Yes, Edgar Allan Poe, that one guy who wrote that annoyingly overpromoted poem about a talking raven harassing some depressed dude that English teachers force their students to analyze time and time again. In the words of one Goodreads review, “He writes as if he is trying to reach max word count on an essay.” He’s also known as the guy who married his 13-year-old first cousin (gross). Although separating the art from the artist could be the topic of a whole other article, I’m here to vouch solely for his writing. Students may not have understood him in English class, but when you’re not forced to overanalyze his work for a grade, Poe’s writing is incredibly engaging and equally bone-chilling; in other words, the perfect autumnal read.
Poe shouldn’t be dismissed entirely by those who aren’t fans of poetry. He has also written over seventy short stories; and although they could be dissected analytically, they don’t require an English degree to still enjoy the story itself.
Take “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The short, engrossing tale depicts the narrator’s descent into madness and paranoia after he kills an old man and hides his body parts beneath the floorboards of his home. The prose of the story isn’t too difficult, and the story itself is masterfully paced; the reader feels like they’re experiencing a manic episode right alongside the narrator. And Poe does it all in just over 2,000 words or about eight pages.
However, if students have heard of “The Tell-Tale Heart” or were forced to read it in English, then they might not be too eager to revisit that story just yet. If that’s the case, there are plenty of other lesser-known short stories that Poe has written that are equally blood-curdling.
“Berenice” is one of my personal favorites and the short story that got me hooked on Poe’s writing. The narrator, Egaeus, suffers from monomania, which is an all-consuming obsession with one particular thing. Just before their wedding day, Berenice, his wife-to-be, appears to Egaeus in her wedding gown, but she is pale, sickly, and almost rotting. However, as she smiles at her lover, he sees her teeth, which have remained pristine despite her decaying state. His monomania takes over and he obsesses over her teeth for days. Shortly after, Berenice is pronounced dead and is buried, but Egaeus cannot stop thinking about her teeth.
The vivid descriptions that Poe uses in regard to the narrator’s disturbing fixation are enough to make hairs stand on end, but the twist on the last page is what sells the story. Poe perfectly builds up to it, and the reader starts to piece together Egaeus’ tragic mistake just as he does until they’re flying through the last few words thinking: “No way that just happened.”
However, not all of Poe’s stories end in tragedy. “The Pit and the Pendulum” is about the horrific torture methods of the Spanish Inquisition. The narrator is thrown into a pitch-black cell after being charged with heresy, and while exploring his prison, he trips and discovers a gaping pit right in the center. When he fails to fall for their first trick, the Inquisition ties him to a board that is positioned right under a swinging scythe that slowly descends onto him. The narrator just barely manages to escape that one too, but his captors are unrelenting in their efforts. The narrator is saved at the end, but this tale has the reader holding their breath until the last sentence preparing for the worst.
Some honorable mentions include “The Cask of Amontillado,” where the narrator lures his drunk friend into a crypt and buries him alive; “The Masque of the Red Death” where a plague personified crashes some rich guy’s party; and “Morella,” where the reader learns why you shouldn’t name your baby after your recently-deceased wife.
I urge everyone to give this dead author a chance, regardless of the bad rap English teachers may have given him. Each one of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and poems left me craving for more, and I hope that others can be equally enthralled by his chilling tales.
