The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2
This volume gathers the tales that made Poe's reputation: the fall of the House of Usher, the murders in the Rue Morgue, the descent into the maelstrom. The range is wider than the horror label suggests, and includes detective fiction, satire and comic hoaxes.
Poe's method is to establish a mood with architectural precision and then break it. His sentences are deliberate and often beautiful, and his plots are frequently absurd. The best way to read him is to accept the absurdity and watch the technique, which is why writers keep returning to these stories.
Public-domain status
First published in 1840. In the United States, works published before 1930 are in the public domain. In the European Union the general term is the life of the author plus 70 years; Edgar Allan Poe died in 1849, so this work has been free to republish there since 1920.
Read the text free
- Project Gutenberg, ebook no. 2148 — plain text, EPUB and Kindle, checked by us
- Internet Archive — scanned editions and free audiobooks
- Open Library — edition history and borrowable copies
Keep reading
- Dubliners — James Joyce, 1914
- Bliss and Other Stories — Katherine Mansfield, 1920
- The Garden Party and Other Stories — Katherine Mansfield, 1922
- The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket — Edgar Allan Poe, 1838
- Baltimore — the city behind the books
- Reading lists — 19 ways through the collection
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