Edgar Allan Poe in general

1. I have a limited attention span. I love his stories, as none of them are very long or outstay their welcome. 2. Henry James felt that liking Poe was a sign of an adolescent mind: "a mark of a decidedly primitive stage of reflection" Fair enough- I have a Gothic, romantic imagination that's unsatisfied by realistic fiction. These stories with their nervous, unhinged heroes/villains, beautiful doomed heroines whose names are all something like Morella, creepy black cats, mysterious diseases, crumbling English mansions and masked venetian balls, definitely give me all the immaturity fix I need. 3. None of his stories are that ...  Read the complete review

I am off on my quest again to find out more and more about my favourite authors. This time next year I will be a contestant on Mastermind, and my specialist subject will be the authors category on Dooyoo! The name Edgar Allan Poe, is a familiar name, but I am sure that like me, not many people know much about him. I will try and enlighten you, and fill your brain with new and interesting facts. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Edgar Poe was the son of actors David and Elizabeth Poe. He tragically became an orphan in early childhood at age two, and was taken into the household of John Allan and his wife Francis heard of Edgar's plight. Allan was a ...  Read the complete review

The complete tales & poems of... I picked this book up from a bookshop about six years ago because I felt I should read two of the well known Poe stories - The Pit and The Pendulum being one, and The Fall of the House of Usher being the second. Yes, they were quite scary. But I survived without any of the nightmares I had been so greatly promised by English Lit teachers from school days. Then, as I am not one for order, I found a story called The Tell Tale Heart. As I read it, I remembered having seen it performed on television by Stephen Berkoff. I don't know whether it was the story which scared me, or the vision of Berkoff's ...  Read the complete review