Poe's mastery of English is beyond reproach, but these stories, written almost 200 years ago, have not aged well at all. The language is inflated, tiresome, and rambling (3 pages to describe a woman's face?!) and he uses up so many lines to establish a mood that the actual story seems like an afterthought. What must have been cutting edge macabre in 1840 has now become a collection of quaint little Halloween tales which give rise to more yawns than shivers. I think this is one of those rare instances where the movies (Vincent Price!) are actually better than the source material. ( )

I don't know, I guess I am just not a big Poe fan. I thought the book was..ok at best. I didn't feel that any of his writing was "scary" per se. I enjoyed the Masque of the Red Death, but I thought everything else was just average at best. A lot of the stories felt like they dragged on, while others felt like they had no substance to them at all. Maybe I am missing something, but his work didn't really seem to speak to me, scare me, or interest me too greatly. ( )

00002056

A collection of horror stories includes depictions of a man haunted by the spirit of his dead wife, strange plots of revenge, and a traveler trapped on a ghost ship.

It's an interesting mix of stories that range from murder for revenge, ghost stories, demonic possession, death personified, etc. The book has a very brief introduction that highlights various aspects of Poe's life and it is one of the rare times that I actually wished for a longer introduction. Also each of the eight stories has a paragraph or two of introduction that includes interesting tidbits like who first published the story and what was going on in the time of Poe's life when it was published. If you don't like spoilers, I suggest reading the introductory paragraphs AFTER you read the stories. ( )