I'm a big EAP fan, but realized I hadn't read the title story yet! So that's why I picked this up! And what better time of the year to read Poe? This collection is dang good, but I didn't give it 5 stars because two of the stories were kind of lame, and very un-Poe like. Neither "The Balloon Hoax" nor "Diddling" seemed to belong in this book, as neither were creepy or thrilling. They should either not have been included, or two different stories that matched the theme of the rest of the collection should have been substituted. But apart from that, I was very satisfied with the read! ( )

Kind of a hit or miss collection. There were a few stories that I found really dull to read, but I really enjoyed the title story, "The Fall of the House of Usher", along with "The Black Cat", and all the classic Poe tales, "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Masque of the Red Death", etc. Poe is a master at delving into the dark psychological recesses of the human mind.

I also really liked the Dupin tales, which reminded me a lot of Sherlock Holmes-- makes sense since apparently Poe's Dupin provided the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective. "Diddling" was also an interesting find, it's more of an exposition than a story but I enjoyed all the descriptions of the various cons.

Poe's only full-length novel, "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym", was a real disappointment. An adventure story and travelogue, it didn't have as much excitement as I was expecting despite having a couple sea voyages with humans braving against the forces of nature, a mutiny, cannabalism, a mysterious island and an encounter with an unknown culture. Naturally, Poe does a great job describing the despair of being lost at sea, sick and starving, and all the mental distresses of the main character in bleak times. The emotions and agonies are felt so viscerally in his writing. Much of the story, though, is bogged down by dry descriptions of the technical aspects of sea voyages, and I found myself skimming through those to get to more interesting parts. ( )

This compilation of short stories include some of Poe's most famous works. They include adventures, including one short story, "A Descent into the Maelstrom", and one novella, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym", which involve man against the transitory and chaotic nature of the sea. I would imagine that the sea for 19th century sailors and travelers could be a source of horror. The others involve horrible situations that characters find themselves, included bound on a table with a bladed pendulum, slowly descending, swinging back and forth "The Pit and the Pendulum", or being walled alive within brick masonry, "The Cask of Amontillado." My favorite in this grouping was "The Black Cat" about a guilt-ridden man is haunted by a black cat who he victimized and leads a murderous conclusion. Several of these stories were translated into horror films I loved at Saturday matinees as a boy. ( )

I've read two stories from this collection for the 1001 books to read before you die list. The first one "The Purloined Letter" sucked. I DNF because it was so boring and really too much information to get through just to find out how he got his hands on the letter. However, the second story "The Fall of the House of Usher" was more of the Poe writing that I enjoy. It's about a haunted house with a poor man who is going crazy inside it. Ending was strange and left it to the reader's imagination what happened to Usher. ( )

I'd never read Poe before when I bought this book. I usually hate florid writing (basically, anything before the late 19th century) and a quick glance at the prose made me a little worried about whether I would even be able to make sense of it. However, I persevered and now I've finished all the stories and am sad cause I know there's no more to read.

Poe understands horror and suspense to perfection. He also understands a lot of other things which nobody seems to appreciate anymore, IMO.

Some of the more surreal stories in this collection reminded me strongly of Gogol. I'm not really a fan of surreal writing, but many of the other stories - especially the 'futuristic technology' ones - reminded me of some of Conan Doyle's stories, which is some of the highest praise I could give an author.
In particular, I'm indebted to Poe for inspiring Conan Doyles's Sherlock Holmes, one of my favorite literary protagonists of all time. I actually think the Sherlock Holmes stories are better developed than Poe's detective tales, but one can forgive him since he pioneered the detective genre.

My favorite story, by far, was 'Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'. I love a good adventure story, and this was an epic that just went on and on and oooon....in a very good way. It also showed how incredibly educated the author was on everything from the breedings habits of sea-birds to handling a ship. I learnt so much about random subjects from this story.

I was going to try to list some of my other favorites, but there are just too many so I'm leaving it at this. ( )