Eight Tales of Terror

Poe's mastery of English is beyond reproach, but these stories, written almost 200 years ago, have not aged well at all. The language is inflated, tiresome, and rambling (3 pages to describe a woman's face?!) and he uses up so many lines to establish a mood that the actual story seems like an afterthought. What must have been cutting edge macabre in 1840 has now become a collection of quaint little Halloween tales which give rise to more yawns than shivers. I think this is one of those rare instances where the movies (Vincent Price!) are actually better than the source material.

I don't know, I guess I am just not a big Poe fan. I thought the book was..ok at best. I didn't feel that any of his writing was "scary" per se. I enjoyed the Masque of the Red Death, but I thought everything else was just average at best. A lot of the stories felt like they dragged on, while others felt like they had no substance to them at all. Maybe I am missing something, but his work didn't really seem to speak to me, scare me, or interest me too greatly.

It's an interesting mix of stories that range from murder for revenge, ghost stories, demonic possession, death personified, etc. The book has a very brief introduction that highlights various aspects of Poe's life and it is one of the rare times that I actually wished for a longer introduction. Also each of the eight stories has a paragraph or two of introduction that includes interesting tidbits like who first published the story and what was going on in the time of Poe's life when it was published. If you don't like spoilers, I suggest reading the introductory paragraphs AFTER you read the stories.

I don't know, I guess I am just not a big Poe fan. I thought the book was..ok at best. I didn't feel that any of his writing was "scary" per se. I enjoyed the Masque of the Red Death, but I thought everything else was just average at best. A lot of the stories felt like they dragged on, while others felt like they had no substance to them at all. Maybe I am missing something, but his work didn't really seem to speak to me, scare me, or interest me too greatly.

Eight stories, some of his most famous, crammed into a little book that should probably never be read in the middle of the night, but perfect for the Halloween atmosphere.

Includes: “Cask of Amotillado”, “Hop-Frog”, “MS. Found in a Bottle”, “Ligeia”, “Fall of the House of Usher”, “William Wilson”, “Mask of Red Death”, and “Imp of the Perverse”.

It was a good and quick read. I’d read three of the stories back in school but was interesting reading them again as an adult and not remembering a whole lot of what they were about.

A collection of horror stories includes depictions of a man haunted by the spirit of his dead wife, strange plots of revenge, and a traveler trapped on a ghost ship.

* The Cask of Amontillado - I think makes Poe so memorable is his vivid first-person accounts from the point of view of a killer.
* Hop-Frog - Um. What is this man's obsession with orangutans?
* MS. Found in a Bottle - Good suspense, but the ending confused me.
* Ligeia - Didn't really go anywhere.
* The Fall of the House of Usher - Not as interesting as his others, but good atmosphere.
* William Wilson - Brilliant piece of horror.
* The Masque of the Red Death - Meh. Weird for no reason and kind of boring.
* The Imp of the Perverse - A strange little story on why we knowingly act not in our own interest - such as lying, procrastinating, drinking, and other things sure to get us into trouble - to explain a confession of murder.