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The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection  By  cover art

The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection

By: Edgar Allan Poe
Narrated by: Vincent Price,Basil Rathbone
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Publisher's summary

Universally acclaimed as the maestro of horror and the morbid, Edgar Allan Poe's dark gift has for more than a century and a half set the standard for the genre. Here, 20 of Poe's most chilling stories and poems are performed by two of his most brilliant interpreters: Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone. Included are The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, Bells, The Gold Bug, and many more!
©2000 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved. (P)2000 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Critic reviews

2000 Winner of Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award: Archival Reissue

"Superb renderings...[Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone] know this material well...and know how to make it chill the listener. It's a romp for them and a delight for us." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    318
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent performance, poor formatting.

As mentioned by other reviewers: a. Price and Rathbone provide a masterful performance here, and b. the formatting is bad enough to render the recording almost unusable, especially to those not already intimately familiar with the works of Poe. I have little to add by way of review, but I took the time to create a table of contents that I hope will be of assistance to other listeners.

1.) 0:10 - 2:03 To -----
2.) 2:03 - 3:10 Alone
3.) 3:15 - 6:23 The City in the Sea
4.) 6:28 - 31:20 Berenice
5.) 31:25 - 55:28 The Fall of the House of Usher *
6.) 55:30 - 1:44:27 Ligeia
7.) 1:44:30 - 1:46:49 excerpt from The Fall of the House of Usher
8.) 1:46:55 - 2:18:43 The Pit and the Pendulum
9.) 2:18:46 - 2:35:27 The Masque of the Red Death
10.) 2:35:33 - 2:49:37 The Tell-Tale Heart
11.) 2:49:40 - 3:45:27 The Gold Bug
12.) 3:45:30 - 4:12:19 The Black Cat
13.) 4:12:25 - 4:20:58 The Raven
14.) 4:21:03 - 4:38:00 The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
15.) 4:38:01 - 4:54:07 The Cask of Amontillado
16.) 4:54:13 - 4:58:23 The Bells
17.) 4:58:28 - 5:00:35 Annabel Lee
18.) 5:00:40 - 5:01:19 Eldorado
19.) 5:01:25 - 5:16:00 The Imp of the Perverse
20.) 5:16:06 - 5:31:22 Morella

*Selection #5, "The Fall of the House of Usher" skips a section of verse (marked as I-VI in the text), along with approximately one page on either side of this section. The skip occurs at 40:57. Selection #7 is of the missing verse (I-VI), though without the other material excluded from #5. Selection #5 has additional abridgments - a paragraph here, a sentence or a word there. I have not found any further abridgments in the other selections; if you find any, please post the information in a review.

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315 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

what should be a labor of love ..

... has some abridgements and is impossible to navigate without tom's table of contents.

i will reproduce it here with many thanks to it's creator (see tom in another review):

1.) 0:10 - 2:03 To -----
2.) 2:03 - 3:10 Alone
3.) 3:15 - 6:23 The City in the Sea
4.) 6:28 - 31:20 Berenice
5.) 31:25 - 55:28 The Fall of the House of Usher *
6.) 55:30 - 1:44:27 Ligeia
7.) 1:44:30 - 1:46:49 excerpt from The Fall of the House of Usher
8.) 1:46:55 - 2:18:43 The Pit and the Pendulum
9.) 2:18:46 - 2:35:27 The Masque of the Red Death
10.) 2:35:33 - 2:49:37 The Tell-Tale Heart
11.) 2:49:40 - 3:45:27 The Gold Bug
12.) 3:45:30 - 4:12:19 The Black Cat
13.) 4:12:25 - 4:20:58 The Raven
14.) 4:21:03 - 4:38:00 The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
15.) 4:38:01 - 4:54:07 The Cask of Amontillado
16.) 4:54:13 - 4:58:23 The Bells
17.) 4:58:28 - 5:00:35 Annabel Lee
18.) 5:00:40 - 5:01:19 Eldorado
19.) 5:01:25 - 5:16:00 The Imp of the Perverse
20.) 5:16:06 - 5:31:22 Morella

i know it is a gargantuan task for audible to provide all of this material, so i forgive them their small problems.

that said, the narration is terrific and if you go to sleep with this, your nightmares will be of the most wonderful kind.

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44 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • DW
  • 11-29-07

No Titles or Introductions and ABRIDGED

Although the reading is performed in an exceptional manner, this collection is best suited for one very familiar with Poe's works. Many selections are less popular short stories. None have introductions or even a pause between the current and previous selection. You may require a text of the entire collected works of Poe on your lap while listening to understand what short story is read. Also, some (Fall of the House of Usher and others) are abridged. Tales of Terror narrated by Foreman may be a better choice.

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent to listen to, but not

The combination of voice with the macabre writings of Edgar Allan Poe are certainly a perfect combination; however, as previously noted, there are no titles prior to each narration. Also - and more importantly - for readers of Edgar Poe, this narration is NOT unabridged. Entire paragraphs are left out. It's still fantastic to listen to, but don't be deceived, it is an abridged version of many of the tales.

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30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great reading, poor

As previously stated, the reading is superb, but as a person who has never encountered more of Poe than the well known, "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore'", I would have appreciated a clearer "packaging". There are no titles or significant story dividers. The narrator simply starts at the beginning and continues on. While listening, one can usually figure out where each story ends and another begins, but, if you're not familiar with the Poe material (like myself), you won't know which story you're listening to. Still worth it, but could be better.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Poe and Price--the Perfect Couple

This is a case of perfect reader meeting a perfect text. If you like Poe, even if you have different recordings of his work, get this one! You'll appreciate the chilling and macabre TONE that the readers add to Poe's already creepy stories. My favorite: Imp of the Perverse.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Superior Poe!

There are many recordings of Poe's work -- ranging from the bland to the wildly overheated. This is the best, without paralell. Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price bring authority, wit and sensitivity to the tales and poems. These performers are not afraid to relish the juicy melodrama and they have the vocal equipment and training to make the language soar. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Oh, and by the way, the tales themselves are still scary, disturbing and haunting after all these years.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

ok

Classic narration for sure. Unfortunately the audio needs to be cleaned up, and edited so the listener can skip from story to story. As it is, one must fast-forward to move past a poem or story.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Table of contents?????

Poe is great but you never know what you're listening to in this collection because there is no table of contents and the chapters have no titles. Very frustrating.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The Definitive Audio Poe Collection

Would you listen to The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection again? Why?

I would listen to this book again because it was very well performed and I've always found that listening to Poe better than reading the printed work.

What did you like best about this story?

My favorite story by Poe is "Fall of the House of Usher" and Rathbone does a great job bringing the stories to life.

What about Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone ’s performance did you like?

They read the stories at a rate of speed that made it possible for Poe's rather odd style and vocabulary to be better understood.

If you could take any character from The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I would take the poor tormented soul from "The Raven" out to dinner to help him cope with the loss of fair Lenore.

Any additional comments?

The problem with this book is the lack of titles at the beginning of the stories and poems. The publisher should add a narrator to state the title of each segment so that the listener knows what story or poem is being performed--perhaps with some creepy background music to set the mood. The audio quality could also be improved.

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4 people found this helpful