Book description
Since their first publication in the 1830s and 1840s, Edgar Allan Poe's
extraordinary Gothic tales have established themselves as classics of
horror fiction and have also created many of the conventions which still
dominate the genre of detective fiction. As well as being highly
enjoyable, Poe's tales are works of very real intellectual exploration.
Attentive to the historical and political dimensions of these very
American tales, this new selection places the most popular -- `The Fall
of the House of Usher', `The Masque of the Red Death', `The Murders in
the Rue Morgue; and `The Purloined Letter' -- alongside less well-known
travel narratives, metaphysical essays and political satires. Edgar
Allan Poe (1809 49), was born in Boston, USA. He was a short-story
writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the
American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the
macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short
story and is considered the inventor the detective-fiction genre.
