Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness

This book is a collection of Edgar Allen Poe’s poems of The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, Hop-Frog, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Like most of Edgar Allen Poe’s literary works, the words flow together in a way that make you question his cleverness or insanity. For example, on page 7, it states, “I felt it had given me no reason of offense; hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin – a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it even beyond the reach of infinite mercy.” The poems in this book force the reader to question the line between genius and crazy, which I appreciated since many do not seem to realize the delicacy of human life. Another reason I enjoyed this show more book is the illustrations. The illustrations are impeccable. They capture the exact mood of Edgar Allen Poe’s poems (in my opinion) and expand the reader’s mind to be open to the artistic value behind the poet’s words, instruments of his creativity. For example, page 43 portrays the people at a party through the skewed eyes of the insane narrator; a woman’s lips comprise half her face and a gentleman’s eyes are of different sizes and shapes. show less

Delightfully gruesome. I loved these short stories and Gris Grimly’s illustrations were perfect. I’m so glad I finally read this collection. If you are a fan of EAP, you owe it to yourself to add this book to your collection.

adoringly gruesome; grimly's illustrations take the edge off, if not enhance and highlight poe's prose. a great read for both children and adults. but purist poe fans won't be very happy, as the art, while amusing, has a tendency to "trivialize" the macabre in the classic stories.

Gently abridged seems to be the phrase of choice associated with this book…and it is an apt choice indeed. In this volume we have four classic Poe tales “gently abridged” for readers 12 and up. The age range shown on Amazon is 9-12 and while some 9 year olds might “get” these stories, they will probably be best appreciated by slightly older readers as there is a lot of subtlety to the work. Gus Grimly’s magnificently macabre illustrations help bring the text to life and help draw the reader into the story. The four stories covered here are: The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, Hop-Frog and the Fall of the House of Usher. This volume would make a fine introduction to Edgar Allan Poe’s work for young readers and would show more certainly be welcome as a collectable item for those who love picture books and/or are fans of Poe’s work already. Grimly’s illustrated version is almost manga like but still retains the readability of a regular book…so really the best of both worlds and a format that young readers are likely to identify with and enjoy. I give it 5 stars and two thumbs up. A great introduction to Poe for young readers and a fun read for those of us who simply enjoy Poe’s work and like illustrated versions of classic texts. show less

This is an illustrated collection of four of Poe's stories: The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, Hop Frog, The Fall of the House of Usher.

It was o.k. Poe's a bit twisted and the illustrations were drawn to match.

I have more than half a dozen books with Gris Grimly's illustrations, so needless to say I enjoy his work quite a bit. However, this book doesn't do much to showcase his talent, so I wouldn't recommend it if you're already not familiar with Grimly's work.

My friend Katie gave me this book. Are the tales disturbing? Yes. Are the illustrations disturbing? Yes. And that's how it should be.