Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Works Collection

Edgar Allan Poe is undoubtedly one of the most influential writers of all time. This collection breaks everything he ever wrote into his short stories, novel, poems, and essays, most of which have their own reason to be worth reading. There are a few duds, every writer has to have some, but there are some incredible highs as well.First, the short stories, which Poe is most well-known for. This is definitely the best section of the book. All of the Poe's most well-known classics are here, and I would also recommend some of his lesser known stories, particularly A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Black Cat, The Spectacles, The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, and The Business Man, as particular greats. You should be able to read every story in this collection in less than an hour, so you can finish them in one sitting.Poe wrote only one long novel, and even it can be scene as a collection of a few short stories.The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym is a very heart-wrenching story, classic Poe.To be honest, I'm not much to read poetry, so I'll keep this brief and say that the Raven is great, and if you do like poetry, there will be plenty more here for you.The essays are well worth the read as well. Several don't seem particularly different from his short stories, and I'd say Thou Art The Man and Hop-Frog are the best.The most annoying thing about this book was that Poe had a habit of quoting french and Latin in his stories, and there were no translations to be had here. It can be annoying, but it doesn't really ruin the stories. I hope you find these tales of mystery, horror, and sometimes comedy as entertaining as I did.

This was originally reviewed (along with every single story inside this anthology) over at alex-hurst.com, in the series "Tackling Poe". Naturally, to leave a review of everything here would be far too long!I finished reading Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems about a week ago, but I wanted to give myself some time to digest everything, watch The Raven, and to formulate my final thoughts.To start off, I think that––overall––this collection was fairly good. I did have some issues with it, as I’ve talked about before in some of the earlier parts of this massive review series. I really didn’t like that each story was just a sub-chapter of a larger heading, and formatted in a way that you couldn’t keep track of how much time was left in each segment (I often use this when I’m trying to justify staying up late or reading more during a break), and there were a few incorrectly classed pieces under the Essays section.The compiler of the work did do a very good job formatting the poetry and fiction prose. They used true type, so even on the Kindle, it made for very lovely reading. Little embellishments, like unique titles, made the anthology look more polished.I would have liked to have seen more context notes, because some of the stories and poems made a great deal more sense with the context I was able to glean from the internet (after only moderate searching). Since all of Edgar Allan Poe’s works are public domain, and free, I expect more of an anthology, in this regard. In many cases, the poetry or fiction notes that Edgar Allan Poe wrote to his editors at the time were not included with the stories, to the detriment of quite a few of them.However, I know that to compile and format an anthology of this size and breadth is near impossible to do without some technical errors, and as most of my complaints were merely stylistic and subjective, I can recommend this anthology to most readers. Nothing will compare, I think, to seeing Poe’s works on paper (and being able to find quotes at a glance), but this is a close second. The section in the back which lists references to derivative or inspired works was very interesting. Much respect to Maplewood Books.The anthology is a beast, totaling over 407,000 words total.Now that I’m finally at the end of the collection, I would like to offer a list of recommendations. I’ll choose ten of his “classics”, ten “unknowns”, and fifteen poems which I do not think are well-known (of course everyone knows to read “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, “Lenore”, and so on). All of these are entirely subjective, but I think if you read nothing else but some of the thirty five I suggest here, you’ll have fairly good luck in reading something you’ll enjoy. They are in no particular order.The Classics:1. The Fall of the House of Usher2. The Black Cat3. A Descent into Maelström4. The Gold-Bug5. The Oval Portrait6. The Cask of Amontillado7. The Pit and the Pendulum8. Ligeia9. The Tell-Tale Heart10. BereniceRelatively Unknowns:1. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar2. Loss of Breath3. William Wilson4. The Premature Burial5. King Pest6. The Spectacles7. The Business Man8. The System of Doctor Tarr & Professor Fether9. The Colloquy of Monos and Una10. The Power of WordsPoems:1. The City in the Sea2. Eldorado3. For Annie4. The Bells5. The Conqueror Worm6. The Haunted Palace7. In Youth I Have Known One8. Imitation9. The Valley of Unrest10. Tamerlane11. Sonnet – To Science12. The Forest Reverie13. The Village Street14. Alone15. Israfel

I started reading Poe in the 8th grade many a many a years ago and have been reading him ever since. I was absolutely delighted when they came out with this Kindle edition. Unlike some here, I thought the formatting was great and the navigation on my Kindle almost flawless...I had no problems what so ever. Unlike some, I was unable to find any stories or poems that were not published in this collection...perhaps I simply overlooked them. Over the years of reading Poe I don’t think I have missed very much so there was nothing new here for me but that is okay because the vast majority of his work needs to be read and reread as you grow older. Your perception of a story or poem changes as you grow older and a story read through the eyes of a 12 year old child is quite different that reading it though the eyes of a fellow who is well into his 70s. I continue to read him.Now I particularly enjoyed this Kindle version due to the fact that some of the words and language used by Poe is no longer with us – times have changed and along with those changes are changes in the English language. Words Poe used at the time of his writing are no longer is use and many young readers (myself included) simply are unfamiliar with their meaning. The Kindle allows you to instantly find the meaning of these words and not have to stop and dig trough your faithful dictionary; my Old Webster’s New Universal Unabridged is falling apart after all these years and my back is bad and I am having problems lifting the thing now.Anyway, Poe is Poe and despite the dark reputation he has with many readers, contributed a lot to American literature. To understand Poe goes far in understanding the evolution of where we have been from a literary stand point, and how we got to where we are this day and possibly where we are going in the future.This is one of those collections you probably won’t want to set down and read from cover to cover in one reading but rather one that you will want to pick up periodically and simply enjoy between reading the books you normally read...it gives you a nice break and all of is stories are quite entertaining.And for those of you that HATE Poe because you were “forced” to read him in high school as require reading...hey you are older now and your time is your own...give him another chance...you might be surprised to learn you actually like the stuff now...on the other hand...maybe not!

Reasonably priced and quick download

Sehr gut

Got this book for my wife's Birthday, and she is over the moon with it. The book was in used, but excellent condition, and at a great price.

The format of the book is large. It takes a lot of space and is clumsy for handling.

Everyone needs to read Allan Poe once at least, is highly recommended to start in literature or if you want to enjoy it in a rainy day with the dark tales of Poe