That guy was great. I love his way of setting the scene, like one of his I read where an American was observing London, then took a keen interest in one person, who they decided to follow all night, it was interesting. This was a beautiful mind, and one of many authors who I wish to create threads about - if that's allowed, IDK, I'm still new here. I like what I've read so far of his which is; The Raven The Tell-Tale Heart The Masque of the Red Death The Murderers in the Rue Morgue The Oval Portrait The Pit and the Pendulum The Man of the Crowd The Imp of the Perverse and maybe one of two more I'm forgetting the names of, like this dying man or something.
Yeah, Poe's stuff is great. I liked the one about the man in the crowd too, just a great, weird idea. I think a lot of his stories had interesting ideas and he told them with great language, that is why they are still so intriguing. I haven't read any of his longer stuff yet though, or poems beyond "The Raven". He's a great author to read in October in preparation for Halloween.
Poe was brilliant. He wrote horror that just creeps you out - no real gore or splatter or anything else, just heart-in-the-throat creepiness. "A Cask of Amontillado" is amazing - no climax, just all denouement, and it'll keep you up at night.
What's the one where he tortures a cat? I listened to an audiobook a while back (a bunch of his shorts) that one stood out as as putting the willies up me—was walking home, tree covered dark path. I had some pace going on because of it, felt like I lost the security of middle-age.
Some say Sherlock Holmes wouldn't even exist without Poe's detective in that gorilla story. Not to mention H.P.Lovecraft and his cosmic friends.
It was late afternoon nearly while I pondered clickbait unclearly much fake news 'n button-traps cynicising me to 'ma core when instantly there came a flashing as of an alert on writey-forum—smashing to which I went a-dashing and clicked 'da mouse with a force I'd never used before... Woohoo, someone answered my Poe post. Cheers @Carriage Return ⏎
I have a book of his stories somewhere but have never got round to reading any. I think I'll go dig it out and rectify that.
Oh, jeez, I'd forgotten about "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar." It's the first Poe story I read, back when I was about nine years old. Talk about creepy! Poe sure knew how to freak me right out. He must have had some horrible dreams.
The first Poe story I read was "The Gold Bug" because it was in some anthology we used for an English class back in the day. I was hooked. Strange, tragic life and death. The quote of his that I like most is: “There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion.”
I think The Fall of the House of Usher is his story masterpiece. And William Wilson isn't anything special, but a great choice of name.
I have a passing familiarity with old Edgar. I have his complete works in one beautiful volume, the second prettiest book I own. I haven't given it the attention it deserves. The Raven remains one of my favourite poems. Annabel Lee is another one I enjoy. The Masque of the Red Death is probably my favourite short so far, and what a title! The Fall of the House of Usher was less stellar, to my mind, but I have yet to encounter such a thing as a bad Poe piece. The Tell-Tale Heart is obviously a classic. More recently I've read The Black Cat and The Cask of Amontillado. I enjoyed both. So I suppose I have some more reading to do.
There's a beautiful song about Annabel Lee poem played by a great (and probably totally unknown out Spain borders) rock Spanish group called "Radio Futura". The song is called, of course, "Annabel Lee". Really worth listen.
And another version on YouTube can be found here: Joan Baez's version is very close to the one I use, although mine, arranged for solo classical guitar and voice, more closely mimics a sort of "troubador" style, to emphasize that the song is really about an extreme form of the medieval concept of "courtly love" ... imperishable, untainted by lust, hopelessly idealistic.
I randomly saw this this morning because it features Edgar Allan Poe, but I haven't seen this show since 2002 and don't remember this episode.
