Unlock the more straightforward side of The Black Cat with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the author’s best-known short stories. It is told from the point of view of an unnamed narrator whose growing alcoholism leads him to believe that his once-beloved black cat has turned against him. Eventually, the narrator’s paranoia drives him to mutilate and kill the cat, after which he is consumed with guilt that only spurs him to commit even more terrible deeds... Edgar Allan Poe was an American short story writer, poet, critic, novelist and editor. He is best known for his stories of mystery and horror, which stand out for their chilling atmosphere and vivid, memorable characters. Find out everything you need to know about The Black Cat in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

A Study Guide for Edgar Alan Poe's "The Black Cat," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

Unlock the more straightforward side of The Murders in the Rue Morgue with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe, a short story about the brutal murder of a mother and daughter in their home in Paris. The police are stumped: they cannot find the murderer’s escape route, there are strange marks on one of the victim’s bodies, and the mother’s gold – the only apparent motive – is found untouched in the house. However, the involvement of Dupin, a mysterious Frenchman with an analytical mind, quickly changes things. The Murders in the Rue Morgue was published in 1841 and introduced many of the features which became standard in later detective books, such as those of Arthur Conan Doyle. Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th-century American writer who is considered to be the father of the detective genre. He was also one of the first American writers to make writing his main occupation. Find out everything you need to know about The Murders in the Rue Morgue in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Unlock the more straightforward side of The Purloined Letter with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe, which is the second short story in Poe’s Extraordinary Stories series. This unconventional detective story revolves around a letter which has been stolen from a member of the royal family and the desperate search to retrieve it. Poe is best known for his mysterious and macabre poetry and short stories, and is often credited with being the inventor of the detective fiction genre. His works were highly influential on literature and his name is still recognised around the world. Find out everything you need to know about The Purloined Letter in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you in your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Unlock the more straightforward side of The Imp of the Perverse with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Imp of the Perverse by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the author’s best-known short stories. The “Imp” of the title refers to human beings’ urge to do things simply because they know they should not, and in the case of the story’s mentally unstable narrator, this urge becomes uncontrollable, with shocking consequences. The story is a striking exploration of self-destructiveness, madness and our apparent inability to control our fates. Edgar Allan Poe was an American short story writer, poet, critic, novelist and editor. He is best known for his stories of mystery and horror, which stand out for their chilling atmosphere and vivid, memorable characters. Find out everything you need to know about The Imp of the Perverse in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Unlock the more straightforward side of The Gold-Bug with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe, a fast-paced short story about an amateur cryptographer who whisks his companions off on a hunt for buried treasure. It was first published as the winning entry in a writing contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper in 1843, and was one of Poe’s most popular short stories during his lifetime. It also contributed in no small measure to the contemporary cultural fascination with cryptography, and is credited as being the chief inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic adventure novel Treasure Island. Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer who is best known for his short stories, and is often credited as the inventor of detective fiction. Find out everything you need to know about The Gold-Bug in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Unlock the more straightforward side of Thérèse Raquin with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola, which tells the story of an unhappily married woman who, along with her lover, murders her husband. However, although they thought that this crime would allow them to be together, they are tormented by guilt and remorse, and sink into madness as the story progresses. When it was first published, Thérèse Raquin was controversial because of its depiction of immoral behaviour, and was even described as “putrid” by one reviewer. Nonetheless, it remains one of Zola’s most remarkable and memorable books and laid the foundations for the literary movement of naturalism, of which Zola was the leading figure. He was also an influential social thinker, and is now regarded as one of France’s greatest novelists. Find out everything you need to know about Thérèse Raquin in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize | Finalist for the 2022 Edgar Award Winner of the 2021 Quinn Award An innovative biography of Edgar Allan Poe—highlighting his fascination and feuds with science. Decade after decade, Edgar Allan Poe remains one of the most popular American writers. He is beloved around the world for his pioneering detective fiction, tales of horror, and haunting, atmospheric verse. But what if there was another side to the man who wrote “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”? In The Reason for the Darkness of the Night, John Tresch offers a bold new biography of a writer whose short, tortured life continues to fascinate. Shining a spotlight on an era when the lines separating entertainment, speculation, and scientific inquiry were blurred, Tresch reveals Poe’s obsession with science and lifelong ambition to advance and question human knowledge. Even as he composed dazzling works of fiction, he remained an avid and often combative commentator on new discoveries, publishing and hustling in literary scenes that also hosted the era’s most prominent scientists, semi-scientists, and pseudo-intellectual rogues. As one newspaper put it, “Mr. Poe is not merely a man of science—not merely a poet—not merely a man of letters. He is all combined; and perhaps he is something more.” Taking us through his early training in mathematics and engineering at West Point and the tumultuous years that followed, Tresch shows that Poe lived, thought, and suffered surrounded by science—and that many of his most renowned and imaginative works can best be understood in its company. He cast doubt on perceived certainties even as he hungered for knowledge, and at the end of his life delivered a mind-bending lecture on the origins of the universe that would win the admiration of twentieth-century physicists. Pursuing extraordinary conjectures and a unique aesthetic vision, he remained a figure of explosive contradiction: he gleefully exposed the hoaxes of the era’s scientific fraudsters even as he perpetrated hoaxes himself. Tracing Poe’s hard and brilliant journey, The Reason for the Darkness of the Night is an essential new portrait of a writer whose life is synonymous with mystery and imagination—and an entertaining, erudite tour of the world of American science just as it was beginning to come into its own.

This unique edition contains the best short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, collected in one volume. The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) Is a short story told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed. The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards. Fall of the House of Usher (1839) As in all of Poe's short stories, "The Fall of the House of Usher" concentrates on a "single effect", in this case, the degeneration and decay of the Usher house and family. The Cask of Amontillado (1846) The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year and is about the narrator's deadly revenge on a friend who, he believes, has insulted him. The narrative revolves around a person being buried alive—in this case, by immurement. The Pit and the Pendulum (1842) The short story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) It is told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed. The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards.

The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) is a short story told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed. The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards. Fall of the House of Usher (1839) As in all of Poe's short stories, "The Fall of the House of Usher" concentrates on a "single effect", in this case, the degeneration and decay of the Usher house and family. The Cask of Amontillado (1846) The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year and is about the narrator's deadly revenge on a friend who, he believes, has insulted him. The narrative revolves around a person being buried alive—in this case, by immurement. The Pit and the Pendulum (1842) The short story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) It is told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed. The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards. Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.