“Ten Great Mysteries” (c. 1840s) are ten mysteries written by Edgar Allan Poe. It placed seventh in this blog’s poll of the top ten desert island books.
The ten mysteries are:
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue
- The Purloined Letter
- The Tell-Tale Heart
- The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
- The Pit and the Pendulum
- A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
- A Descent into the Maelstrom
- The Black Cat
- Thou Art the Man
- Metzengenstein
Some of these are mysteries in the Sherlock Holmes, detective story sense. In fact, Poe is seen as the founder of that genre of writing. But others are just horror stories, the kind Poe is famous for.
Poe often wrote about death, what it is like to die, the process of dying, etc. People in his day loved to read that stuff. I do not. It is just too creepy and strange for my tastes.
In “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”, for example, a man is hypnotized while dying. He gets stuck between life and death for several months: he has stopped breathing, his body is stiff and no longer moves, and yet his body does not waste away and he can still talk, however slowly, saying that he is dead. Not my cup of tea.
Some of Poe’s writing is good, but some of it is over-written. It is not just me: Mark Twain thought so too. Aldous Huxley said it is like putting a diamond ring on each finger.
It is a good thing I read him on a Kindle: that made it easy to look up his now out-of-date medical terms. I had no idea that “hectic” and “mesmerized” were once medical terms. “Thrill” also had a different meaning back then: a thrill could be good, bad or indifferent.
The best thing about Poe is that he does not unthinkingly follow the herd. He thinks for himself. He is intelligent, seems to be up on the latest science of his time and can follow ideas to their bitter end. That is what makes his detective stories good. He would have been a great writer for “The Twilight Zone”.
An example of his detective stories is “The Purloined Letter”, set in France: The queen is having a secret love affair but then is blackmailed by a government minister who gets a hold of one of her love letters. The police tear his place apart looking for the letter but find nothing. They have robbers beat him up and take everything on his person. Still nothing. All of which tells M. Dupin, Poe’s amateur detective, just how to find it….
Of these stories the two most famous are “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”. They certainly stick in your mind – so much so that I knew how each would end from having heard them years ago as a child.
See also:
With all due respect, I don’t really care what Twain or Huxley or anybody else thinks. 😀 What I’m saying is, over-written stuff might seem camp, but it all depends on your story. The minimalistic style that you love, Abagond, is just one of the way to write, and might not suit all types of stories, or atmosphere you want to achieve.
That being said, I really love Poe’s poems. But yes, many of his stories are quite creepy.
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I used to go to the local library every Saturday when I was a child for the weekly entertainment provided – movies on a reel-to-reel projector, free popcorn, and readings by a library employee between films. There were also record turntables set up so anyone could listen to “books on record” or the “Let’s Pretend” tales; Grimm’s Fairy Tales and other folklore.
I was 6 when I picked up the Poe selection to listen to, and found The Tell-Tale Heart fascinating – I was riveted by the sound effects of the heartbeat, and almost fell over when the guy screamed, “Here – under the floorboards! It’s the beating of that hideous heart!”
I also enjoyed The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and of course, The Raven is my favorite… 😎
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My favorite writting from Poe has always been “The Raven.”
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I’m sorry; I meant to say ‘poem’.
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@brothawolf
‘Poem’ or ‘writing’ works either way… 😉
The Pit & The Pendulum is a good story, too – but, not as suspenseful as us ‘modern’ types are used to, I’d wager…
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Here are some immortal words ,that befits a disciple of Christ…
“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr
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Eddie: That quotation has been passed around a lot this week. All of the thoughts are wonderful, but not all of it is vintage Dr. King:
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mlk/rejoice.asp
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Love Edgar Allen Poe. I don’t particularly get off on his fixation with death, but his style of writing is one that I quite enjoy. Like Nabokov’s “Lolita” turned my stomach on many occasions, to the point of having to put the book down and watch cartoons or something, but the way he wrote caused me to want to read more. I hold Poe in that same respect.
