Table of Contents
From the Pages of The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Title Page
Copyright Page
Edgar Allan Poe
The World of Edgar Allan Poe
Introduction
POEMS
The Lake—To
Sonnet—To Science
Fairy-land
Israfel
To Helen
The Sleeper
The Valley of Unrest
The City in the Sea
The Coliseum
Sonnet—Silence
Dream-Land
The Raven
Ulalume: A Ballad
The Bells
I.
II.
III.
IV.
A Dream within a Dream
Eldorado
Annabel Lee
TALES
Metzengerstein
Bon-Bon
MS. Found in a Bottle
The Assignation
Shadow—A Parable
Silence—A Fable
Berenice
Morella
King Pest - A TALE CONTAINING AN ALLEGORY
Ligeiba
How to Write a Blackwood Article
A Predicament
The Fall of the House of Usher
William Wilson
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
A Descent into the Maelström
Never Bet the Devil Your Head - A TALE WITH A MORAL
Eleonora
The Masque of the Red Death
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Gold-Bug
The Black Cat
The Oblong Box
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
The Premature Burial
The Purloined Letter
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
“Thou Art the Man”
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Sphinx
The Cask of Amontillado
Hop-Frog
THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM
Preface
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Endnotes
Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales and Poems
Comments & Questions
For Further Reading
From the Pages of The Essential Tales
and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
I kneel, an altered and an humble man,
Amid thy shadows, and so drink within
My very soul thy grandeur, gloom, and glory!
(from “The Coliseum,” page 19)
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “‘Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
(from ”The Raven,” page 24)
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells—
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
(from “The Bells,” page 33)
A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul—a sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which the lessons of bygone time are inadequate, and for which I fear futurity itself will offer me no key. (from “Ms. Found in a Bottle,” page 74)
“The first thing requisite is to get yourself into such a scrape as no one ever got into before. The oven, for instance,—that was a good hit. But if you have no oven, or big bell, at hand, and if you cannot conveniently tumble out of a balloon, or be swallowed up in an earthquake, or get stuck fast in a chimney, you will have to be contented with simply imagining some similar misadventure.”
(from “How to Write a Blackwood Article,” page 143)
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.
(from “The Fall of the House of Usher,” page 159)
I could not help remarking and admiring (although from his rich ideality I had been prepared to expect it) a peculiar analytic ability in Dupin. He seemed, too, to take an eager delight in its exercise—if not exactly in its display—and did not hesitate to confess the pleasure thus derived. (from “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” page 200)
The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood.
(from “The Masque of the Red Death,” page 261)
The sweep of the pendulum had increased in extent by nearly a yard. As a natural consequence its velocity was also much greater. But what mainly disturbed me was the idea that it had perceptibly descended. I now observed—with what horror it is needless to say—that its nether extremity was formed of a crescent of glittering steel, about a foot in length from horn to horn; the horns upward, and the under edge evidently as keen as that of a razor.
(from “The Pit and the Pendulum,” page 274)
It was a low, dull, quick sound—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. (from “The Tell-Tale Heart,” page 285)
“The Prefect and his cohort fail so frequently, first, by default of this identification, and, secondly, by ill-admeasurement, or rather through non-admeasurement, of the intellect with which they are engaged. They consider only their own ideas of ingenuity; and, in searching for any thing hidden, advert only to the modes in which they would have hidden it.” (from “The Purloined Letter,” pages 371-372)
We continued our route in search of the Amontillado. We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame.
(from “The Cask of Amontillado,” page 430)
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Notes, Biography, Chronology, Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales and Poems,
Comments & Questions, and For Further Reading.
Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading
Copyright @ 2004 by Benjamin F. Fisher.
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Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales and Poems, and Comments & Questions
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The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
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Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, to Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe, Jr., traveling stage actors. David Poe may have abandoned his young family in 1811; in any event, Eliza took Edgar and a newborn daughter to Richmond, Virginia, where on December 8 she died, possibly of pneumonia or tuberculosis. David, according to many, died two days later in Norfolk, Virginia.
A wealthy Richmond couple, John and Frances Allan, took Edgar into their home, and though the Allans never formally adopted him, in 1812 Edgar was christened as Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan provided Edgar with an excellent education, and the young man excelled in his studies. But tensions with his guardian developed as Edgar grew up. John Allan became weary of the discontented youth, whom he described as sulky and ill-tempered, and their relationship began a long decline.
In 1826 Edgar enrolled in the newly founded University of Virginia, where he studied ancient and modern languages. During his time at the university, he amassed large gambling debts, which John Allan refused to pay, deepening the rift between the two. Edgar left school and traveled to Boston, where he joined the army and published his first volume of verse, Tamerlane and Other Poems, under the pseudonym “A Bostonian.” In 1829 Edgar’s foster mother, Frances Allan, died; he returned to Richmond and reconciled with John Allan. He then obtained an early discharge from the army and applied for admission to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. While awaiting acceptance, he visited his father’s family in Baltimore, where he published Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. Although he was an excellent cadet and a distinguished student, his time at West Point was short. Following a heated quarrel with John Allan, Edgar resolved to leave the Academy; to accomplish this, he ceased attending classes or church services. In 1831 he was dishonorably discharged; that same year his book Poems was published in New York. He returned to Baltimore, determined to be a writer, and entered a fiction contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, though he did not win, the Courier published five of his stories the following year. In 1833 Edgar won another newspaper fiction contest with “MS. Found in a Bottle,” but the scant prize money did little to alleviate his financial burdens, and he tried unsuccessfully to solicit his foster father’s help. In 1834 John Allan died, leaving a large fortune, but Edgar was not named in the will.
