This collection or Poe's work contains come of the most exciting and haunting stories ever written. They range from the poetic to the mysterious to the darkly comic, yet all possess the genius for the grotesque that defines Poe's writing. They are peopled with neurotics and social outcasts, obsessed with nameless terrors or preoccupied with seemingly insoluble mysteries. 'The Tell-Tale Heart' and 'The Fall of the House of Usher' are key works in the horror cannon, while in 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' and 'The Mystery of Marie Rogêt' we find the origins of modern detective fiction. Collectively, these tales represent the best of Edgar Allen Poe's prose work before his premature death in 1849. Table of contents: The Gold Bug The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar MS. Found in a Bottle A Descent into the Maelström The Murders in the Rue Morgue The Mystery of Marie Rogêt The Purloined Letter The Fall of the House of Usher The Pit and the Pendulum The Premature Burial The Black Cat The Masque of the Red Death The Case of Amontillado The Oval Portrait The Oblong Box The Tell-Tale Heart Ligeia Loss of Breath Shadow - A Parable Silence - A Fable The Man of the Crowd Some Words with a Mummy