8/10I read this collection of short stories (22 of them to be exact) on the flight home from Virginia after having driven Mike out there as he was about to begin dental school (that was quite a while ago). I should say that I began to read them at that point and I finished the stories up entirely a short time later (I did not read all 22 stories on the plane).
I am what you would call a Poe fan, I am in the Poe corner, and I have Poe's back. I don't want to wax Poetic or anything, but I really enjoy his stuff (ah, see what I did there). Poe , to me, is one of the coolest writers ever. To garner the dark reputation that he has shows that he was effective with his craft (even though, sadly, I don't think he got much recognition in his time from what I've heard).
A few of my favorite stories:
-A Descent into the Maelstrom: I actually really, really liked this one. It's about a dude who recounts a story of surviving a whirlpool after being shipwrecked. He just kept funneling downward for hours, observing all sorts of objects being pulled under. A funny part that I always remember because I am sort of the same way (to a lesser extent) is when, at the start, he is on the top of a summit before he tells his story. The line goes like this, "In truth, so deeply was I excited by the perilous position of my companion, that I fell at full length upon the ground, clung to the shrubs around me, and dared not even glance upward at the sky..." It's funny because I hate seeing other people close to cliff ledges.
-The Murders in the Rue Morgue: Is claimed to be the first detective story. It's in a similar vein as that of Sherlock Holmes, but before Sherlock Holmes was Sherlock Holmes. Instead, it is C. Auguste Dupin. Dupin is showtime. There are three Poe stories with Dupin, and this was maybe my third favorite of them (while still liking it). There is this strange murder in a house where one person's head is nearly decapitated and the other is stuffed up a chimney for a good one. It's interesante.
-The Mystery of Marie Roget: This is a story based on a real-life murder story (apparently it is the first murder story to be based on a real murder). A girls body is found in a river and Dupin does what Dupin do.
-The Purloined Letter: This is my favorite of the Dupin stories. It is the most creative and the most fun. An important letter is stolen and the authorities know who stole it and that the letter is absolutely in this dudes apartment (for reasons that I won't spell out). They tear that place inside and out with the most creative and fascinating searches and they still cannot find it much to their bewildered befuddlement. Finally, Dupin goes and dominates in point two seconds. (Spoiler Alert!) He finds the letter pinned to a bulletin board in plain sight. Ha ha. He knew the guy with the letter knew that the police would assume some elaborate hiding place, and so he hid it in plain sight. Awesome. Then he steals the letter away from him by a cool little decoy trick. Dupin, you've done it a-gain.
-The Pit and the Pendulum: This guy is being tortured by being put in this dark cell. In the cell is a dark pit that the guy almost falls into if not for a fortuitous trip. After feinting, he wakes up and is tied up on this wooden board. Above him is this menacing, swinging pendulum that is slowly sliding downward toward him. He lures rats to come chew off the ropes barely before the pendulum kills him. The walls then begin to move in and push him toward the pit. He is dramatically saved at the last second by some rescuers. It is an intense and crazy free-for-all.
-The Tell-Tale Heart: My all-time favorite. Seriously, probably my favorite story ever. I just love it in every way. Plus, this is one of the earliest stories that I realized that I liked. If you trace my genealogy of a love of reading all the way back, this very well may be my Adam, as it were. No work of fiction has done a finer job of allowing the reader to enter the mind of a deranged mad-man. And boy is it a wild ride. This guy, for good laughs, is so insistent on proving his sanity that he repeatedly states over and over about how he is going to prove to us that he is sane. He, of course, slowly shows the opposite and ends up losing it at the end. The pacing of the story is just fascinating. I liken it to a heart, much like the heart of the old man under the floorboards. The pace is slow and calm at first, slowly picks up, and the story finishes in this rapid, frenzied flurry like a sped up heartbeat. Poe utilizes the exclamation points and italices with perfect precision. Bravo I say, Bravo!
There are plenty of other stories that I also enjoyed, but I think we have gone on long enough. Plus, it is a rule of thumb to always end with The Tell-Tale Heart. Rules are rules.
Pretty sure nobody read this whole thing. But this whole blog thing is more for my sake than yours anyway, so that's in all your faces.
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