The Works of Edgar Allan Poe

by Edgar Allan Poe

This book collects some of the finest short stories, poems, and essays from the masterful American writer Edgar Allan Poe.

Source: This book was compiled by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology and includes passages from multiple sources. Please refer to the passage pages for further source information.

Al Aaraaf: "O! Nothing earthly save the ray"
Alone: "From childhood's hour I have not been"
Annabel Lee: "It was many and many a year ago,"
The Assignation: A young couple goes to a great and tragic lengths to be re-united.
The Balloon-Hoax: A newspaper article describing an amazing journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Bells: "Hear the sledges with the bells—"
The Power of Words: Two celestial beings discuss the inquisitive nature of man.
Philosophy of Furniture: The author discusses the different presentations of wealth in European and American culture, focusing on the concept of "a well furnished apartment".
Berenice: Egaeus is greatly affected by the burial of his long-suffering cousin.
The Imp of the Perverse: Poe’s character rationalizes his thinking to convince the reader of his sanity and regrets.
The Black Cat: A wronged pet proves to be a man's undoing.
Eleonora: The narrator tells of his life of isolation living with his cousin and aunt.
Bridal Ballad: "The ring is on my hand"
William Wilson: The narrator tells of the circumstances that led to his dramatic change of temperament.
Von Kempelen and His Discovery: Von Kempelen discovers how to turn lead into gold.
The Cask of Amontillado: Fortunato pays the price for insulting the Montressor family name.
The Village Street: In these rapid, restless shadows, Once I walked at eventide,
The City in the Sea: "Lo! Death has reared himself a throne"
The Valley of Unrest: "Once it smiled a silent dell"
The Coliseum: "Type of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary"
The Colloquy of Monos and Una: Monos and Una discuss the destructive nature of man.
A Valentine: "For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,"
The Conqueror Worm: "Lo! 'tis a gala night"
The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal: Hans Pfaal goes to great lengths to escape his creditors.
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion: Eiros and Charmion discuss the events that led to the end of life on Earth.
Ulalume: "The skies they were ashen and sober;"
A Descent into the Maelstrom: A sailor recounts his experience with the Maelstrom, a dangerous whirlpool off the coast of Norway.
The Domain of Arnheim: A wealthy man uses his great fortune to create a fantastic landscape.
To --: "The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see"
To Zante: "Fair isle, that from the fairest of all flowers,"
To the River: "Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow"
A Dream Within a Dream: "Take this kiss upon the brow!"
Dream-land: "BY a route obscure and lonely,"
To Science: The speaker questions science and what she takes away from others by her “dull realities.”
To One in Paradise: "Thou wast all that to me, love,"
To My Mother: The author laments the loss of his mother.
A Dream: "In visions of the dark night"
Dreams: "Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!"
Eldorado: "Gaily bedight,"
To Marie Louise (Shew) [1848]: "Not long ago, the writer of these lines,"
Elizabeth: "Elizabeth, it surely is most fit"
To Marie Louise (Shew) [1847]: "Of all who hail thy presence as the morning—"
An Enigma: "Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce,"
To Isadore: "Beneath the vine-clad eaves, Whose shadows fall before"
Eulalie: "I dwelt alone"
To Helen (1848): "I saw thee once—once only—years ago:"
Evening Star: "'Twas noontide of summer,"
To Helen (1831): "Helen, thy beauty is to me"
To Frances S. Osgood: "Thou wouldst be loved?—then let thy heart"
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar: This is a tale of an experiment to hypnotize a man on his death bed. The experiment works—but with horrifying results!
To F--: "Beloved! amid the earnest woes"
Three Sundays in a Week: Captain Pratt sets off on an adventure circling the globe.
Fairyland: "Dim vales–and shadowy floods–"
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade: The narrator discovers a long-lost Oriental text called Tellmenow Isitsoornot, and is shocked to find the real story of the grand vizier's daughter Scheherazade in Arabian Nights. Then the narrator summarizes what he finds in Isitsoornot.
The Fall of the House of Usher: An old friend is summoned to his childhood friend’s home to comfort him during his final days of an illness only to witness strange and horrifying happenings in the House of Usher.
The Tell-Tale Heart: The narrator finds it increasingly difficult to conceal an act of violence from the authorities.
Tamerlane: "Kind solace in a dying hour!"
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains: An unnamed narrator retells Augustus Bedloe's account of his strange experiences in the Ragged Mountains.
