“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”

Edgar Allan Poe was a very interesting if somewhat controversial person and this book features varied pieces of works including poems, essays and reviews alongside his short stories. Firstly I should admit that I'm not really a fan of poetry whilst the essays and reviews had only limited interest to me so consequently simply skimmed over most of these. It was the short stories that I concentrated on.

When it comes to collections of short stories every reader will have their own particular favourites; I liked 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' and 'The Purloined Letter' with their undertones of Sherlock Holmes, 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and 'Hop-Frog' but I'm sure that others will choose differently.

By modern standards the tales feel rather pedestrian but on the whole I felt they were well written and wonderfully paced for maximum creepiness, and its easy to see how Poe had such an influence on many other authors who followed in his wake. Despite their age many of these stories have survived the passage of time and have been cinematically adapted. I can just imagine them featuring on the 'Hammer House of Horrors' series that I hid behind the sofa from as a child but secretly loved. Overall I found this a challenging but fascinating read and my rating reflects the book as a whole rather than any individual story or section but would almost certainly been higher if it had contained the 'tales' alone. ( )

Some of the short stories here are excellent - genuine original archetypes that went on to fuel the genre of Gothic Horror. They are finely tuned specimens, thoughtfully written to maximise impact, evoke a certain atmosphere, and stoke the imagination. Some of the mystery tales are also clever displays of deduction - his amateur detective Monsieur Dupin features in two stories in this volume, putting a mind to rival Holmes across the channel as his considerable senior.
In terms of the poems - they might not all be to everyone's taste, but there is some variety among them, and they neatly capture the dark nocturnal atmosphere from some of his stories, the certain type of beauty that often accompanies death and melancholy. Some of them like the Raven are deservedly classics, and there is a very good accompanying piece in the essays at the end that describes his exact method for writing it, and the lyric, rhythmic, and aesthetic considerations that he made.
The reviews and essays at the end of the volume are the most mixed here, containing some interesting perspectives on art and writing, as well as some less interesting reviews on books, dramas, and poetry that you are not likely to read in the originals.
Overall a good volume as an introduction for Poe, but fans (I think that is me now) might want to seek out a more complete edition with all of his short stories instead of the (albeit decent) selection presented here. ( )

Excellent introduction, and excellent selection of stories and poems. ( )

Poe. Incredible. See my review for The Pit and the Pendulum... ( )

28-11-2018
Read the first story, The Fall of the House of Usher.
I'm not very impressed by it, probably because it is all gloomy, very short and there's a lot hinted at but most is unspoken.
Not that I need everything spelled out for me, but there's a limit to my willingness to guess and follow hints.

28-11-2018 Read the 2nd story as well:
The second 1001-story I read from this book was a lot better than the first.
Absolutely mysterious, tense with a very unexpected twist at the end. I may get to like Poe after all.

28-11-2018 And the last one that read from this book is done as well:
The third (and last) short story by Poe on the 1001-list. And although the last story was okay (better than the first, not as good as the second), I'm still happy that I'm done with Poe.
The combination of old fashioned English with long, elaborate trains of thought (or speech) about something that has only sideways to do with the matter at hand is too much for me to enjoy.