The Gold-Bug and Other Tales

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Summary: Nine Great Tales by the Master of the Macabre
Review: America was a young country; its age was measured in decades. America had few established colleges and had produced few writers, artists, and musicians. It is rather astounding that a poorly paid writer, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), living in poverty and suffering from alcohol and opium abuse, would still be widely read and admired nearly two centuries later.

Poe had a remarkable imagination. He was one of the key creators of not one, but two genre of fiction - the horror story and the deductive mystery story. While in middle school, a teacher, Mr. McLeod, loaned me a thick, heavy book containing the complete stories and poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. I read it cover to cover. Poe remains one of my favorite authors.

This inexpensive Dover edition contains nine unabridged tales arranged in chronological order. Seven stories are classic examples of horror; two are classic deductive mystery stories.

Many readers will immediately realize that Sir Conon Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries were patterned on Poe's classic mystery titled The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The unnamed narrator could well have been Dr. Watson, an intelligent observer that has difficulty keeping pace with the brilliant deductions of Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin (the predecessor to Sherlock Holmes). Would we have had Holmes without Dupin?

The Gold-Bug is the other deductive mystery, one that deeply impressed me as a young boy. I again enjoyed reading The Gold Bug. I will say nothing about the plot. It is best to be savored as a surprise.

These tales are among the best known by Edgar Allan Poe and are often found in anthologies. Some have been adapted to films, often with considerable license on the part of the screen writer. The Cask Of Amontillado, The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Read Death, and The Fall of the House of Usher are classics. Ligeia, the earliest story in this collection, is not as well-known, but is quite haunting.

The vocabulary of Edgar Allan Poe is extensive. He carefully describes the setting, creating a suspenseful and threatening atmosphere. The tales are usually told in narrative form, sometimes from the perspective of one not entirely sane. These are stories to read again and again.

Rating:
Summary: Edgar
Review: Edgar Allan Poe is a master of words, wisdom and the English language in general. He sits high up with the greats of English literature and reading this book, you will know why. He is master of his words and moulds them with such love that leads the reader into thinking they are one with the author. Lead me on...

Rating:
Summary: Great Stories That Could Use Some Footnotes
Review: First of all, I think it goes without saying that the stories collected here are wonderful. "The Cask Of Amontillado", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Fall Of The House Of Usher" - it doesn't get much better (or more horrifying) than this. The price is also nice. A dollar fifty? What can you buy for a dollar fifty these days?

My sole complaint regards the absence of footnotes. Take "Cask Of Amontillado", for example. It's hardly essential to know that "motley" is the garb of a jester or a clown (or that a "pipe" is a wine cask) in order to enjoy the story, but that information would have been nice to have nonetheless.

In conclusion, this collection is a wonderful bargain, but if you have a little more money you may want to invest in an annotated collection of these tales.