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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
idk i got bored rereading as i enjoy the stories, but the whole book is quite slow to read
dark
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Overall, this collection has some really fantastic stories and some bland ones. The introduction by Vincent Price was a nice touch and I now feel like I have a much better understanding of Poe and his body of work. He's famous for his short stories that changed the horror genre but I was unaware of his importance to the modern detective novel. Poe has a wonderful grasp on the English language and even in stories that I didn't necessarily enjoy, I appreciated his writing style. I wrote my thoughts on each individual story below.
The Black Cat
A fairly good short story about how people’s vices and nonsensical desires to be perverse can cause grief. (4/5)
The Fall of the House of Usher
A story full of classic gothic elements. Poe’s at his best with this type of story. (4/5)
The Masque of the Red Death
One of Poe’s most famous short stories, The Masque deals with the discussion of death and how, as hard as one may try to avoid it and not think about, it eventually touches us all. (5/5)
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
This story focuses on the relationship between soul and body when a person nears death. This probably wasn’t Poe’s intent but, due to the advancement in modern medicine, it really makes the reader question whether artificially lengthening the lifetime of a person is really worth it. Are some of these people who hang on by a thread who have trouble functioning in society really living? What is the difference between body and soul? (4/5)
The Premature Burial
A tale of dealing with phobias and overcoming them. Not my favorite story in the collection. (2/5)
MS Found in a Bottle
This short story is one of the spookiest story in the collection. Despite this, it isn’t too remarkable a story. It’s very reminiscent of The Curse of the Black Pearl to modern readers and I’m sure that the movie took a lot of inspiration from it. (3/5)
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
This story is very unclear and muddled, one of the weakest entries in this collection. A weird combination of science and superstition that do not do well to play off each other. There is nothing too significant about this story. (2/5)
The Sphinx
One of the shorter entries in the collection, this story highlights how perspective and personal believes can alter the realities around us. (3/5)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
A whole bunch of monkey business if you ask me. Odd story. (3/5)
The Tell-Tale Heart
One of the shortest stories contained in this book but don’t let that fool you; this one packs a punch. Poe’s ability to economically create a fantastic horror story in just a few pages is quite amazing. Our narrator, in a fit of paranoia, kills the old man who lives with him. Not for money, not out of anger, but because he can no longer look at the man’s Evil Eye. Many have interpreted this to mean “I”, a part of the narrator’s self in the old man that he cannot cope with. While reading, I interpreted this to mean the man’s judgmental eye of this younger narrator. The narrator cannot avoid not living up to the man’s expectations even after death. The sound of his own heart he misinterprets as the old man’s as the old man’s judgment now lives within the narrator. Regardless of how you interpret this one, I recommend everyone to read this short 4-5 page story. (5/5)
The Gold-Bug
Not too many elements of horror in this one as Poe explores his action-adventure side. The first half of this story is very misleading on what path the story will take. In retrospect, I wish it would have taken a path involving the gold bug that made it a little more eerie than the one we end up on. The ending is a bit humdrum. (2/5)
The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether
This one had a plot twist that you could see coming from a mile away. The story isn’t a very intriguing one. This, mixed with a obvious plot twist, equals a poor entry into this series. (2/5)
The Man That Was Used Up
A critique and warning of the coming technological age, this story feels rather dull and uninspired to me. (1/5)
The Balloon-Hoax
Without context, this piece feels very un-Poeish. It is the story of a hot air balloon crossing the Atlantic and goes into particularly minute detail on the construction of the craft. It has a very Jules Verne, sci-fi feel. After reading about the piece and learning Poe published this in a newspaper as fact and tricked his audiences into believing it, I do find it a bit more humorous. Still not a great story, however. (2/5)
A Descent into the Malestrom
This story is similar to MS Found in a Bottle but finishes with a different outcome. Both share similar themes: that death brings a whole new type of knowledge that man is unaware before he confronts it. MS Found in a Bottle is the far better version however. (2/5)
The Purloined Letter
The better of the two detective stories involving Dupin. It seems more methodical, logical, and interesting. This story is much more in-tune with the future detective stories this would go on to influence. (4/5)
The Pit and the Pendulum
This may be the most eerie story found in this collect. The utter hopelessness of the pit, the lack of information provided to the reader (Why are we here? Where are we?), the details of the senses around us, all this combines together to provide us with a spectacular and scary story. Probably my favorite story in this book. (5/5)
The Cask of Amontillado
