The Gold-Bug and Other Tales [Paperback]

Edgar Allan Poe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1962

Nine gripping tales of psychological terror and the supernatural, by the undisputed master of the American Gothic horror story: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and 4 others.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 91 pages
• Publisher: Branden Pub Co (June 1962)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0828314373
• ISBN-13: 978-0828314374
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,382,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Stories That Could Use Some Footnotes, August 1, 2002

By 

Art Turner "decipheringhobshog.blogspot.com" (Rockford, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gold-Bug and Other Tales (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

First of all, I think it goes without saying that the stories collected here are wonderful. "The Cask Of Amontillado", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Fall Of The House Of Usher" - it doesn't get much better (or more horrifying) than this. The price is also nice. A dollar fifty? What can you buy for a dollar fifty these days?

My sole complaint regards the absence of footnotes. Take "Cask Of Amontillado", for example. It's hardly essential to know that "motley" is the garb of a jester or a clown (or that a "pipe" is a wine cask) in order to enjoy the story, but that information would have been nice to have nonetheless.

In conclusion, this collection is a wonderful bargain, but if you have a little more money you may want to invest in an annotated collection of these tales.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nine Great Tales by the Master of the Macabre, May 2, 2004

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gold-Bug and Other Tales (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

America was a young country; its age was measured in decades. America had few established colleges and had produced few writers, artists, and musicians. It is ironic that Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), living in poverty and suffering from alcohol and opium abuse, would be one of America's greatest writers, and one of the key creators of two genre of fiction - the deductive mystery and the horror story.

This inexpensive Dover Thrift edition - The Gold Bug and Other Tales - contains nine unabridged short stories arranged in chronological order. Two are classic mystery stories. Seven are superb horror stories.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) was not only innovative, but had lasting influence on later writers. Some fifty years later Conan Doyle closely patterned Sherlock Holmes on Poe's amateur detective, Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, and Dr. Watson on Poe's unnamed narrator that had so much difficulty keeping pace with the brilliant deductions of Dupin. Would we have had Holmes without Dupin?

The Gold-Bug (1843) is the other deductive mystery story in this Dover edition. I still remember reading it for the first time years ago. I was a young, intense entomologist at that time; after reading this intriguing tale, I carefully reinspected every beetle in my collection. I will say nothing about the plot as it is best savored as a surprise.

Six of the horror stories - The Cask Of Amontillado (1846), The Black Cat (1843), The Tell-Tale Heart (1843), The Pit and the Pendulum (1842), The Masque of the Red Death (1842), and The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) - are among Poe's best known tales. They have all been adapted to films, often with considerable license on the part of the screen writer. Ligeia (1838), the earliest story in this collection, may be unfamiliar. These tales are usually told in narrative form, sometimes from the perspective of one not entirely sane.

Many years ago a teacher, Mr. McLeod, loaned me a thick, heavy book containing the complete stories and poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. I read it cover to cover. Poe remains one of my favorite authors.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How can you go wrong??, June 4, 2008

By 

William Hoffknecht "SC2NewSCast com" (Fernley, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gold-Bug and Other Tales (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

So it is hard to go wrong with any Poe books, and especially for one this cheap. These Dover Thrift editions do not have the most amazing print quality or anything, but have some great writings in cheap, easy to own packages.

Really though, if you can spare it, spent the 15 bucks or whatever and pick up one of the many complete collections of Poe if you can.