Famous Books of Edgar Allan Poe
A little Overview of the most famous books by Edgar Allan Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th century American author and poet. His most famous poem, “The Raven”, begins with the often quoted line, “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary”. In this poem, the narrator is visited by a talking raven, who squawks the famous reply “Nevermore,” to every question that is posed by the narrator.
Another of Poe’s macabre creations is “The Masque of the Red Death”. This short story follows Prince Prospero, who is trying to avoid a plague called the Red Death by secluding himself, and his friends, in his abbey. The story takes place at a masquerade ball the prince is throwing. The story ends with the fitting line, “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all”.
Poe describes a most paranoid character in his short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. In this story, the narrator murders another man and buries him beneath the floorboards in the chamber. At first all is well, but his sanity begins to deteriorate when he is visited by the local police officers. Quickly, the man begins to hallucinate that he can hear the dead man’s still beating heart. Describing it as a, “low, dull, quick sound -much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton”, the man is unable to run from the sound because of the presence of the officers. Driven mad by the incessant noise, he finally screams, “’Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!’”
Another well-known short story penned by Poe is entitled “The Cask of Amontillado”. This story takes place in Italy, and follows a slighted narrator, seeking revenge. Like “The Tell-Tale Heart”, this story also deals with the burial of the antagonist, except in “The Cask of Amontillado” the man is still alive. The narrator, Montresor, has been mulling over a perceived insult he received from another nobleman, Fortunato. Driven to revenge by this slight, Montresor tells Fortunato about some hidden vintage wine, Amontillado, which is hidden deep in the catacombs. He eventually buries the man alive, and the story ends with Montresor exclaiming, “In pace requiescat!”
