Tell-Tale Heart:

Author(s): Edgar Allan Poe

Classics

'Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was a groan of mortal terror ...the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul.' Stories about murder, mystery and madness, portraying the author's feverish imagination at its creative height.   Horrifying tales of mystery, sickening madness and buried bodies by the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. From the series Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics.  

General Information

  • : 9780141397269
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : 0.053
  • : December 2014
  • : 161mm X 111mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : February 2015
  • : books

Other Specifications

  • : Edgar Allan Poe
  • : Paperback
  • : 315
  • : English
  • : 813.3
  • : 64

More About The Product

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 49), was born in Boston, USA. His parents were actors but both suffered from tuberculosis and died in 1811. The two-year-old Edgar was taken in by John Allan, a wealthy merchant – hence the middle name. He had a very happy childhood as the only child of a rich family. He did well at school, especially in languages and athletics. In 1926 Edgar went to the University of Virginia. In his first term he did no work, spending his time on wine, women and song! He had a huge row with his step-father and ran away to join the army. A few years later Mrs Allan begged her husband to find him and make up the quarrel. This happened but the two men never managed to have a good relationship again. When his wife died, John Allan remarried and his new wife hated Edgar. So, by 1831 he was out in the world, alone and broke. Edgar was by now writing poetry but with little success. He did find a new family, an aunt and married her fourteen-year-old daughter. They moved from place to place and so Edgar moved from job to job getting the occasional story printed. They were very poor, often cold and close to starvation. His wife was ill and Edgar was almost an alcoholic. When his wife died, Edgar began to court wealthy widows and his writing became more and more tortured. George Bernard Shaw called him, 'the finest of finest of artists'; but he died alone in pain and poverty when he was only forty. Almost his last words were: 'I wish to God someone would blow my damned brains out.' – it is not difficult to see why some of his best-remembered stories are grotesque and macabre.