The complete short stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Original title: The complete short stories

Author Name: Edgar Allan Poe

ISBN: 0785814531

Original Language: English

I have not been able to confirm that there is a Spanish version.

Genre: Suspense

Publisher: Castle Books

Current year of publication: 2002

Year of reading: 2016

Additional Information:

There is something that surprised me a lot to read these brief stories is that Allan Poe was really fond of astronomy and spoke whenever he could about.

Abstract of the work:

Due to the division of the short works, I will dedicate only a few lines to each work, expressing my opinion, which I liked or surprised.

Metzengerstein

In this story, we are introduced to the recklessness between the two families; The Metzengerstein and the Berlifitzing. Through the history of Federico, the last descendant of the Metzengerstein family, this one is accused of having caused a fire that has killed the patriarch of the family Berlifitzing. So Allan Poe uses something similar to karma, disguising him of a wild horse, that Federico had not seen before in the vicinity of his mansion, then one night his mansion is burned and the horse takes to Federico to see the flames.

The moral of this story would be: sooner or later we all have to pay our debts.

MS. Found in a Bottle

This begins on the island of Java where a young man of careful education embarks on a cargo ship. During the crossing, a storm lashes in the sea, which causes that the whole crew dies, except for an old man and the aforementioned youth. We are told how these two characters try to keep the ship on course, only to be again dressed in a boat that gives very little specific, but at least is 3 times bigger, The young man saves his life by climbing To this new ship only to realize that the crew is the strongest. While the young man explores the ship we are told, that the ship is at full sail, with no known course, until it reaches its end of denouement, of course, I will not comment

Personally, I think Allan Poe tried to simply write something fantastic, a completely strange narration in a mysterious and unfamiliar environment.

King Pest the First

We started in England, London to be exact. Where two sailors Patas and Hugh Tarpaulin, have decided to go to different bars just to discover that they have been stolen, are now drunk, have no money and can not afford. So they decide to leave without paying, in their flight they enter one of the worst areas of the city, in addition, that are dominated by the plague. Now they are in the middle of a Creepy area. So they decide to find refuge in a funeral parlor just to meet the king's plague court.

Allan Poe explores almost every topic of horror stories, such as night, sickness and death, dancing skeletons, terrible screams, fog, skulls that serve as a cup ...

Berenice

The story begins with the wedding of Egaeus with his cousin Berenice, but Berenice suffers from a strange disease that causes periods of complete isolation from the real world, a kind of trance, this unknown disease, slowly goes from generating the poor girl, to the Point that the only thing that remain intact by the disease, are his beautiful teeth, with which Berenice becomes obsessed.

After Berenice has been buried Egaeus falls into a trance, from which he is awakened by one of his servants, he who informs him that Berenice's tomb seized profaned, but Egaeus seized the guilty, since the servant has found him with a Box containing the 32 teeth and it is stained with blood.

In this study tell us two things Once predicted was buried alive and another is that the culprit most likely was Egaeus.

Ligeia

The story begins with how the protagonist is known to a girl who is beautiful passionate and intelligent, describes it to us; With their eyes and black hair and is called Ligeia, met in the ruin of a city near the Rhine in Germany. Shortly after marrying, after a year of the marriage Ligeia dies, what immerses in a great depression to its husband, which I decided to change its place of residence to England where to buy and to reform an old abbey soon finds a new girl named Lady Rowena Trevanion of Tremaine, blond hair and blue eyes with which also marries.

Ligeia

The story begins with how the protagonist is known to a girl who is beautiful passionate and intelligent, describes it to us; With their eyes and black hair and is called Ligeia, met in the ruin of a city near the Rhine in Germany. Shortly after marrying, after a year of the marriage Ligeia dies, which immerses in a great depression to its husband, which I decided to change its place of residence to England where to buy and to reform an old abbey soon finds a new girl named Lady Rowena Trevanion of Tremaine, blond hair and blue eyes with which also marries.

Rowena after a while begins to suffer from fever and anxiety, this mysterious and sudden illness that causes great fainting, one night during an episode, her husband bring her a glass of wine drugged with opium, he sees how yellow liquids fall in the glass , After this she dies is prepared to be buried and her whole body blindfolded

While my husband keeps vigil all night, he starts listening as a whisper that comes from Rowena who has just died. But every time he approaches these whispers stops. Soon after, it is her cheeks or her forehead that become pink, only to return to a pale marble. After all One night in this kind of chaotic feeling and despair between the struggle between life and death the girl finally levitates her bandage they fall only to discover what was Ligeia her great love

The Fall of the House of Usher

The story begins with a young man heading to a mansion riding a horse, when he arrives at the front of the Mansion, describes the feeling of sadness that the mansion conveys through its windows through how all the decoration settings are depressive , The reason that he is young is visiting, is that he was invited by the owner Roderick Usher, who is a friend of his childhood reminds us of the happy moments and the adventures that happened in the Mansion.

