This book contains stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe that became innovative literature discoveries at the time and extremely popular in its genre including: The Fall of the House Usher, The Gold-Bug, poem The Raven. Poe was one of the first American writers who wrote mostly novellas. Within twenty years Poe created two short novels,two poems, one play, about seventy stories, fifty poems and ten essays that were published in magazines and almanacs and then gathered in collection books. Poe was highly valued by Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle and Howard Phillips Lovecraf who admitted his pioneer role in the genres they were popularizing. In his thriller stories Poe tries to show psychic side of the crime from the inside. He is not interested in social roots of the crime, but in unmotivated actions that go beyond normal behavior of a person in the society. Nevertheless, in a series of stories while describing the acts committed by characters under influence of “contradiction demon” or“perversion demon”, Poe puts in rational reasons. The character from the story The Black Cat understands that his brain is poisoned with alcohol, and as a result his mental health and temper were injured. But this reasoning is too plain and trivial for the thriller.Narrating on behalf of the criminal, Poe brings actions under the control of contradiction demon. Combination of plans puts volume to the stories the events are at the same time rational and not, motivated and incredibly paradoxical.
Edgar Allen Poe ( January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country’s earliest practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Poe was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. This volume is a classic among American fiction anthologies.
