The Gold-Bug

By: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrated by: Chris Lutkin

The grand-prize winner of a writing contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper, "The Gold-Bug" was one of Poe's most popular stories during his lifetime. Similar to his ratiocination tales - early versions of what we now call detective fiction - "The Gold-Bug" is full of mystery and adventure and includes a cryptogram, invisible ink, a scarab-like bug, and pirate treasure.

Public Domain (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Poe never disappoints.

Quick gothic mystery. It’s a shame this story is often overlooked due to dated language. At the time of its publication, it was one of the most widely read of his stories.

Poe

what an imagination ! I want to write with cryptography now. A lot of detail and some prejudices from a hundred years ago are relevant, if you can look past that it's a great short story

Another follow Poe title

What a fun story teller that saves the best for last. Narration brought the story to .life.this

It’s a great story

The narration was a bit lackluster IMO. The narrator sounds wooden and noncommittal to me. Fun to hear it again though, I haven’t read this story in many years.

Classic Poe

3.75 of 5 stars.

With the 19th century prose one expects from Poe, "The Gold-Bug" (1843) is an earlier example of Poe's writing which seems suited for a weekly publication. Centered around a treasure hunt using a cryptogram, "The Gold-Bug" one can see an earlier version of Poe's detective fiction (though not technically).

The narration is appropriate for Poe's dense prose and makes the story easier for the modern listener to follow.