Strange Story Collection

Author: Edgar Allan Poe (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: In the preface, the author writes: It will be found that the adjectives "strange" and "weird" are sufficient to correctly indicate the commonality of the stories now published. But it would not be fair to conclude—however it is not a true conclusion—that I have any unbridled or, to say the least, any peculiar or morbid preference for this kind of writing, merely based on the fact that I wrote twenty-five short stories with such commonality in just two or three years. The author could have thought about the present collection and republication when writing, and could have hoped to maintain a certain consistency in the conception to some extent. This is indeed the case. If so, it might even happen that the author will no longer have anything to do with anything in this lifetime. There are one or two works in the book (one or two works that were conceived and completed in the midst of pure mental delirium) that the author does not expect to attract serious attention, and there is nothing more to say about them. But for the rest of the works, in all conscience, the author cannot admit them to be whimsical works just because they were written in haste. The author believes that this is something that the author is most suitable to say. If any rules are broken, it is done deliberately. Most of the short stories collected in this collection are the result of deliberate attempts and careful craftsmanship. This book includes 37 short stories such as "The Raven," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Businessman," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Black Cat," "The Premature Burial," "The Future," and "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."