The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings

Readers will recognize their favorite horror stories in the collection "The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings." Edgar Allen Poe was a master of suspense, horror, and mystery, and his stories, while truly terrifying, are also delightfully entertaining. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator has just killed a man and buried him under his floor. As he sits right above the body, he begins to hear the dead man's heart thumping loudly in his ears. Guilt and paranoia flood the narrator, and the audience experiences the narrator's plunge into madness as his fears begin to manifest. Many of Poe's other popular works are included in the anthology, such as "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Cask of Amontillado." Murder is a theme in both the works, though Poe executes his characters in decidedly different ways. Still, madness, anger, and retribution all make their way into the majority of Poe's works. Also in the collection are select poems such as "Lenore" and "The Raven." Both stories tell tales of death and lost love about two different women named Lenore; Poe's poems mourn these characters, making his words even more poetic and poignant. He speaks through his verses to convey his devastated feelings of despair. For these and all the included works, "The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings" is a must-have for every horror or suspense fan.

Listed under Fiction · Classics · Horror · Short Stories (single author)