Roderick is sick is a little eccentric lives with the company of his sister Lady Madeline, who also suffers a disease difficult to explain with which always exposes himself with melancholy and reluctance for life.

For a long time they are dedicated to the study of something that not even the protagonist understands, but what Roderick is obsession, we write a picture in which there is like an underground tunnel that goes deep in the earth.

One night begins a storm, an atypical storm. He begins to hear a kind of voice I will not tell the end so I exercise book but all I can say is that there is a large crack by which you can see the eclipse of a full moon and you know the red moon and then all The mansion collapses.

The Fall of the House of Usher

The story begins with a young man heading to a mansion riding a horse, when he arrives at the front of the Mansion, describes the feeling of sadness that the mansion conveys through its windows through how all the decoration settings are depressive , The reason that he is young is visiting, is that he was invited by the owner Roderick Usher, who is a friend of his childhood reminds us of the happy moments and the adventures that happened in the Mansion.

Roderick is sick is a little eccentric lives with the company of his sister Lady Madeline, who also suffers a disease difficult to explain with which always exposes himself with melancholy and reluctance for life.

For a long time they are dedicated to the study of something that not even the protagonist understands, but what Roderick is obsession, we write a picture in which there is like an underground tunnel that goes deep in the earth.

One night begins a storm, an atypical storm. He begins to hear a kind of voice I will not tell the end so I exercise book but all I can say is that there is a large crack by which you can see the eclipse of a full moon and you know the red moon and then all The mansion collapses.

The Man of the Crowd

In this story we are described to a man who is obsessed with knowing why there is another man moving around the city. So after several days he starts to follow him just out of curiosity and after two days he comes to the conclusion that the poor man, the only thing he does not want is to be alone and that everything is possible to be included in any large group of people during Any event whether night or day. A rather sad story.

A Descent into the Maelström

Maelström is a large swirl that is found on the southern coasts of the Norwegian archipelago of the Lofoten Islands in the province of Nordland. Allan Poe uses this real and natural phenomenon for this story, in which a young man from a cliff tells us how he has reached such a state of old age in just one day. It all began one day when the current stretched her into the whirlpool, he survived, but as a result he grew older losing the strength of his muscles and his hair turning into pipes.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

This story extorts, it is developed in one of the streets of Paris, where two women are murdered a mother and a daughter Madame L'Espanaye and Mademoiselle Camille L'Espanaye, the problem is that the room was perfectly closed from within, which Leads to wondering how did the assassin get away from the police and people passing by, without this realizing? And the other question is how do you get out through a door that was closed from the inside? Police searches do not lead to any logical solution. There is also a problem with several witnesses who are of the following nationalities; Germans, Italians, French and Spaniards, who agree that the killer has a very distinctive and they could not understand what he was saying.

But all this is solved thanks to the intervention of an amateur detective M. Dupin, who after a great effort, manages to find a brilliant explanation to the whole phenomenon.

I'm not going to say anything but it has to do with an orangutan.

The Masque of the Red Death

Well maybe we could say that the main character of this story is the Prospero principle, which has the following attributes; Intrepid, happy and sagacious ... But we would be wrong, the real protagonist of this story is the least mentioned, the Red Death.

In the domains of the prosperous prince a terrible disease called The Red Death, it is desolating all the population, attacks you with terrible misereres pains and after half an hour you are dead. The Prince and his court of 1000 noblemen, decided that instead of trying to help the poor citizens of his kingdom, they prefer to take refuge in an abbey sealing the doors so that disease can not enter.

This abbey has 7 giant rooms for the parties, each one has a different configuration of colors being blue, purple, green, orange, white and violet the last one that is less visited is all decorated in black and the light that takes place inside is of A bloody color shield. For this reason almost no one visits this room, in addition there is a great clock that takes every time that an hour passes, but the noise of the bells of this watch is so solemn and deep that always provokes the silence between all the spectators and the Musicians.

Prince Prosper decides to have a masquerade ball (this part does not stop reminding me of the Phantom of the Opera) after all have been 6 months of confinement and want to entertain.

Then when the bells give midnight, a strange character appears in one of the rooms, and begins to advance through all of them without anyone stopping him, the Prince feels offended because he does not answer, yes he draws his dagger and pursues him, when He reaches discover it is the Red Death and I fell dead immediately, all the nobles try to lock in a room and try to close the doors. But in vain is the attempt since they are all dead.

The last line of the story sums it up like this, "And Darkness, the Corruption and the Red Death took over everything".

The Pit and the Pendulum

This story is about how a man when visiting Spain, des covers the techniques of torture of the Holy Inquisition, the narration is told through a poor victim of the experiment

The Oval Portrait

We are told how a painter loses his mind while portraying his wife's painting.

