This document provides an overview of Edgar Allan Poe's life and works. It summarizes that Poe was a 19th century American author known for his dark poems and stories involving horror, mystery and the macabre. It then briefly describes some of Poe's most famous works, including The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum and The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The document also notes that Poe is considered the originator of detective fiction and influenced modern literature with his innovative style.

2. A Night of Horror
and Learning with
Southern Bicol Colleges
College of Education
SPEECH AND STAGE ARTS CLASS
presents…

4. Experience
the
Horror

5. The Tragic and
Mysterious World
of Edgar Allan Poe

6. 1. The Life of Edgar Allan Poe
2. The Cask of Amontillado: An
Analysis
3. The Raven: An Analysis
4. Edgar Allan Poe’s Style
Overview

8. “The story of Edgar
Allan Poe is one of
the great tragedies
of literature.”
-David Sinclaire

9. A Life of Tragedy
and Mystery

10. Edgar Allan Poe

11. Edgar Allan Poe born in Boston on January 19, 1809
Brother to Rosalie and William Henry
Son to Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe
After the death of his father, they moved from his home in
Boston, Massachusetts to their new home in Richmond,
Virginia where his mother worked for their living.
After the death of his mother, Poe being three years
old at the time, was taken in by Frances and John
Allan.

12. Poe then moved to England with his new family and
attended school in Chelsea before returning to Virginia to
attend university. But after his first term, he quarreled
with John Allan and impulsively ran away. He enlisted in
the Army. Approximately one year after is discharged
from the army.
Then suddenly Poe received word from John Allan
that his beloved foster mother had died.
1827: First book of Poetry published.
Tamerlane and other Poems
Then in 1831 Poe moved to
Baltimore to live with his aunt, Maria
Clemm. In 1833 some of his poetry
was published in the Baltimore
Saturday Visitor and won a contest
with his poetry.
Soon after, 1835, Poe became the
editor of the Southern Literary
Messenger. This was where he was
first recognized as a respected writer.

13. After beginning his career, Poe marries Virginia
Clemm (in 1836) his fourteen year old cousin. They
moved to New York together, where Poe continued
writing poetry and short stories and in doing so
broadened his fan base.
In 1847 Virginia died of an infectious
disease also known as pulmonary
tuberculosis. Poe became a wreck
emotionally, physically, and mentally.
1849 Poe began a tour to promote his poetry and short stories with the hope of
raising enough money to begin a magazine. Not soon after on October 7 of 1949
Edgar Allan Poe died. It was as mysterious as it was tragic. He was found
semiconscious, wandering around a polling place in Baltimore. After four days in
hospital where he never gained consciousness, he died. There are many theories
explaining the caused of his death, but one thing is for certain, his death is a
mystery for no one knows the true cause.

14. Edgar Allan Poe, a dark, spiritual and influential poet of the 1800’s
Poe’s poetry and stories were dark and enchanting. In his work he incorporated
elements of horror and mystery to create intriguing and imaginative reading. Poe
is said to have been the originator of detective stories and with dominant themes
of mystery and despair his poetry was innovative and creative.
He influenced modern society by showing people the dark side of things and
not being afraid to write about it. Instead of writing what people want to hear
about themselves and the world around them, Poe wrote about the dark truth
and possibly the things people didn’t want to come to realization with.
Deep into that
darkness peering,
long I stood there,
wondering, fearing,
doubting, dreaming
dreams no mortal

15. Quoth the Raven,
Nevermore

16. Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe

17. “Poe has grotesque inventiveness” (Reckley)
Graphic descriptions and morbid wording fortify
psychological effects
The theme prevalent in Poe’s Fiction is
DEATH

18. "Berenice"
Horror story about teeth
"There came a light tap at the library
door, and pale as the tenant of a
tomb, a menial entered upon tiptoe.
His looks were wild with terror, and he
spoke to me in a voice tremulous,
husky, and very low..."

19. "Berenice"

20. "The Black Cat"
Horror story about a cat.
A drunk man kills his cat
and it comes back to
haunt him. In Poe's usual
style, the narrator of the
story is the killer and we
see things through his
eyes.

21. One day,
descending into
the cellar of the
building with his
wife, the narrator
almost trips over
the cat. Enraged,
the narrator grabs
an axe to attack
the cat, but his
wife defends the
animal. Further
angered by this
interference, the
narrator turns his
rage at his wife
and buries the
axe in her head.

22. "The Black Cat"

23. "A Descent Into The
Maelström"
Man vs. Nature, Adventure Story
Three fisherman are at sea, off the coast of
Norway. They encounter a hurricane and
must fight for their lives while trying to avoid
the Maelström, a huge whirlpool that sucks
down anything in its path. Can these men
survive the hurricane and escape the force of
the Maelström?
"A singular change, too, had come over the
heavens. Around in every direction it was still
as black as pitch, but nearly overhead there
burst out, all at once, a circular rift of clear
sky — as clear as I ever saw — and of a
deep bright blue — and through it there
blazed forth the full moon with a lustre that I
never before knew her to wear. She lit up
every thing about us with the greatest
distinctness — but, oh God, what a scene it
was to light up !"

