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moonbunny117's review against another edition
I am not a fan of the prose here; much as I hate to say it. There is a reason we do not speak so formally anymore. By using such dense language, Poe masks his meaning. It fails to create nuance or subtly; rather, this type of prose simply creates confusion. I wasn't able to read Lord of the Rings for similar reasons. On top of that, the narrator here is very dry. His speaking voice is monotonous, and the lack of significant inflection does little to help the listener parse the meaning of the story. In fact, it all blurs together and creates a very dissociative listening experience. It does not help that this voice actor struggles to pronounce many of the French and Latin words appropriately.
steller0707's review against another edition
4.0
Edgar Allan lived a short life but was a prolific writer, known for his brilliant scary works as well as mysteries and for early science fiction. The stories in this volume are representative of these types. My favorites were The Gold Bug, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Oval Portrait. In addition, I also liked The Mystery of Marie Roget, although it isn't as famous as the others. There are two having to do with flights in hot air balloons (pre-Jules Verne, who was influenced by Poe). One, interestingly enough, was published as a "journalist hoax!" Fake news is, apparently, an old concept!
In this volume are: The Unparalled Adventures of one Hans Pfaal, The Gold Bug, Four Beasts in One, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Balloon-Hoax, MS. Found in a Bottle, The Oval Portrait
In this volume are: The Unparalled Adventures of one Hans Pfaal, The Gold Bug, Four Beasts in One, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Balloon-Hoax, MS. Found in a Bottle, The Oval Portrait
historyofjess's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.5
And this is how I learned that Edgar Allan Poe is very much not my jam. Some of the more well-known stories are in this volume and those tend to stand out a bit more, but mostly I just found this very dull and meandering. I ended up skipping around a bit because that's a benefit afforded by short story collections. But yeah, really just not for me.
lanko's review against another edition
3.0
This one actually was better than Part 2, it had more stories and more of them picked my interest. It was also free.
Two months that I read this and I still remember the story about the cat on the wall or the corpse under the living room.
Two months that I read this and I still remember the story about the cat on the wall or the corpse under the living room.
lanko's review against another edition
2.0
Probably should have read it at night. Also, only contained four short stories, only one really creepy. Can't really complain though, it was free.
Despite saying that and with this rating, Edgar Allan Poe was a true master and an inspiration to the genre. But they could have brought better stories into this.
It's possible it could have been the editing/translation of my version, but again, wasn't exactly a joyful read, except for one really good story. Also felt the ones chosen were a bit repetitive by the "culprit" going insane with guild and revealing everything anyway by some dumb move.
Despite saying that and with this rating, Edgar Allan Poe was a true master and an inspiration to the genre. But they could have brought better stories into this.
It's possible it could have been the editing/translation of my version, but again, wasn't exactly a joyful read, except for one really good story. Also felt the ones chosen were a bit repetitive by the "culprit" going insane with guild and revealing everything anyway by some dumb move.
nesdy's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
2.25
The stories on this volume weren't the best. I feel like half of them are just the narrator describing something, but not much is happening. I would like the detective stories if I didn't find the detective so annoying. Some of them were great though, just not most.
abetterjulie's review against another edition
2.0
This was more for the tales I hadn't read before, and I found them tedious and overworked. I'll keep reading the rest of his writing, but this collection felt meh to me.