Six of Poe’s most macabre tales are presented in this powerfully illustrated edition that comes with an unabridged CD narration of four of the shorter tales. The classic tales included on the 75 minute CD and read by Edward Blake are “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Black Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Cask of Amontillado.” The two longer tales in the collection are the heart-stopping “The Pit and the Pendulum” and the chilling “The Fall of the House of Usher.” In addition to his striking woodcut-type illustrations, Michael McCurdy has written fascinating headnotes about the origin of each tale and an introduction about Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) was born in Boston and orphaned at an early age. Taken in by a couple from Richmond, Virginia, he spent a semester at the University of Virginia but could not afford to stay longer. After joining the Army and matriculating as a cadet, he started his literary career with the anonymous publication of Tamerlane and Other Poems, before working as a literary critic. His life was dotted with scandals, such as purposefully getting himself court-martialled to ensure dismissal from the Army, being discharged from his job at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond after being found drunk by his boss, and secretly marrying his thirteen-year-old cousin Virginia (listed twenty-one on the marriage certificate). His work took him to both New York City and Baltimore, where he died at the age of forty, two years after Virginia.
