I've not read all of Poe's short stories, but I have read a few... "the Black Cat" is one of my favorites... but he seems to have an obsession with burying things in walls, and floors... I can't remember which story, I think it's the "Tale tell heart" where even a person is buried in the flooring. His use of the English language is unbelievable, but I think he may have murdered someone and disposed of their bodies in a wall or flooring. Even when he's not committing a murder, like the "Fall of the house of Usher" the lady's buried in a tomb, in a wall...
Book Club, March 08, Short Stories by Edgar Allen Poe
by TheSilence 26 Replies latest social entertainment
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TheSilence
but he seems to have an obsession with burying things in walls, and floors
I always felt he had an obsession with being entombed alive. In many of his stories where people are entombed they are still alive... or they come back to life... or they are entombed with a cat that's alive... etc. I've often wondered if it wasn't one of his greatest fears and that's why he could write in such a way that others find the story to be frightening as well.
Jackie
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TheSilence
Just a small bump since the Werewolf game finished and some of those folks may have free time to participate in this thread now. ;)
Jackie
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MidwichCuckoo
"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" - about that chap who's 'mesmerised' at point of death - very clever!
Poe is one of my favourite poets - despite being American, lol.
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MidwichCuckoo
Isn't Poe credited with writing the first detective story..? ''The Murders In The Rue Morgue''?
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Forscher
Isn't Poe credited with writing the first detective story..? ''The Murders In The Rue Morgue''?
Of course. And along with it the arch typical detective who is generally a brilliant, misogynistic (unless female), loner, with a rather low opinion of the rest of humankind. They also usually have deep personal problems (hinted at by Poe but expanded on by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes). As I noted earlier, the archetype still sells.
Poe enjoyed more success as a literary critic while he was alive than as a fiction writer. He is credited with starting the modern literary criticism style, along with the biting "wit" which often characterizes it. I think that his literary criticism is an often overlooked key to understanding his stories. Poe was of the opinion that good literature must have depth as well as entertainment value. So he is best understood by looking beyond the obvious.
Poe liked to ground his work in reality, rather than the fantastical unreality of contemporaries such as Mary Shelley and her character Frankenstein. So one can easily get lost in the realities of stories like The Cask Of Amontillado, The Pit and The Pendulum, and his other Gothic stories, all of which could possibly happen in life. Even The Fall of the House of Usher is grounded in reality where he uses the device of a known medical problem of the time to set up the horror which includes being entombed alive, a fear not just of Poe but the majority of folks at the time. What happens in Usher is all the more horrifying because we realize on an instinctive level that it could very well end up happening to us.
I view his detective stories as the logical extension of his penchant for puzzles on many levels.
Forscher
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MidwichCuckoo
Cheers Forscher - I think I'll dig out my complete works and reread 'The Cask Of Amontillado' - fortunately I managed to salvage Poe - I did lose (divorce) many works of fiction including some Agatha Christie (1st Editions - I could weep), Shakespeare, and 'Revelation, Grand Climax'