Edgar Allen Poe is a very eccentric and dark writer. Most of his writings have to do with lots of drama; therefore some of them are murder stories. He uses very big words, and most of his sentences are very poetic. He brought his nightmare-visions to vivid, dramatic life in his classic tales. This book brings out some of his darkest and richest thoughts.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was a story of two ladies that lived in a house and kept to themselves. None of their neighbors knew who they were. They had their groceries and other things brought straight to the house. They never came out. One day all of the neighbors heard terrible screams coming from the house. They broke in to find out what had happened. When they were finally in, they ran up the stairs to find the house a complete mess. It appeared that someone was looking for something. The neighbors found the daughter shoved up the chimney. She was dead of coarse. The mother was found outside, and she was dead also. The whole neighborhood was trying to find who had done it.

I thought that this book might be more for an older generation that would love to read very poetic stories. I personally didn't care for the book that much, because of his style of writing poetry. It was very hard to understand some sentences and I had to read them twice. Some of Poe's stories are well based and have a good plot. If you are a well educated person, you may like this book.

The Fall of the House of Usher was a dark, morbid, and absolutely creepy short story. It's a tale about a visit to the decaying House of Usher, a house haunted by the Ushers' past evil. In the end, their evil past ultimately becomes to great for the house to hold. Of course some might not agree with me; the story is up to a good deal of interpetation. The story emphasizes the gloomy, foreboding, atmosphere with great detail that never becomes too tiresome. The suspense was excellant. At the climax the reader is given hints at what is to happen, but still the reader is forced to hold his or her breath until it finally falls through. As in most short stories, the actual climax and resolution seemed to be too shortly written. Thus leaving the reader wishing for more detail and depth. The rest of the stories in this book weren't nearly as good, but still they had the gloomy suspense and horror associated with Poe.

Poe truly travels into the dark night of the soul. I first became acquainted with the works of Poe in my ninth grade honors English class. I've been wondering about Poe ever since. I have gotten a morbid sense of humor and laughed aloud at some of the stories, but of nothing evil. The book arranges Poe's works rather well, beginning with stories of being at sea and each story progresses into something deeper. The Pit and the Pendulum, the Mask of the Red Death, the Black Cat, were all good. One can never forget Dupin. That's some wild psychology there, but it worked. I'm just beginning my sojourn into the works of Poe (that stuff they gave me in high school English classes just wasn't enough). These stories haven't made me scared yet.