TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION

Today, we would like to recommend this book of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. As usual, you can find it in our school library, in the section about books written in English.

Poe(1809-1849) was an American poet and short story writer best known for his amazing short stories and poems which captured the interest and imagination of readers all around the world.  His imaginative storytelling and tales of mystery and horror gave birth to the modern detective story.

In his stories he shows how the human mind is a dark, mysterious pit, which sometimes works in  strange and frightening ways. That sound in the night... is it a door banging in the wind, or a murdered man knocking inside his coffin? The face in the mirror... is it yours, or the face of someone standing behind you, who is never there when you turn around?

In this book, you can read the abridged versions of five famous stories: The Fall of the House of Usher, The Black Cat, The Masque of the red Death, William Wilson and the Tell-Tale Heart.

SPOILER ALERT:😁

In The Fall of the House of Usher, imagine you are in an old house by a lake. It is night and there is a wild storm outside. In a gloomy vault a woman returns from the dead, after being buried alive. 

Turn the page and in  The Black Cat, when the narrator hangs the cat that he had formely adored, the cat returns from the dead to haunt him.

Turn another, now you will hear music as a thousand people sing and dance at a wonderful masked ball. Inside, all is light and pleasure, but ouside the castle walls walks the terrible masked figure of the Red Death.

You go on reading and in William Wilson, the narrators discovers that a classmate of his has the same name, voice and physical appearance. Can you imagine this situation? What would you do about it?

Finally, in The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator kills an old man and hides him under the floor of his bedroom. When the police arrive to investigate the murder, the narrator thinks he can hear the old man's heart beating. What will happen next?

There are also many films based on Poe's short stories. In this link, you can have a look at the trailers of what have been considered the ten best adaptations  of his work to the cinema.

The 10 Best Edgar Allan Poe Adaptations

A film based on Poe's work is The Raven (2011). Click down below to see the scary trailer.