24. "A Descent Into
The Maelström"

25. "Eleonora"
A love story
A beautiful love
story.

26. "Eleonora"

27. "The Facts in the
Case of M. Valdemar"
Talking with a dead man
A man dying from
tuberculosis asks his friend,
the narrator of the story, to
hypnotize him just before
death. The event is
witnessed by two doctors
and a medical student. The
results are interesting to
say the least.

28. "The Facts in the
Case of M. Valdemar"

29. "The Fall of the
House of Usher"
An old house and its secrets
One of the most widely read of
Poe's stories. The narrator receives
a desperate letter from a "boyhood
friend" requesting that he come to
see him. The friend, a mister
Roderick Usher, lives in a very old
mansion out near a swamp. Once
inside, the narrator finds more than
he expected. A classic story of a
creepy guy living in a haunted
house.
"The room in which I found myself
was very large and lofty. The
windows were long, narrow, and
pointed, and at so vast a distance
from the black oaken floor as to be
altogether inaccessible from within."

30. "The Fall of the
House of Usher"

31. The Gold Bug"
A search for pirate treasure.
In this story, two friends and a
servant go on a hunt for the
fabled buried treasure of Captain
Kidd. Through his character
named William Legrand, Poe
explains how to decode an
encrypted message. With Poe's
technique, you could actually
hack certain encrypyed
messages! Besides being a great
"Sherlock Holmes" type
adventure story, it gives an
insight into Poe's intelligence.

32. The Gold Bug"

33. "Hop-Frog"
A midget seeks
revenge.
Are you looking for a
short story about a
crippled midget who
seeks revenge on
those who mistreat
him and make fun of
him? Well, this is that
story.

34. "Hop-Frog"

35. "The Tell-Tale Heart"
A murderer's guilt
The narrator of this story tells you
his "perfect" plan to kill an old
man, then takes you through the
process of doing it. He might get
away with it too except he starts
hearing things...
"I kept quite still and said nothing.
For a whole hour I did not move a
muscle, and in the meantime I did
not hear him lie down. He was still
sitting up in the bed listening; —
just as I have done, night after
night, hearkening to the death
watches in the wall."

36. "The Tell-Tale
Heart"

37. "The Premature
Burial"
About being buried alive
It's definitely a scary story. Poe makes
you feel like you are there. Read this
story carefully because there is also an
important lesson to be learned.
"It may be asserted, without hesitation,
that no event is so terribly well adapted
to inspire the oppression of the lungs-
the stifsupremeness of bodily and of
mental distress, as is burial before
death. The unendurable ling fumes
from the damp earth–the clinging to the
death garments–the rigid embrace of
the narrow house–the blackness of the
absolute Night–the silence like a sea
that overwhelms..."

38. "The Premature
Burial"

39. "The Pit and the
Pendulum"
A torture chamber
Another of Poe's more
popular works. It's the story
of a man's attempt to survive
in a torture chamber during
the Spanish Inquisition, one
of the most deadly
inquisitions in history. This
isn't really a horror story. It's
more of a suspenseful
thriller. If you had been
sentenced to death in a
torture chamber, what would
you do? and what's in the
Pit?

40. "The Pit and the
Pendulum"

41. "The Murders in the
Rue Morgue"
A detective story
Poe invented the detective story with
this tale. The main character is C.
Auguste Dupin, a sleuth that solves
crimes by deduction. Two women
have been brutally murdered and it
appears that there was no way in or
out of the room where the murders
took place. How does Dupin figure it
out? Who killed the women? (They
didn't kill each other)
A reporter asked Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle in 1894 if he had been
influenced by the work of Edgar Allan
Poe. The creator of Sherlock Holmes
replied, "Oh, immensely! His
detective is the best detective in
fiction."

42. "The Murders in
the Rue
Morgue"

43. "The Masque of the
Red Death"
The horror of the plague
The "Red Death" is a
plague which has killed off
half of the population.
Prince Prospero gathers a
thousand people from the
knights and royalty. They
seal themselves off from
the rest of the world in an
extensive castle, in an
attempt to separate
themselves from the
horrible conditions on the
outside. But, can they
escape the Red Death?

44. "The Masque of the
Red Death"

45. "Mesmeric Revelation"
Conversation with a
hypnotized dying
man.
After hypnotizing a
dying patient, a doctor
has a remarkable
conversation with him
about the nature of the
universe, spirits, and
God.

46. "Ligeia"
A haunting supernatural tale
The narrator of the story
describes his beautiful wife,
Ligeia. She was tall and slender
with pale skin and long black
hair. She dies and he is
heartbroken. Some time later he
decides to move on with his life
and he remarries. Strange things
start to happen as the narrator
thinks more and more about his
first love, Ligeia...

47. "Ligeia"