The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2

By: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrated by: Bernard Setaro Clark

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A collection of classic works by Edgar Allan Poe, American author, poet, editor, and literary critic. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

This volume includes "The Purloined Letter", "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade", "A Descent into the Maelstrom", "Von Kempelen and his Discovery", "Mesmeric Revelation", "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar", "The Black Cat", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Silence: A Fable", "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Imp of the Perverse", "The Island of the Fay", "The Assignation", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Premature Burial", "The Domain of Arnheim", "Landor's Cottage", and "William Wilson".

Public Domain (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

So Poe wrote some crap too, huh?

I love many of theses stories but the rest are pretty near I listenable. The narrator has one tone which doesn’t help. He also struggles through the French which is mildly annoying.

Boring in the extreme

I have no aversion to old prose or pre-modern style, but Poe is about as interesting a being kept alive on life support. I like an author who takes their time, good things and ideas are hard to develop, but Poe takes a life age to advance the story even a hair. He is all form, very little substance. Some people are inclined toward that, and for them maybe this could be excellent listening, but for me, and especially in an audio format, it’s tedious. I care more about the ideas and thoughts being conveyed.