HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.
'Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which gives direction to the character of Man.'
Including Poe's most terrifying, grotesque and haunting short stories, Tales of Mystery and Imagination is the ultimate collection of the infamous author's macabre works.
Considered to be one of the earliest American writers to encapsulate the genre of detective-fiction, the collection features some of his most popular tales.'The Gold-Bug' is the only tale that was popular in his lifetime, whereas 'The Black Cat', 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' became more widely read after his death.
Focussing on the internal conflict of individuals, the power of the dead over the living, and psychological explorations of darker human emotion that appear to anticipate Sigmund Freud's later theories on the psyche, Poe's Gothic terror stories are considered masterpieces the world over.
Edgar Allan Poe è nato a Boston (USA) nel 1809 da una famiglia di attori girovaghi. Non ebbe modo di conoscerli approfonditamente poiché la madre morì quando ancora era un infante e il padre, alcolizzato, abbandonò la famiglia subito dopo la morte della moglie. Il piccolo Edgar fu quindi allevato da un ricco mercante di Richmond di nome John Allan.
Anche Edgar Allan Poe era solito deliziarsi dell'uso di alcool e gioco d'azzardo, motivo per cui John Allan lo estromise dal testamento.