Edgar Allan Poe’s tales of the macabre have long thrilled readers of all ages, his poems remain among the best-loved in American literature

This selection of eleven stories and eight poems contains such famous chilling masterpieces of the storyteller’s art as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and such unforgettable poems as “The Raven,” “The Bells,” and “Annabel Lee.” Poe is widely credited with pioneering the detective story, represented here by “The Purloined Letter,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and “The Philosophy of Composition,” an essay describing his writing method. Poe’s vivid and intense imagination exerted a major influence on writers who came after him, and the best of his work both in prose and verse has the power to haunt us still.

Paperback, 256 pages.