Overview – May be the best hand to write horror ever. His brand of horror was different because it did not play off suspense so much but rather the intellect. The way he told a story as if it were just any another story seared into your mind the horror from the calmness and easy going approach of his writing. I believe there could be many other great horror writers to exist besides Poe and Stephen King but to me those are the best. Horror is not a genre I frequent whether in novels or cinema but when it is good it is good and one must attend to it. It is normally cheesy with lots of running and chasing and screaming but King and Poe make you think. The stories themselves are phenomenal but baked in is the ingredients that make your hair stand up on your skin. The part of Poe’s writing I admire the most is how each story operates alone. In their own world the story is told little linger of the last and the element of horror is usually interestingly brought to bear. I enjoy all his writing and his work is definitely the kind you come back to again and again.
Theme – Death, regret and lost love
Biggest takeaway – The biggest takeaway from reading Poe was reading the story the Premature Burial. This piece of writing had me so stuck I could hear the blood moving in my vines. Causally and almost conversationally the narrator explains his aliment of falling into a deep coma like sleep out of nowhere. He explains it would happen to him as a boy when out playing in a barn of some sort he would fall asleep and be sleep so long the kids thought he was dead and his friends would run home to tell the older people what happened. Coming to in the barn he was ill associated not knowing where he was. This led to a situation where he was off in college. He had an episode where he passed out in the lab or something like that. His classmates put him in the bed he thought he was in a coffin coming to after some madness he realized he was in the bottom bunk. One an episode befell him again and he describes his presence within a tomb with such detail and accuracy it shakes the table while reading. Calms the room and terror overtakes the body. I am not sure if I ever read anything more thrilling and suspenseful. The narrator came to and realized he was somewhere common and safe but the eerie scene sticks out in my mind whenever I think about horror literature.
Overall Satisfaction - 8.8/10 great book by a legendary author.
Comments on the Author – Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best horror writers of all time from his famed story of the Raven to all of his work he carries with his pen the authority of bringing unease, discomfort and terror to the writings. He has brought to bear. His ability to intertwine reality with fiction and consistent pace in story telling gives every word an eerie sense of dread as the terror draws nearer and nearer. If Poe was a playwright the lead up to Act IV would have you on pens and needles, if he were a director every scene in the movie would point to a conclusion so well hidden the climax would last in your mind for days or weeks, if he were an attorney his opening statement though dry and detailed would lend to the closing argument having people on the edges of their seats. Poe is a writer I love to frequent and love to talk about when his name is brought up. His writings burn with a fierce ember all these years later.
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