What I’ve identified by reading all these short stories of Poe is that it’s not the information you know, it’s what you don’t know that make these stories great. The confusion and opaqueness that Poe creates in his short stories gives the reader a sense of dread and disorientation. This can be seen in The Cask of Amontillado. We don’t know the injuries that Fortunato have caused our narrator. We don’t know if what he is doing is just. We’re forced to read as this narrator plays a trick on the jester and leads him to his demise. (4/5)
Aggregate Score: 3.167
The Black Cat
A fairly good short story about how people’s vices and nonsensical desires to be perverse can cause grief. (4/5)
The Fall of the House of Usher
A story full of classic gothic elements. Poe’s at his best with this type of story. (4/5)
The Masque of the Red Death
One of Poe’s most famous short stories, The Masque deals with the discussion of death and how, as hard as one may try to avoid it and not think about, it eventually touches us all. (5/5)
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
This story focuses on the relationship between soul and body when a person nears death. This probably wasn’t Poe’s intent but, due to the advancement in modern medicine, it really makes the reader question whether artificially lengthening the lifetime of a person is really worth it. Are some of these people who hang on by a thread who have trouble functioning in society really living? What is the difference between body and soul? (4/5)
The Premature Burial
A tale of dealing with phobias and overcoming them. Not my favorite story in the collection. (2/5)
MS Found in a Bottle
This short story is one of the spookiest story in the collection. Despite this, it isn’t too remarkable a story. It’s very reminiscent of The Curse of the Black Pearl to modern readers and I’m sure that the movie took a lot of inspiration from it. (3/5)
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
This story is very unclear and muddled, one of the weakest entries in this collection. A weird combination of science and superstition that do not do well to play off each other. There is nothing too significant about this story. (2/5)
The Sphinx
One of the shorter entries in the collection, this story highlights how perspective and personal believes can alter the realities around us. (3/5)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
A whole bunch of monkey business if you ask me. Odd story. (3/5)
The Tell-Tale Heart
One of the shortest stories contained in this book but don’t let that fool you; this one packs a punch. Poe’s ability to economically create a fantastic horror story in just a few pages is quite amazing. Our narrator, in a fit of paranoia, kills the old man who lives with him. Not for money, not out of anger, but because he can no longer look at the man’s Evil Eye. Many have interpreted this to mean “I”, a part of the narrator’s self in the old man that he cannot cope with. While reading, I interpreted this to mean the man’s judgmental eye of this younger narrator. The narrator cannot avoid not living up to the man’s expectations even after death. The sound of his own heart he misinterprets as the old man’s as the old man’s judgment now lives within the narrator. Regardless of how you interpret this one, I recommend everyone to read this short 4-5 page story. (5/5)
The Gold-Bug
Not too many elements of horror in this one as Poe explores his action-adventure side. The first half of this story is very misleading on what path the story will take. In retrospect, I wish it would have taken a path involving the gold bug that made it a little more eerie than the one we end up on. The ending is a bit humdrum. (2/5)
The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether
This one had a plot twist that you could see coming from a mile away. The story isn’t a very intriguing one. This, mixed with a obvious plot twist, equals a poor entry into this series. (2/5)
The Man That Was Used Up
A critique and warning of the coming technological age, this story feels rather dull and uninspired to me. (1/5)
The Balloon-Hoax
Without context, this piece feels very un-Poeish. It is the story of a hot air balloon crossing the Atlantic and goes into particularly minute detail on the construction of the craft. It has a very Jules Verne, sci-fi feel. After reading about the piece and learning Poe published this in a newspaper as fact and tricked his audiences into believing it, I do find it a bit more humorous. Still not a great story, however. (2/5)
A Descent into the Malestrom
This story is similar to MS Found in a Bottle but finishes with a different outcome. Both share similar themes: that death brings a whole new type of knowledge that man is unaware before he confronts it. MS Found in a Bottle is the far better version however. (2/5)
The Purloined Letter
The better of the two detective stories involving Dupin. It seems more methodical, logical, and interesting. This story is much more in-tune with the future detective stories this would go on to influence. (4/5)
The Pit and the Pendulum
This may be the most eerie story found in this collect. The utter hopelessness of the pit, the lack of information provided to the reader (Why are we here? Where are we?), the details of the senses around us, all this combines together to provide us with a spectacular and scary story. Probably my favorite story in this book. (5/5)
The Cask of Amontillado
What I’ve identified by reading all these short stories of Poe is that it’s not the information you know, it’s what you don’t know that make these stories great. The confusion and opaqueness that Poe creates in his short stories gives the reader a sense of dread and disorientation. This can be seen in The Cask of Amontillado. We don’t know the injuries that Fortunato have caused our narrator. We don’t know if what he is doing is just. We’re forced to read as this narrator plays a trick on the jester and leads him to his demise. (4/5)
Aggregate Score: 3.167