Description: Esteemed as a literary critic and poet, Edgar Allan Poe was most highly acclaimed for his tales and sketches. He transformed the short story from anecdote to art, virtually created the detective story, and perfected the psychological thriller. This volume is the second of two, edited by the consummate Poe scholar Thomas Ollive Mabbott, collecting all the tales of this master of the uncanny, the unnerving, and the terrifying. Poe's stories reflect his professed method of ''writing as if the author were firmly impressed with the truth, yet astonished at the immensity of the wonders he related.'' Marrying grotesque inventiveness with superb plot construction, Poe's strikingly original tales often use only one main character and one main incident. In many of them, horror and suspense, revenge and torture, are laced with hilarious satire. Each volume is enriched with Mabbott's detailed and authoritative notes on sources, the history and collation of all known texts authorized by Poe, and variants of Poe's ''final'' version. Volume 2 contains stories written between 1843 and Poe's death, including ''The Tell-Tale Heart,'' ''The Purloined Letter,'' and ''The Cask of Amontillado.'' Promising spine-tingling delights and sleepless nights, this annotated edition of Tales and Sketches is a treasure trove for scholars and general readers alike, confirming Poe's status as one of literary art's ''most brilliant but erratic stars.''

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