Introduction

This volume translates Poe's most famous tales. In 'The Fall of the House of Usher', the narrator, invited by his boyhood friend Roderick Usher, comes to a gloomy ancient mansion and finds Usher morbidly sensitive and his nerves shattered, while his twin sister Madeline suffers from a strange illness. Soon Madeline 'dies' and is laid in a coffin in the vault. A few nights later, in a storm, Madeline appears at the door in her shroud, covered in blood, falls upon her brother, and both die; the narrator flees in terror and, looking back, sees the whole house split along the fissure in its wall and sink into the dark tarn. 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' founded the detective story and created the master reasoner Dupin. Here too are 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Black Cat', 'The Masque of the Red Death', 'The Cask of Amontillado', 'The Purloined Letter' and 'The Gold-Bug'. Seeking 'unity of effect', Poe creates in each brief tale an intense atmosphere of terror and suspense.