Tales and Sketches: 1831-1842, Vol. 1 Book

Esteemed as a literary critic and poet, Edgar Allan Poe was most highly acclaimed for his tales and sketches. He transformed the short story from anecdote to art, virtually created the detective story, and perfected the psychological thriller. In these two volumes, edited by the consummate Poe scholar, Thomas Ollive Mabbott, are collected all the tales of this master of the uncanny, the unnerving, and the terrifying.

Marrying grotesque inventiveness with superb plot construction, Poe's strikingly original tales often use only one main character and one main incident. In many of them, horror and suspense, revenge and torture are laced with hilarious satire. Each volume is enriched with Mabbott's detailed and authoritative notes on sources, the history and collation of all known texts authorized by Poe, and variants of Poe's "final" versions.

The stories collected in volume 1 include "Ms. Found in a Bottle," "Ligeia," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." Volume 2 includes "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Purloined Letter," and "The Cask of Amontillado."

Promising spine-tingling delights and sleepless nights, this annotated edition of Tales and Sketches is a treasure trove for scholars and general readers alike, confirming Poe's status as one of literary art's "most brilliant but erratic stars."

About the Authors:
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49), preeminent American writer and literary critic, exerted a worldwide influence on literature through his short fiction and his theoretical statements on poetry and the short story.

Thomas Ollive Mabbott, a faculty member of Hunter College, New York, for nearly forty years, worked on Poe's writings from the 1920s until his death in 1968.