Announced for publication in 1994 by Dalkey Archive Press, this book was endlessly postponed and never appeared. However, it should appear in Fall 2002 from Herodias Books, who have begun reissuing Brossard's earlier novels.

I want to respond to one of the other reviews, because, even if the stories are abit hard to understand at times, Poe does his job in chilling the reader, and what more can you ask? The stories are all wonderfully written if you ask me, and this is a good book for people who are starting to read Poe.

This collection is a wonderful introduction to the master's works. Poe is perhaps one of the most influential writers America has ever produced. Though known mostly as a critic in his own time, his stories were translated into French by the great French Poet, Charles Baudelaire, and thus his reputation started to spread in Europe, where he had a deep effect on writers such as Dickens and Doestoyevsky. And it's no wonder, since his stories are excellently crafted with many layers of subtle psychological meanings. "The Tell Tale Heart" for instance stands out in my mind as one of the penultimate tales of terror that was ever created by his sometimes feverish imagination. It could almost be read as a confession by a madman in an asylum. Then there's the deeply symbolic tale, "The Mosque of the Red Death." A truly moral tale for a man who had a rep for being a drunkard in his own lifetime. Strange, Hemingway, who drank gallons of booze, is never critiqued for this weakness, but poor Poe has suffered for his malady and is not given his proper place in the curriculum of our universities, though now his works are widely read and are being reassessed. For Poe was indeed a great master and perhaps 200 hundred years ahead of his time.

So read Poe - and you'll be equally horrorfied and entertained forevermore!

For decades people have read, and re-read the works of Edgar Allan Poe--each time leaving the reader to walk away with a chill in the spine, and a deep sense that there are some things in life, however imagined, that are simply terrifying. Poe speaks through the heart of his own woes, his own terror...making his characters breathe life into their stories. Perhaps one of my favorites by this master of the macabre is "The Tell-Tale Heart," a maddening and sometimes angering ride through a deranged mind. This is an historical dance through the dark, perhaps even the most pivotal root in the life and love of the horror story. Poe worked not from the concepts of traditional monsters, but rather stirred the monsters haunting his protagonists...there are few who can lay claim to this level of suspense, drama, or who have ever invoked genuine fear in their readers. Poe does it with cunning, and seeming ease. Highly recommended reading.