Category: Short Stories

Selections from Poe

Edgar Allan Poe has been the subject of so much controversy that he is the one American writer whom high-school pupils (not to mention teachers) are likely to approach with ready-made prejudices. It is impossible to treat such a subject in quite the ordinary matter-of-course w...

Chapters

9. Chapter 9

"You must get over these fancies," said the guide, "for I have brought you here that you might have the best possible view of the scene of that event I mentioned--and to tell yo...

11. Chapter 11

It was in the blue room where stood the Prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of this group in the direc...

12. Chapter 12

We crossed the creek at the head of the island by means of a skiff, and, ascending the high grounds on the shore of the mainland, proceeded in a northwesterly direction, through...

10. Chapter 10

"There was another circumstance which tended to restore my self-possession; and this was the cessation of the wind, which could not reach us in our present situation--for, as yo...

8. Chapter 8

After a lapse of some months, spent at home in mere idleness, I found myself a student at Eton. The brief interval had been sufficient to enfeeble my remembrance of the events a...

13. Chapter 13

"You remember," said he, "the night when I handed you the rough sketch I had made of the _scarabæus_. You recollect, also, that I became quite vexed at you for insisting that my...

14. Chapter 14

"It left me also in the dark," replied Legrand, "for a few days; during which I made diligent inquiry, in the neighborhood of Sullivan's Island, for any building which went by t...

16. Chapter 16

"D----," replied Dupin, "is a desperate man, and a man of nerve. His Hotel, too, is not without attendants devoted to his interests. Had I made the wild attempt you suggest, I m...

7. Chapter 7

I would not, if I could, here or to-day, embody a record of my later years of unspeakable misery and unpardonable crime. This epoch, these later years, took unto themselves a su...

6. Chapter 6

I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with the exception of certain effects of stringed instrum...

5. Chapter 5

Hear the tolling of the bells, 70 Iron bells! What a world of solemn thought their monody compels! In the silence of the night How we shiver with affright At the melancholy mena...

15. Chapter 15

"Why, a very great deal--a _very_ liberal reward--I don't like to say how much, precisely; but one thing I _will_ say, that I wouldn't mind giving my individual check for fifty...

2. Chapter 2

Poe was also accused of untruthfulness, and this accusation likewise has a basis of fact. He repeatedly furnished or approved statements regarding his life and work that were in...

1. Chapter 1

Edgar Allan Poe has been the subject of so much controversy that he is the one American writer whom high-school pupils (not to mention teachers) are likely to approach with read...

3. Chapter 3

The breeze, the breath of God, is still, And the mist upon the hill Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken, 25 Is a symbol and a token. How it hangs upon the trees, A mystery of mysteries!

4. Chapter 4

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I st...

17. Chapter 17

Eldorado: a fabled city or country abounding in gold and precious stones, and afterward any place of great wealth. The word is often used figuratively. In a preface to an early...