Tales of Mystery and Imagination: Collins Classics

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre.

Born Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809; he was informally adopted by the Allans of Richmond after his parents' death. He attended the University of Virginia and briefly attempted a military career, before embarking on a literary career.

After publishing an anonymous collection of poems in 1827, Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals. He married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, in 1835, who died in 1842 not long after publishing his famous poem 'The Raven'. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), but died in 1849 before being able to see it produced.

'Plagued all his life by scandals and rumours, dogged by depression, prey to terrible fantasies and even more terrible phobias, Poe's writing reflects the madness in every lover's heart, the dark side of desire, the terror of being consumed alive by something half-goddess, half-beast'

THE IMP OF THE PERVERSE
THE TELL-TALE HEART
A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM
THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO
THE PREMATURE BURIAL
HOP-FROG
THE ASSIGNATION
KING PEST
THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
THE MAN OF THE CROWD
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
THE OVAL PORTRAIT
THE GOLD BUG
LIGEIA
ELEONORA
BERENICE
MORELLA
MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE
WILLIAM WILSON
THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR
METZENGERSTEIN
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGÊT
THE PURLOINED LETTER