Books You Must Read – by Edgar Allan Poe

This author needs to be read periodically.  From his poems to short stories,  some need to be read out loud.

He was born in 1809 and died forty years later.   He is is best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre.  He is credited with being the creator of detective fiction, the popularisation of the short story and helped with the genre of science fiction.

His poems need to be read outloud, in fact, The Raven, one of his most well known, was actually written to be spoken.   This is the first stanza of the poem;

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
            Only this and nothing more.”

If you speak it, you will get the true poetry of it.

In his short stories, there is the famous “Tell Tale Heart“.

Written in 1843, the story is recounted  by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed.

The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards.

The Gold Bug was also published in 1843.   It is the story of a man who was bitten by a gold-colored bug. His servant, fearing that his master is going insane speaks to the unnamed narrator.

There is a message written in cypher which will lead to a buried treasure.   It is  an early form  of detective fiction which has ‘secret writing’  and the readers are challenged to break the code.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote many poems and short stories which are highly influential and it must be remembered the years in which he wrote which have inspired subsequent generations of writers.