Customer Reviews

The Portable Edgar Allan Poe (Portable Library)

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Of all the writers you were forced to read in High School, Poe may be the most contemporary. After all, where would today's Alternative Goth culture be without the influence of Poe.

In this volume, fans of the strange genius are given a rare treat. Editor Philip Van Doren Stern has collected not only the all-time greats (e.g. "The Tell-Tale Heart" "The Pit and the Pendulum" "The Raven" etc.), but also some eccentric choices like "The Man of the Crowd". In addition, the book gives several non-fiction articles and literary reviews written by Poe showing that he was not without a practical side.

But perhaps the most fascinating thing is a section of letters Poe wrote, to among other people, his stepfather, his wife, his mother-in-law, and various members of the literary community. These paint a colorful picture of his often desperate existence. After reading these letters, you may think Poe tragic, pathetic, pretentious or maybe even egotistical, but you wll never think of him in quite the same way you previously did.

Read this book for a fresh look at one of American literature's greatest geniuses.

Unless you're a collector or completist, this volume compiles all the Poe you could possibly ask for. All the classic stories are here, and you can clearly see how Poe broke new ground and influenced all creative fiction that came after him. While most people are wary of "classics" that everybody talks about, but nobody seems to really like, Poe's classics will give you a true appreciation for his genius. You will truly be enthralled by such well-known tales like "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (in which Poe invents the detective story), and especially the immortal "The Raven".

The editor has included many of the surviving letters that Poe wrote to the various women he unsuccessfully tried to court, and especially to his cruel stepfather, which provide great insight into Poe's inner demons. If you ever wonder why most of Poe's stories are based on death and/or madness, these letters will show you why. The only problem with this particular book is that it is a little too exhaustive, and includes many items that are more of historical interest than they are readable. This is true of most of the entries in the Articles, Criticism, and Opinions sections of the book.

This review is intended as a review of the book, not of the work of Edgar Allan Poe. As a Poe fan, I purchased this book just for the pure fun of reading Poe on my Kindle. However, the book is so poorly organized that finding a particular tale or poem is a real pain and takes a lot of the fun out of it. While there is a table of contents, the individual works are not list there; rather there are groupings of the works so you have to know (or guess) to which group the work you may be looking for belongs. Alas, there is also no index. This is an electronic book: I should be able to toggle down a table of contents to a particular work, select it, and be taken there, but it doesn't happen that way. Not recommended for Kindle readers!

This volume contains Poe's most important works. The books starts out with his letters, which are of historical interest and also contain some fine philosophizing. The stories, of which many are included, are grouped sensibly by genre or subject. What can I say of them? They are superb, the meat of his works, and all fascinating, whether lunatic (The Cask of Amontillado, for example) or coolly ratiocinative (the Dupin stories). Poe's mastery and manipulation of the human psyche is really extraordinary, and the quality of the prose, I need scarcely mention, is extremely high. His works are classics for a very good reason.

This book concludes with essays, articles, and poems. 'The Raven', of course, is most famous, but most of the other pieces are quite interesting. In particular, Poe's ability for expressing extremely abstract concepts and chains of reasoning, in his essays, is enviable. I finished this anthology awed, with that peculiar feeling, like that of static electricity, of having touched a man of genius -- a bit mad, yes, but a genius indeed.

This volume contains the essential Poe, the stories and poems for which he is most well- known.
Like all American schoolchildren I had to read Poe when I was quite young. And I remember how his tales did not provide the kind of pleasure and insight I had found in other literature. "The Gold Bug" confounded me , and "The Tell- Tale Heart" frightened me, and the truth is even in adult years I have never taken much delight in the reading of the fictions of Poe.
The horror of real life has always seemed to me more than enough, and I have never particularly enjoyed the mood and tone of Poe's fictions.
I must admit too that Poe always seemed to me even when reading him as a child , 'extremely weird' to use a children's word. And ' weird' not simply with the connotation of ' strange' but of 'frighteningly so'.
In any case there is a Poe that I have treasured. It might not be in the whole of the poem, but in the rhythmn of 'Nevermore' there did strike a kind of fascinating note. And there are in the poetry of Poe great lines, 'the beauty that was Greece, the glory that was Rome'. And a sadness and a feeling of tragedy in some of the love- poetry.
Poe is of course much else to most other readers than to me, and the lovers of mystery stories, and detectives, of fictional conundrums tending toward horror, and of strange obsessions with beauty that dies young, will find more than they ask for in this anthology.

if you want an overview of the work of poe this is the book!!! it has a comprehensive selection of his work and also criticism. a good way to get started knowing this strange, enigmatic writer. good price too.

As a middle school language arts teacher, I teach Poe. My young students, perhaps a bit trepidatious at first, end up loving him. It is always a thrill for me to see how they begin to understand and enjoy his work. Poe's language, characters, descriptions, and detail enthrall them.

I have always appreciated the fact that Poe was not interested in conveying any important "messages" in his work, which apparently was fashionable in the writings of his contemporaries. Instead, he simply wanted his readers to enjoy the act of reading. To Poe, the reader's aesthetic experience was most important. I think he succeeded brilliantly. I consistently find the experience of reading such melancholia, terror, blood, strife, and angst in Poe enjoyable and even beautiful. For this Poe deserves his place in the pantheon of the greatest American writers.

There are some excellent editions available, including those that boast his complete work. However, The Portable Edgar Allan Poe (Penguin Classics) is my favorite. It has all the essential poems and prose, with samples of his letters. Another wonderful edition, and the one from which I teach, is Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (Enriched Classics). Whether you are already a Poe fan or just approaching his work, you cannot go wrong with either edition. Enjoy!

The Portable Poe is worth buying simply because it contains a selection of Poe's letters. This latest edition fills in the some holes left by omissions in the previous version, by including such stories as The Imp of the Perverse, The Oblong Box, The System of Tarr and Fether, and Some Words with a Mummy; these stories for me anyway make it more comprehensive. Of course for a Poe fan I am sure some beloved stories are not included, but one can read this volume and have a pretty comprehensive view of Poe. On a minor note, I personally preferred the arrangement of the previous edition in terms of putting the letters first as opposed to last. Why this is? I cannot really say. The expansion of the Observations section is nice as well. Overall if you own a previous edition, no real need to buy this newest one, if you don't own the older one, get this one.

I've read about a dozen pieces so far for a gut-gripping course I'm enjoying. My favorite tale of enjoyable shivers (frisson?) was when I finished The Black Cat at midnight and then turned to the light by my bed and thought, you mean I have to turn it out after finishing that story?!? I may be in my 50s but that packed a wallop.
He's as good or better than you may remember.
The two detective stories I've read a pretty good but a bit long and labored. And I just started the critical articles with The Short Story (appropriately three pages long) and it was very good. He made his interesting point about as succinctly as could be done.
The biographical intro is interesting because the editor (and my teacher) are convinced that he wasn't the complete, miserable wretch that his literary executor made him out to be. He appeared to have trouble with shooting himself in his perverse foot, though. And, in my opinion, he could be a bit of a drama queen in his letters but a ghastly wretch? Well, maybe he wasn't as far gone as was supposed for a long time. (And that apparently is a story in itself.)
He's still another "don't miss" author that I've rediscovered.
Thank you, Mr. Poe...sleeplessness, notwithstanding.

All I can say is that this is a nice nearly complete compilation of his work. A must read in my educated opinion.