Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0670887250, Paperback)

Edgar Allan Poe's tales of terror, murder, and mystery are among the most celebrated in American literature. This carefully-chosen collection includes "The Gold Bug," "The Oval Portrait," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Cask of Amontillado," "Some Words With a Mummy," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

With striking illustrations and extended captions unique to the Whole Story, this collection provides background information for each story that modern readers could otherwise access only through a broad range of supplemental research--from details of the Spanish Inquisition in "The Pit and the Pendulum" to the Parisian detective milieu of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." This distinctive approach places each of Poe's stories--all published in the mid-nineteenth century--within the context of their era, bringing them vividly to life.