Reviews

Selected Tales by Edgar Allan Poe

jamielikestoread's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

briiiana's review

4.0

poe is poe and he does it again

amieg17's review

2.0

*read Hop-Frog and The Masque of the Red Death for university*

I'm a little sad that I am giving this collection of short stories so few stars to be honest. I love gothic literature and thought this would be no exception however, the stories were very hit or miss for me. I found that some of my favourites were The Fall of the House of Usher, MS Found in a Bottle and The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether. Yet, the short stories that were more methodical and almost scientific, I just could not get along with them. The murder mystery stories were also just okay for me and didn't really blow my mind.

All in all, I'm glad I decided to read this entire book but, unfortunately, not all of these stories were for me. I am intrigued by Poe's poems though so I am still look into those.

mellii's review against another edition

Let's be honest with ourselves here

benjaminparris's review

challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

swann_srg's review

dark slow-paced

pooxs's review

4.0

Despite Poe’s verbose and sometimes convoluted style, his gothic stories are enjoyable to read.

vthecreature's review

dark mysterious

I enjoyed many parts of this but am overall grateful to have finally completed it. the ‘women’ stories were cool but the concepts got repetitive. the dupin stories were interesting as well in their events but became tedious when dupin was explaining how he figured out the mystery after the fact. the ones i most enjoyed were william wilson, masque of the red death, the cask of amontillado, the pit and the pendulum, tarr and fether, and hop-frog. this is probably because these had the strongest endings and were entertaining throughout. the more iconic house of usher and tell-tale heart were standouts of course.  i’d like to read more of poe’s works in the future. 

noecitos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense

4.5

lukre's review against another edition

4.0

There are some AMAZING stories here (and I'm not talking about the ones all of us know about like the Tell-tale Heart), I mean The Oval Portrait or The Colloquy of Monos and Una - these two, they are so atmospheric, so dark and spooky, so beautifully written that I am amazed they aren't talked about more! 
But then we get some head-scratching ones - and these are mostly the Dupin ones. And I don't get it, besides the Purloined letter these are just him monologuing how stupid everyone around him is and how smart he is. And unlike with Poirot, the reader is not given a chance really to follow along with the detective. Hmmm.

All in all Poe is a master when he is talking about the human soul, the darkness and beauty in it. Go read this.