It is hard to think of a more influential American writer than Edgar Allan Poe. He brought to the short story genre a new literary polish, writing scores of tales that came to epitomize the form. H invented detective fiction, and the gothic aspect of his work continues to inspire young writers. Poe also changed the direction of American poetry, insisting that-rather than deliver a message-a poems first obligation is to create beauty through rhythm, rhyme, and visual imagery.
Among the twenty-two eloquently eerie stories collected in Essential Tales and Poems are “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Cast of Amontillado,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and perhaps the most terrifying of all, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” These stories penetrate a readers subconscious and draw into the light its deepest fears. Poes sensuous poetry is also on display, inviting readers into a world of grief, delirium, and pulsing rhythms. These qualities reach their peak in Poes best-known poems, “The Bells,” “The Raven,” “Ulalume,” and “Annabel Lee.”
The book also includes Poes only complete d novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and three of his best short works of nonfiction-most saliently, his groundbreaking essays on aesthetics, “The Philosophy of Compositions.”
