Joseph Hardman and published in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1828 as “The Robber’s Tower”.
One fun thing, at one point, the character Roderick reads a poem, a poem actually written by Poe himself.
A man visits his friend Roderick Usher’s gloomy, decaying mansion, where Roderick and his ill twin sister Madeline live.
Something terrible and super spooky happens.
Even though it was written later, in 1886, this reminded me of Le Horla, by Maupassant, with also gothic elements and madness. Madness also related to a specific place, and the tendecy to grow.
The collection starts in a super spooky way, enhanced by the amazing narration by Todd McLaren. I even jumped at some words he shouted.
2) The Pit and the Pendulum
First published in 1842.
The story opens with a man who seems to be having a nightmare, possibly of the Last Judgment. Then he thinks he is in a tomb, then he discovers he is in a cell.
I like the heavy focus on senses, the blurring between dream and/or reality, and the description of his inner terror. Only at the very end do we really know where he is and why.
The pendulum refers here to a torture method.
3) The Tell-Tale Heart
First published in 1843.
The narrator tries to convince the reader that he is sane, though at the same time he describes how he killed an old man, though we don’t know why.
After the murder, his conscience makes him imagine hearing the victim’s heart and becoming mad, he ends up confessing.
4) The Cask of Amontillado
First published in 1846.
Starting in this collection withe the second story, we have the image of undergrounds, of tombs, and of being buried alive.
The narrator had been insulted by another one, so he decides on a special revenge. As the second man is an expert in wine (amontillado is a fancy cherry wine), the perpetrator decides to invite him to come and sample it. To do so, he pretends they go down to a deep cave. But this is a trap, and he ends up burying him alive, by immurement (slowly building a wall around the prisoner).
Apparently, the 19th century was fascinated by the idea (!), and we’ll see this again in next story here.
5) The Premature Burial
First published in 1844.
The unnamed narrator talks about his struggle with sudden attacks of catalepsy, a condition that makes him fall into a trance that looks like death. Because of this, he becomes deeply afraid of being buried alive.
In that context, he shares multiple examples of people buried alive!
But I liked the final twist in this one.
6) Ligeia
First published in 1838.
A man is in love with a mysterious and beautiful woman, Ligeia, who dies. He then marries another woman, Rowena, who falls ill and dies too. But Rowena’s body mysteriously comes back to life and transforms into Ligeia, suggesting Ligeia’s spirit has returned.
This was a weird one, but possibly a satire of Gothic fiction.
Why Ligeia?
Ligeia was one of the Sirens—creatures known for their captivating voices that lured sailors. Poe may have chosen this name likely for its mysterious, haunting, and beautiful qualities, fitting the story’s themes of supernatural power and obsession. The name evokes mystery, beauty, and sorrow, much like the character herself.
7) The Black Cat
First published in 1843.
The insane narrator suffers from alcoholism. He has a strong affection for cats, until he perversely turns to abusing them, and ends up murdering somebody, whom he also buries in a cellar.
Again some of the same themes, quite horrible really.
8) The Oval Portrait
First published in 1842.
A wounded man takes shelter in an old mansion and finds a lifelike portrait of a young woman. He reads that the painter’s wife posed for the portrait and slowly died as he focused all his attention on painting her, draining her life away. The story warns about obsession with art over real life.
This is a very short one, qjuite dramatic, and I heard it inspired several authors, like Wilde.
9) Berenice
First published in 1835.
Egaeus becomes obsessed with the teeth of his sick fiancée, Berenice. As her illness worsens and she seems to die, he fixates on her perfect teeth.
After she is buried, he wakes to find her grave disturbed and a box of her pulled teeth, revealing a dark and horrifying act driven by his obsession and mental illness.
Another horrible one, and I read that readers of the time when it was published found it too violent.
10) The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
First published in 1845.
About a hypnotist (very popular at the time) who puts a man in a suspended hypnotic state at the moment of death. It is to a certain degree a hoax, as it was published without claiming to be fictional, and many at the time of publication took it to be a factual account.
High level of gore at the end!!
11) The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
First published in 1845.
This one is a dark comedy, and I really enjoyed it, though I guessed very quickly what was really going on.
It centers on a naïve narrator’s visit to a mental asylum in the south of France.
Methods for treating mental patients was a big deal at the time. Poe plays with that here.
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Many stories have been adapted many times to movies, plays, comics, video games, etc.
A proof that they tackle universal themes for all times, and that they are superbly written.
And I want to reiterate how excellent the narrator Todd McLaren is. He certainly knows how to enhance the spookiness of the narrative!
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After listening to all of these, I realize I like Poe less than I thought I did!
I thought his type of horror was more on the scary side, but it isn’t, it’s more really on insanity (often connected to drugs), and the horrible and macabre side, and I really don’t enjoy this much.
A lot of stories with people buried alive, or half dead. Really not my cup of tea.
SO: my Borders Classics print edition has 24 stories and 15 poems – I love a couple of poems there, like The Raven of course, but the other poems seem also gruesome, so I’ll skip them.
I’m just going to check the genre of the other stories, and will read/listen to only the ones that are more in the mystery genre, like of course The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
But for sure Poe is great at describing an ambiance and making it psychologically intense! Even more impactful with often unreliable first person narrative.
And he was the first in this genre I believe.
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MY VERDICT:
A haunting collection that masterfully crafts psychological intensity – though readers like me may find the relentless focus on insanity, burial alive, and macabre horror more disturbing than thrilling.
What do you think?
What’s your favorite short-story by Poe?
Words And Peace