For Annie: "Thank Heaven! the crisis—"
Stanzas: "How often we forget all time, when lone"
The Forest Reverie: 'Tis said that when, The hands of men, Tamed this primeval wood,
Four Beasts in One - The Homo-Cameleopard: The picture of a possible future is presented to the reader.
Spirits of the Dead: "Thy soul shall find itself alone"
The Spectacles: The narrators vanity puts him in an embarrassing situation.
The Happiest Day, The Happiest Hour: "The happiest day–the happiest hour"
The Haunted Palace: "IN the greenest of our valleys"
Silence: There are some qualities–some incorporate things,
Song: "I saw thee on thy bridal day–"
The Sleeper: "At midnight in the month of June,"
Silence, a Fable: In this story, a demon recounts the curses he placed on the beauty that surrounded him.
Hymn: "At morn—at noon—at twilight dim—"
Shadow—A Parable: While in the presence of death, the characters of the story are confronted by a strange entity.
Hymn to Aristogeiton and Harmodius: "Wreathed in myrtle, my sword I'll conceal"
Serenade: "So sweet the hour, so calm the time,"
Imitation: "A dark unfathom'd tide, Of interminable pride—"
Romance: "Romance, who loves to nod and sing,"
The Raven: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
The Imp of the Perverse: Poe’s character rationalizes his thinking to convince the reader of his sanity and regrets.
In Youth I Have Known One: "In youth I have known one with whom the Earth"
The Purloined Letter: An unnamed narrator tells how a Parisian detective, Auguste Dupin, solves a case of a “purloined letter.” The letter belonged to the Queen, and the man who took it had switched it with a plain letter, and was using the information contained in the stolen letter to blackmail the Queen. The police Prefect wants Dupin to figure out how to catch the man, and Dupin reasons his way through the case, eventually nabbing the thief by using his own technique against him—switching letters back.
Introduction to Poems, Letter to Mr. B-: A letter from the author to Mr. B.
The Premature Burial: The narrator's strange condition causes him to develop an acute fear.
The Island of the Fay: The author discovers and enchanted island of the Fays and witnessess the demise of a Fay.
The Poetic Principle: The author presents his opinion on poetry and the ultimate goal of art.
Israfel: In Heaven a spirit doth dwell, "Whose heart-strings are a lute;"
King Pest - A Tale Containing an Allegory: Two drunken sailors happen upon a strange scene at the undertaker's shop.
The Pit and the Pendulum: About the torments endured by a prisoner of the revived Spanish Inquisition.
The Lake. To --: "In spring of youth it was my lot"
The Philosophy of Composition: The author presents his theory on the subject of compositiion.
Landor's Cottage: The narrator describes the other worldly nature of Landor's Cottage.
Lenore: "Ah broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!"
A Pæan: Lamentation for the loss of a loved one.
Ligeia: The narrator experiences tragedy, but is reunited with his love through an unconventional occurrence.
The Oval Portrait: The narrator discovers a shocking painting while seeking refuge in an abandoned mansion.
M.S. Found in a Bottle: Separated from his family, the narrator sets sail on a cargo ship from Indonesia.
Old English Poetry: The author presents his opinion of English poetry.
The Masque of the Red Death: The plague is sweeping the countryside, so a prince takes many friends into his castle to save them. They live grandly and have a masked ball, but Death comes to the ball and kills everyone anyway.
Mesmeric Revelation: A doctor has a rather unusual conversation with a dying patient.
Morella: A cursed woman's husband attempts to free her soul.

Year Published: 1903

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States of America

Readability:

Flesch–Kincaid Level: 7.2

Word Count: 231,319

Genre: Horror

Keywords: admiration, adoration, adventure, affection, afterlife, allegory, apocalypse, beauty, composition, creation, creativity, culture, darkness, death, despair, detective story, difference, doom, doppelganger, dreams, enchantment, family, fantasy, fear, free will, friendship, gothic, gratitude, greek, guilt, hoax, honor, hope, horror, human nature, humor, hypnosis, illness, imagination, impulse, independence, insanity, isolation, journey, landscape, letter, life, loneliness, loss, love, love lost, marriage, memory, mortality, murder, mystery, nature, newspaper article, obsession, onomatopoeia, paranoia, peace, plague, poetry, pride, psychic, questioning science, reality, rejoice, respect, revenge, riddle, romance, sadness, satire, science fiction, sea, self destruction, self-destruction, self-pity, shipwreck, short story, solitude, space, spirit, stargazing, stars, summer, supernatural, suspense, tragic love, vanity, wealth, whirlpool, writing

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