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dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Wonderful narration (vintage quality due to the nature of recordings). There are no chapter titles in the audiobook’s user experience, nor are there chapter titles in the narration (shout out to the other reviewer who posted the order of stories with respective time stamps!). Content warnings for racism and animal abuse. Some stories seemed abridged. However, the reading experience was delightfully creepy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Racism, Torture, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Incest
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
The sheer amount of material inspired by these stories and poems is staggering. Almost every story has been drawn on somewhat in something else I've read - perhaps not that surprising given the genres I tend to read, but still quite mind-boggling. I'd read a lot of these stories about a decade ago, but it was nice revisiting them as I've read a lot more widely now and appreciate the historical context more.
Complete collections are always a bit fraught, because there are very few people whose life's output is of very high quality - in other words, there's often a lot of fluff. This was true of Poe's collection and I felt bogged down in some of the longer pieces, particularly the satirical pieces as they were so profuse (made worse by most of them being clumped together in the book). I found the first couple very funny, however, after a while I decided that Poe's the kind of joker who never lets it go and just pushes and pushes a joke until it's really quite dead.
Poe's life was tragic and you can see it in his stories. In particular, his stories where alcohol is the catalyst for series of events that ruin the life of a central character were powerful considering Poe's personal history. But I also hate the narrative of the tortured artist, and the idea that it is in some measure good (or worse, necessary) for someone to suffer so that they produce deep and meaningful art. I disagree. I'm not glad Poe had awful things in his life, was an alcoholic, had his wife die horribly, and all sorts of other loss. I respect and appreciate Poe's stories and the reach of his legacy, but in no way think that his misfortune were a net gain for the world.
Complete collections are always a bit fraught, because there are very few people whose life's output is of very high quality - in other words, there's often a lot of fluff. This was true of Poe's collection and I felt bogged down in some of the longer pieces, particularly the satirical pieces as they were so profuse (made worse by most of them being clumped together in the book). I found the first couple very funny, however, after a while I decided that Poe's the kind of joker who never lets it go and just pushes and pushes a joke until it's really quite dead.
Poe's life was tragic and you can see it in his stories. In particular, his stories where alcohol is the catalyst for series of events that ruin the life of a central character were powerful considering Poe's personal history. But I also hate the narrative of the tortured artist, and the idea that it is in some measure good (or worse, necessary) for someone to suffer so that they produce deep and meaningful art. I disagree. I'm not glad Poe had awful things in his life, was an alcoholic, had his wife die horribly, and all sorts of other loss. I respect and appreciate Poe's stories and the reach of his legacy, but in no way think that his misfortune were a net gain for the world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death
Moderate: Alcoholism, Torture, Cannibalism
Minor: Infidelity, Racism, Blood
This book was big and pretty unwieldy. I thought I wanted to dive into all of Poe's writings, only to find that once I set out, it was too much. I've had it checked out from the library for months, so I've finally decided to just read the most famous works and return it. A smaller collection is probably enough for all but the Poe diehards.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism
Minor: Slavery, Terminal illness, Blood
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Obviously kind of difficult to truly rate a book containing a person’s entire body of work but I had a mostly middling experience overall so that’s what it gets.
Basically a lot of beautiful, moody writing interjected with some very intense moments of hideous racism.
Basically a lot of beautiful, moody writing interjected with some very intense moments of hideous racism.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Colonisation
dark
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don't think Poe needs my puny review but I'll say that this collection helped me understand that I suck at reading poems. When I listen to other people read his poems, they're awesome. When I read them myself, they sound like out of rhythm pop songs, even The Raven, lol.
I reduced a point because his Satire/Humor stories are, understandably, aged very poorly (Humor is a dairy product). If you can laugh at them, you're legally allowed to claim you were born in the wrong period of time.
I was going to reduce more points because Poe loves rambling about the most mundane things. If that's how people talked in the 1800s, I don't know how they could get anything done, small talks could take hours! But The Raven was so good, I just couldn't bring myself to give this book 3 stars.
And I knew there'd be racism and I've read Lovecraft so I was prepared for it. But his (only) novel still got me pretty annoyed with the racism and "oh we're so white and better than everyone" themes. And it kinda sucks.
I reduced a point because his Satire/Humor stories are, understandably, aged very poorly (Humor is a dairy product). If you can laugh at them, you're legally allowed to claim you were born in the wrong period of time.
I was going to reduce more points because Poe loves rambling about the most mundane things. If that's how people talked in the 1800s, I don't know how they could get anything done, small talks could take hours! But The Raven was so good, I just couldn't bring myself to give this book 3 stars.
And I knew there'd be racism and I've read Lovecraft so I was prepared for it. But his (only) novel still got me pretty annoyed with the racism and "oh we're so white and better than everyone" themes. And it kinda sucks.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism
Minor: Misogyny
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, Antisemitism
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Murder
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism
Minor: Incest
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism