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الاستماع والقراءة

Edgar Allan Poe

The Gold-Bug is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in 1843. The plot centers on a secret message that will lead to a buried treasure. Aware of the growing popularity of cryptography and code-breaking, Poe submitted this story to a writing contest sponsored by a Philadelphia newspaper. Winning the grand prize of $100, the story was then published in three installments beginning in June 1843. Set on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, the story is seen as an early form of detective fiction. It was one of the most popular of Poe's stories during his lifetime.

Chris Lutkin

Dreamscape Media

Select Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

The Gold-Bug

In The Tell-Tale Heart the narrator strives to convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed. The motivation for murder appears to be the narrator's fixation on the victim's cloudy vulture-eye. After disposing of the body, the narrator calmly entertains (at first) three policemen who come to investigate reports of screaming in the night. First published in 1843 in The Pioneer, a short-lived Boston magazine edited by James Russell Lowell, The Tell-Tale Heart is widely considered a classic of the Gothic fiction genre and is one of Poe's most famous short stories.

The Tell-Tale Heart

First published in a 1842 edition of Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine, The Masque of the Red Death follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey. Indifferent to the suffering outside and believing he and his wealthy guests to be safe, Prospero hosts a masquerade ball, which is stalked by a mysterious stranger dressed as the Red Death. Often considered a gothic allegory, the story reflects on not only life and death but also the illusion of control. This classic of Gothic fiction was adapted into a 1964 film starring Vincent Price.

The Masque of the Red Death

The Fall of the House of Usher, a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, is among Poe's most famous works. This highly unsettling, macabre story is recognized as a masterpiece of American Gothic literature. The narrator, receives a request for help from an ill friend. The house of his friend has an unusual crack going from the roof to the front. His friend asks the narrator's help in interring his dead sister in the family crypt in preparation for her burial. What follows is a gripping and terrifying tale from the master of suspense.

The Fall of the House of Usher

The Raven is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe and one of the most famous poems ever written. First published in January 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror, it depicts a mysterious raven's visit to a distraught narrator as he mourns his lost lover, Lenore. The poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. Its publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime, although it did not bring him much financial success.

The Raven

The Cask of Amontillado, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, was first published in November 1846 in Godey's Lady's Book. In Italy at carnival time, a man takes revenge on a friend who he believes has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around a person being buried alive. As in The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe conveys the story from the murderer's perspective.

The Cask of Amontillado

The Black Cat, a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. Called a study of the psychology of guilt, it is often compared to Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. In both, a murderer who is certain he has carefully concealed the evidence of his crime eventually breaks down and outs himself, driven by a persistent reminder of his guilt.

The Black Cat

First published in a 1842 literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843, The Pit and the Pendulum takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. It follows the plight of an unnamed narrator, kept prisoner in a darkened cell full of unseen dangers. Later, by encouraging rats to chew through his bonds, he barely escapes a hideous death by a descending, razor-sharp pendulum. But his torments do not end there. The story is especially effective for its focus on sensory observations, heightening the realism, in contrast to Poe's more frequent reliance on supernatural phenomena.

The Pit and the Pendulum

First published in a 1841 edition of Graham's Magazine, The Murders in the Rue Morgue is often cited as the first modern detective story. The first of three stories to center around C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective, The Murders in the Rue Morgue involves Dupin's investigation of the baffling murders of a mother and daughter. Witnesses report having heard two voices, one French and one unintelligible during the crime. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human. Establishing many of the tropes that would later become common to detective fiction, the story begins with an explanation of Dupin's theory of ratiocination, a concept which greatly influenced the creation of detective fiction itself and other great detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

First published in a 1844 literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1845, The Purloined Letter is the third and final story that features Poe's detective, C. Auguste Dupin. In it, a letter containing compromising information has been stolen from the boudoir of an unnamed woman by the unscrupulous Minister D-. The police offer a reward for the return of the letter and amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin obliges them. After collecting the reward, Dupin relates the ingenious way he determined the letter's location to an unnamed narrator. The story is an important early forerunner of the modern detective story, and has a similar plot to A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.