Some of the most popular horror and mystery stories of all time are collected together here in “The Best Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe.” A master of the macabre, Poe exhibits his literary prowess in these chilling and classic tales. Included in this collection is “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the story of a man and his sister who suffer from a strange, debilitating illness. Her death drives him to the point of madness as their fragile mansion falls along with the Usher family line. One of Poe’s most famous stories, it is a masterpiece of Gothic literature. Also included in this collection is “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” considered one of the world’s first detective stories, which concerns the curious circumstances surrounding a double homicide in France. The emotional tone of fear and trepidation evoked in Poe’s work has often been imitated but seldom duplicated. The influence of Poe’s writing cannot be overstated, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once wrote, in his short stories there “is a root from which a whole literature has developed.” This collection includes twenty-eight of Poe’s best tales, an introduction by Edmund Clarence Stedman, a biographical afterword, and is illustrated by Harry Clarke.
