The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales

The celebrated master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe brought his nightmare visions to vivid dramatic life in his classic stories. Now this Signet Classic edition gathers together fourteen of his darkest and richest tales, including "The Pit and the Pendulum," an unforgettable reimagining of Inquisition tortures; "The Tell-Tale Heart," which delves into the complex nature of a murderer's madness; and "The Fall of the House of Usher," his tour de force about a family doomed by an ancient curse. Poe, ever fascinated by the mysterious, pioneered the detective story, creating in "The Purloined Letter" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" a rational investigator with a poetic soul. Also featured here is Poe's only full-length novel, Narrative of A. Gordon Pym. An author who holds an important place in America's literary past, Edgar Allan Poe continues to influence and inspire others with the lush, vibrant style that is uniquely his - and that powerfully expresses the agitation of the human spirit.

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 18, 1809, the son of theatrical parents. Orphaned at three, he was adopted by the wealthy Mr. and Mrs. John Allan of Richmond, Virginia, in whose family he lived until 1827. He received a good education, first in England, then in a private school at Richmond, and later spent a year at the University of Virginia before he ran away to enlist in the army. Between 1827 and 1831, he published three volumes of poetry: Tamerlane (1827), Al Aaraaf (1829), and Poems (1831). From 1831 to 1835, he lived in Baltimore, where he began a life-long struggle with poverty, disappointments in love, and addiction to alcohol. This last defect made it impossible for him to retain the editorial positions he later secured on magazines in Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York-despite the fact that the tales and book reviews he contributed greatly increased circulation. In May 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, a child of thirteen and the daughter of a paternal aunt. In April 1844, he moved his family to New York, and in January of the following year his literary fortunes turned when his poem "The Raven" appeared in the New York Evening News. Overnight, he became the most talked about man of letters in America. Early in 1847 his wife died, and the year 1848 saw the end of two unhappy love affairs. He died on October 7, 1849. Stephen Marlowe is the author of the internationally acclaimed Memoirs of Christopher Columbus, which was awarded the French Prix Gutenberg du Livre in 1988. His most recent novel, The Lighthouse at the End of the World, revolves around the real and imagined life of Edgar Allan Poe.