This selection of Edgar Allan Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates an intense interest in aesthetic issues and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. "The Fall of the House of Usher" describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past. In "The Tell Tale Heart", a murderer's insane delusions threaten to betray him, while stories such as "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Cask of Amontillado" explore extreme states of decadence, fear and hate.
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809. Short story writer, editor, and critic, he is best known for his macabre tales and as the progenitor of the detective story. He died in Baltimore, Maryland in 1849 under mysterious circumstances at the age of forty.