The next year Poe returned to Richmond and assumed the editorship of the Southern Literary Messenger, in which he published his own stories and acerbic critical reviews. He married his fourteen-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm in 1836. In 1837 he left the Messenger. Barely supporting his family as an editor, Poe was nonetheless a prolific writer and critic. He enjoyed some literary success with the publication of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838) and his two-volume Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840), which included “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “William Wilson.” He worked as an editor for Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in Philadelphia, and in 1841 he joined the editorial staff of Graham’s Magazine, which published “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” a work that heralded a new literary genre, the modern detective story. Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Masque of Red Death” were published in 1842, followed by “The Tell-Tale Heart” in 1843. That same year Poe’s tale “The Gold-Bug” won a fiction contest sponsored by a Philadelphia newspaper, bringing him greater renown.
Poe moved his family to New York in 1844 and took an editing position with the Evening Mirror. In January 1845, his most famous poem, “The Raven,” appeared in the Mirror, propelling him into the circles of New York’s literati. But none of his successes brought him financial security or lasting happiness. In February 1845, he became editor of the new Broadway Journal; but the journal folded in 1846, and Poe’s young wife succumbed to tuberculosis in 1847. The next year Poe seemed to rally, giving lectures and courting the poet Sarah Helen Whitman, though she later broke off their engagement.
In 1849 Poe began a lecture tour to raise funds for a new magazine. On his way from Richmond to New York, he stopped in Baltimore, where he was found on the night of October 3 nearly unconscious in the street. Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849. Various accounts were given of Poe’s last days, but the cause of his death remains a mystery.
The World of Edgar Allan Poe
1809 Edgar Poe is born in Boston on January 19, the second child of David and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, both traveling stage actors. James Madison becomes the fourth president of the United States. Washington Irving publishes A History of New York... by Diedrich Knickerbocker. Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson are born.
1810 1811 Apparently deserted by her husband, Elizabeth moves to Rich mond. Her oldest son, William Henry, lives with relatives in Baltimore, Maryland. Edgar’s sister, Rosalie Poe, is born in Norfolk, Virginia. On December 8 Elizabeth Poe dies at the age of twenty-four, possibly of tuberculosis. David Poe, also ill and perhaps unaware of his wife’s death, apparently dies two days later in Norfolk. Rosalie is adopted into the home of William Mackenzie, while Edgar is taken into the household of John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant. His wife, Frances, who attended Elizabeth Poe’s sickbed, takes pity on the or phaned boy and convinces her husband to take the child into their home as a ward. Although they raise him as their own, the Allans never formally adopt young Edgar.
1812 Edgar is baptized and, with the Allans presumably acting as his godparents, christened as Edgar Allan Poe. Charles Dick ens is born. Lord Byron publishes Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. The United States declares war on Britain.
1815 Edgar moves with the Allan family to England, where, after a tour of Scotland, they settle in London. John Allan opens a London branch of his business, which soon prospers.
1816 Edgar attends the London boarding school of the Misses Dubourg. Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes Kubla Khan. Jane Austen publishes Emma.
1818 Edgar moves to the boarding school of the Reverend John Bransby in London, where he studies Latin and dancing. He is
an accomplished but lonely student. The U.S.-Canadian bor der is formalized. Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein.
1819 Following the collapse of the London tobacco market, John Allan’s London business closes under the strain of unpaid debts. The S.S. Savannah becomes the first steam-powered ship to cross the Atlantic. Walt Whitman and Herman Melville are born. Walter Scott publishes Ivanhoe.
1820 The Allans return to America, arriving in New York in July be fore continuing on to Richmond. Maine and Missouri enter the Union under the Missouri Compromise.
1821 Edgar enrolls in the school of Joseph H. Clarke. He begins writing poetry, composing one of his earliest surviving poems, “O, Tempora! O, Mores!”
1823 He attends a school run by William Burke. U.S. President James Monroe presents Congress with the Monroe Doctrine, a policy intended to curtail European encroachment into the Western Hemisphere.
1824 Edgar transforms his fragile physique and excels in athletics, including boxing, r
unning, and swimming; in the summer, he swims 6 miles up the James River. He joins the Richmond Junior Volunteers, becoming a lieutenant and participating in a military review by General Lafayette during his tour of America.
1825 Edgar enters the school of Dr. Ray Thomas. John Allan inherits a sizable fortune from an uncle and purchases a mansion in downtown Richmond called Moldavia.
1826 Poe enrolls in the University of Virginia, where he studies an cient and modern languages. He gains a favorable reputation in the Jefferson Society debating club and continues to distin guish himself as an athlete. The fledgling university is, at times, a violent and depraved setting. Poe witnesses riots and assaults, and amasses large gambling debts. He pursues an epistolary romance with Elmira Royster but is rebuffed by her father. Tension between Poe and John Allan grows, partly be cause of Poe’s gambling debts, which exceed $2,000. Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president and founder of the University of Virginia, dies.
1827 The feud between Poe and John Allan reaches a peak. Poe moves out of his surrogate father’s home and returns to the city of his birth. In Boston, he enlists for a five-year tour in the U.S. Army using the alias “Edgar A. Perry.” Under the pseudo
nym “A Bostonian,” Poe publishes a collection of Byronic poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems. In the fall, Poe’s company is transferred to South Carolina.
1828 Poe’s company is stationed at Fort Monroe, Virginia. He sends letters to John Allan seeking reconciliation. Andrew Jackson is elected U.S. president. Noah Webster publishes the American Dictionary of the English Language. Jules Verne is born.
1829 On New Year’s Day, Poe is promoted to sergeant-major. In February, Frances Allan dies, and Poe returns to Richmond, arriving the day following her funeral. Poe and John Allan rec oncile. Poe is released from the army and applies for entrance to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His admission is delayed, and he travels to Baltimore, where he finds a pub lisher for his second book of poems, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. Mexico abolishes slavery.
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