I just finished up a lit studies class and it was suggested that we view Poe’s story through an ecocritical or “green” eye. Try reading his stuff for reasons other than plot and turn the focus to other things (like the death of the landscape in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the way it gives every indication of stagnant life and other ecological hints throughout the story).
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HATE when I misspell or mistype something so simple LOL
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Edgar Allan Poe has been speculated to be a pedophile. He married his 13-year-old cousin.
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@ serpentus
Is that fact supposed to be shocking or surprising? Most people who have read Poe are aware of his eccentricities, much like people who know about Vincent van Gogh know about his obsessive personality and how he cut off his own ear. FWIW, Jerry Lee Lewis had a thing for his own cousin, too.
Ever heard the term ‘artistic temperament’? Look it up sometime – but look it up in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the library. NOT on the computer, but the big, old, dusty tome. Screw Wikipedia.
Let me know what you find out, young Jedi!
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serpantus,
Marrying someone that young was pretty common during that time and until recently brides of 14 were legal in some states.
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Yup, Poe was just a man of his times. Just like Hitler was a man of his times, and Thomas Jefferson was a man of his times.
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@sepultura
I don’t know why you’re lashing out at me. I was just stating a fact. Sheesh! It appears that telling the truth is a no-no if you’re a world-famous writer.
P.S. I know more about Poe than you think. I’ve read almost all of his works, researched his life, and even did an 8-page paper on him. So, please don’t go around dismissing people just because you didn’t like the fact that I was stating facts.
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serpentus,
Face it, marrying your teenage cousin was hardly something shocking at the time. A teen was considered an adult. Tomorrow they could say you’re a child till you’re 30 so many of us will end up being pedophiles.
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I thought a person was an adult until 21 in 19th century America. Frederick Douglas noted in his autobiography that the white boys would be able to do anything they wanted when they turned 21 while he [Frederick Douglas] would still be a slave.
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The point is, the idea of adolescence is fairly new. You were a child, then an adult. Historically, a girl could easily marry as soon as she is physically mature (which was around 13, 14 years of age). Many brides in history got married at that age.
I have no idea about the laws in 19tth century, so I don’t know if what Poe did was illegal. But since the concept of adolescence didn’t exist in his time, the context of him marrying a 13 year old girl is sure different than somebody who’d do that today.
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I enjoyed the horror movie ‘The Raven’ which was an adaptation of Poe’s poem by that name. It had legends like Vincent Price & one of the first appearances by Jack Nicholson. I haven’t read Poe’s work though.
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Rue Morgue is yes, I don’t get too much into the other stuff.
And in eyes our the guy might be a pedophile, but so was Muhammed with his 9-year old bride. On the other hand, it is good to remember that in the old days families many times wed their children at very early age but the union was not consumated untill much later. Many future queens were married off around the age of ten in the past but I seriously doubt how many got straight into the bed. They still practice this in some parts of India where two families join their lines by marrying two kids despite of their age.
In the old welsh law (before the church changed everything) stated that a girl was an adult at the age of 12 and could freely choose didi she want to “sit at the table of her father” or did she wanted to get out. At that age she was also the sole custodian of her own propety, life etc. In this old law women were indeed equal with the men and both sexes were responsible for kids etc. And this was in the 6th century, before the church got ot changed so that the father is the boss in families. Boys were traditionally considered men at the age of 14.
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So… does his fixation with a 13 year-old girl have any influence over his writing, or has the topic of this thread officially turned to what constitutes pedophilia?
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Well, the guy was pretty weird anyways. Perhaps he was a pedophile? I do not know. But Rue Morgue is the one for me, the others did not exite me that much.
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I’m really glad we share the same birthday. His eccentricity makes him a badass.
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I was wondering if you could tell me where the Poe collage with the raven on it is from. I would like to use that image. Thanks.
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