Monday 31 October 2016

Reviewing the Classics #6 Tales of Horror



                                                                                  Goodreads Summary:

A murderer is forced to reveal his crime by the sound of a beating heart, a mysterious figure wreaks havoc among a party of noblemen during the time of the plague, a grieving lover awakens to find himself clutching a box of his beloved blood-stained teeth, a man is obsessed with the fear of being buried alive – these are only some of the memorable characters and stories included in this volume, which exemplify Poe’s inventiveness and natural talent as a storyteller.

Immensely popular both during and after his lifetime, and a powerful influence on generations of writers and film-makers to this day, Edgar Allan Poe is still counted among the greatest short-story writers of all time and seen as one of the initiators of the detective, horror and science-fiction genres.




As it is spoopy month, I thought it would be the perfect time to read some of the works of Edgar Allan Poe! I first have to mention the gorgeous cover of the copy I got sent by Alma Books! Seriously their classics are my aesthetic and I adore receiving books from them. As I took English Literature at University, I was definitely already a fan of Poe before reading these stories! I loved studying his poems and stories as part of my Literature course, so I was excited to relive some of those, and read some that I hadn't previously read!

I adored going back to some of the stories I have loved for years, along with reading some I hadn't read previously. My favourites included William Wilson, The Tell-Tale Heart, Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum and Black Cat. One of my favourites that I hadn't previously read was The Premature Burial. Although I have never really been afraid of being buried alive, Poe made this book extremely scary by putting us into the mind of the narrator. I adore Poe's extremely clever way of creating atmosphere and location, and I wish I could do descriptive writing half as well as he could!

I actually preferred the shorter stories, as they were quick and to the point. I felt as if quite a few of the longer stories took a while to get into the actual story, and I was a little bored for the first few pages. However I enjoyed the majority of the stories, and they were perfect to read at night with a candle lit!

I think this collection of Poe's works is perfect for anyone who enjoys horror stories, but doesn't want anything too terrifying. Although some of them were scary, there wasn't many that made me too terrified to sleep! This was the perfect collection of stories to read around Halloween, and it made a nice change to read short stories rather than a novel. I definitely recommend this book!









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