The Gold Bug

We are told the adventures of a map of a treasure belonging to the pirate (Kid), as the map is first and then the treasure.

The Mystery of Marie Roget

It tells the mysterious murder of Marie Rogêt, and like the first investigations to point to a band of malandrines, but the investigator does not believe it, in the course of the narration one discovers that it was a sailor who kill  the poor girl .

The Black Cat

This tragic story, we are presented to a happy couple until the husband indulges in the alcoholic experience, as he first begins mistreating the pet that is a black cat, which ends up killing, as the woman later gives him another cat, and He ends up killing the woman. He buries her in the attic, but one night some police arrive to investigate the disappearance of the wife and the cat reveals the position of the burial since he was buried alive with the woman.

The Tell-Tale Heart

The character insists that this sane, but in fact has become obsessed with the eye that is veiled by a pale and bluish film, an older person with whom he shares house, one day decides to kill him and bury the body on the ground, but Some policemen bunk at the request of the neighbors, and discover nothing until the man confesses everything.

The Oblong Box

In this story we cover the best childhood friend of an unnamed narrator, they are in the same boat and they have 3 rooms one for him and his wife, another for the servant and another for extra luggage, the narrator believes that In the third room, he must have very valuable works of art, and he is traveling to New York to sell them. When he enters the room to inspect it discovers that what was in the box is the true wife and that the present wife is a maid pretending.

The Purloined Letter

We are told of the proceedings brought by a police prefect, to find a letter stolen by a Minister from whom he does not give his name, when these searches do not bear fruit, the prefect of the police asks for help Detective Dupin and his friend, Dupin does not want to help him in the first encounter, but in the second he helps him for 50,000 francs to solve the mystery.

The Premature Burial

This story is about one of the writer's favorite arguments catalepsy.

The protégé of the narration tells us how he suffers episodes of catalepsy, periodically, which leads him to be very distressed about the idea of one day being considered dead, when in truth the only thing that happens in another episode Of catalepsy.

He tells us how he takes all possible measures so that if he has another episode, do not let him die, inform relatives, organize his sepulcher, to have food and water, at the same time order a coffin that is easy to open from the inside, and A large etc.

But one day he wakes up inside a coffin, and realizes that all his plans have not worked, I will not tell you how it ends but the suspense is very interesting.

The Imp of the Perverse

This story begins with a brief introduction, where we are briefly explained, a summary of the events that will happen in the story.

The story that does not explain things like; The relationship between the beduro and the victim. Or why does the executioner get the inheritance of his victim? Why does not anyone suspect the executioner?

The story jumps to several years later, and shows us how his mind begins to obsess about confessing the crime, until one day while running around in the streets confesses his crime, he is tried and condemned to death.

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

The storyteller who always calls himself P, tells us that he would be interested in doing a mesmerism (a pseudoscience that would evolve over time to be part of hypnosis)

The system of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether

Two young people are traveling in the south of France, they come to the proximity of one of the asylums, which arouses great curiosity in one of the young people. After a cracked plan, get invited to visit and see its interior.

For the sole purpose of discovering that the asylum is carried by the insane and that they have locked up all the doctors and nurses. It's quite fun to be Poe.

As a personal note, there is a movie called Asylum: The Experiment 2014, based on this story.

The Cask of Amontillado

In full carnivals of some Italian city of century XIX, Montresor looks for Fortunato with the intention of revenge of a past humiliation. Finding him drunk, it is easy to convince him to accompany him to his palazzo on the pretext of giving him to taste a new wine. It leads him to the catacombs of the house, and there consume his revenge.

Hop-Frog

This is the story of revenge of a dwarf named Hop-Frog, who abandoned his country and is now the fool of a King, revenge begins when the King and his ministers lack respect for the love of Hop-Frog called Trippetta .

The Spectacles

This is the story of a young man of French descent, who lives in New York, thanks to a great inheritance can live a life of aristocratic, one of the nights, in the opera he falls madly in love at first sight with a young woman. After a great number of feats, he manages to make the girl fall in love with him.

On the night of nuptials des covers that in fact is ... I will not tell you but it is something that the reader does not expect.

Some Words with a Mummy

In this story we return to see Poe's favorite subject, catalepsy, but this time a step further in the future, we could say that he was trying to describe the Cryogenic process.

Well, we have an Egyptian mummy, which will be examined for the first time by the Ponnonner doctor, Ponnonner invites several of his colleagues and fans to be the witness of this process.

As they remove all layers of materials that protect the body of the mummy discover the name of the mummy that is Allamistakeo, then you discover in what good state this and the treasures that are in the sarcophagus.

After great discussions, they decided to apply an electric shock to one of his feet to see how his muscles were preserved, to discover that Allamistakeo was in a cataleptic state and that he was awakened again.

Allamistakeo, explains all night how life was in ancient Egypt and how he has survived.