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Cinco Contos Extraordinários de Edgar Alan Poe_ Extraordinary Tales

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Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" (Abridged & Animated)

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The following brief summaries are designed to quickly give readers an idea of what each story is about. Find something of interest then take a trip into Poe's imagination...

Summaries are listed in alphabetical order:

Comedy about being drunk

Yes, Poe actually wrote a few comedies. Of course, he had a weird sense of humor. In this story, the narrator meets a strange little character and they go off to have adventures. When reading the broken dialog in this story, it helps if you pretend to read it like a drunk person.
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Newspaper story about balloon travel

This story appeared in the New York Sun in 1844 and claimed to have details about a group of men that successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a new type of balloon. Although it looked like a real story, it was completely ficticious, created entirely from Poe's imagination.
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Horror story about teeth
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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. Quite a horrific tale.
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A story of revenge
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Man vs. Nature, Adventure Story
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A love story

A beautiful love story. In many ways, it parallels Poe's life and his love for his wife, Virginia. The question is, who does the person at the end of the story represent?
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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.
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An old house and its secrets
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A search for pirate treasure

If Poe lived today, he could have been a hacker! 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. Using Poe's technique, you can actually solve cryptograms and substitution ciphers! Besides being a great "Sherlock Holmes" type adventure story, it gives an insight into Poe's intelligence.
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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? This is that story. And it was written almost 200 years before Game of Thrones
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Procrastination and confession

A great little 5 page story about human nature. The narrator talks about how we can stand on the edge of a cliff, knowing it will be suicide to jump off, yet we wonder what it would be like. There is also a great paragraph about procrastination. Poe's character in this story is a murderer who is fighting the urge to confess his crime.
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A poetic discussion

Another very short piece that isn't really a story but a discussion about music, the nature of God and the universe, and finally, a beautiful and poetic visualization of life and death. "Fay" means fairy, or elf.
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A haunting supernatural tale

Probably my favorite Poe story. 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...

Wait for a rainy night, turn off all the lights and light some candles before you read this story. Poe does such a great job of describing the surroundings in this story, you can easily place yourself there.
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How to follow someone

A man is sitting in a coffee shop, watching all of the different kinds of people moving through the streets. A particluar old man catches his attention and he decides to follow him to learn more about him...

This story really makes you think. Its a story that you'll want to read several times.
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Adventure at sea

This was the first story Poe received any money for. He entered it in a short story contest and won the prize. The narrator of the story is a passenger on a sailing ship. After several days at sea, they encounter a violent storm. The ship is being torn to pieces by the wind and the waves...
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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?
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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.
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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 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."
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A detective story

Poe's French detective Dupin helps solve another murder. But this time, Poe's tale is based on a REAL murder that took place in the New York area in 1841. Poe changed the names and moved the location to Paris but the details, characters, and quotes from the various publications are all real.
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A comedy with a moral

A short comedy, only a few pages long. The first part is a narrative about stories that do not have morals. You almost wonder if Poe is talking about himself. The narrator describes his friend Toby Dammit whose favorite phrase is, "I'll bet the Devil my head!" As the story continues, the narrator and his friend Dammit are out for a walk in the country. They come to an old covered bridge and as they are crossing it, a strange little man appears...
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What's in the box??

An artist boards a ship with his new bride, his two sisters, and a mysterious box. The narrator tries his best to figure out what's in the box.
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A tragic love story

A painter is so obsessed with painting the perfect portrait of his beautiful wife, that he does nothing else until it is finished. As an artist myself, I can relate to this story in more ways than one. It is very short, only a couple of pages, but definitely worth reading.
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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?

Did you know the Spanish Inquisition ended during Poe's lifetime? We tend to think it happened in the Middle Ages, but torturing people because they wouldn't convert to Christianity officially ended in 1834, when Poe was 25 years old.
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About being buried alive
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A detective story

Purloined simply means stolen. A document of national importance has been stolen and the police can't find it or prove who stole it. Poe's character, C. Auguste Dupin, comes to the rescue, solves the crime and recovers the letter. It's great to read how the police go through all of their usual methods and are unsuccessful. Dupin comes along and figures it all out using the powers of deduction as his only weapon. Its like "CSI: Edgar Allan Poe".
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A dream

A short piece, only a couple of pages long, it is more like a dream than a story with real characters. It is full of symbolism and rich imagery. Very deep, very intense. I'd like to know what Poe was thinking when he wrote this. Was he trippin? Maybe he had been drinking Absinthe?
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A mummy speaks

An ancient egyptian mummy comes to life, but not to chase anyone around a tomb. This is a science fiction story, not a tale of horror. If you look carefully, you'll find a little sarcastic humor here and there. The mummy has a story of his own to tell, and its quite an interesting one, to say the least. Another example of Poe's fantastic imagination.
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A great little comedy about love at first sight

This is another of Poe's few comedies but it's a great one. The narrator of the story is a young man who is in love with an aristocratic woman. The story is about his pursuit of her and ends with a surprise.
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Inside an insane asylum

This is not a horror story. It's a strange and surprising little tale about a visit to an insane asylum. The narrator, traveling through the french countryside, decides to stop at a well known private "mad house". He has heard from his medical friends in Paris that this hospital uses a new technique to care for its patients. The cast of characters that Poe invents for this story is wonderful.
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A murderer's guilt
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Identical twins or something else?

The narrator of this story, who calls himself William Wilson, describes the events of his early life in school and the rivalry between himself and another person named William Wilson. As the story progresses, we learn of many similarities between the two Wilsons. Are they twin brothers? or something else?
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Brief Summaries of stories by Edgar Allan Poe

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The following brief summaries are designed to quickly give readers an idea of what each story is about. Find something of interest then take a trip into Poe's imagination... Summaries are listed in alphabetical order: Yes, Poe actually wrote a few comedies. Of course, he had a weird sense of humor.

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by Robert Giordano

This site contains short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe (Edgar Allen Poe is a common misspelling), story summaries, quotes, and linked vocabulary words and definitions for educational reading. It also includes a short biography, a timeline of Poe's life, and links to other Poe sites.

Most people recognize Poe by his famous poem,"The Raven". Others may have read one of his more popular dark and creepy tales like,"The Fall of the House of Usher" or "The Tell-tale Heart". Poe wrote quite a few gothic stories about murder, revenge, torture, the plague, being buried alive, and insanity. Many modern books and movies have "borrowed" ideas from Poe. Some of Poe's stories were not well accepted in his day because people were just not ready for them- they were too scary.

Many people don't know that Edgar Allan Poe also wrote stories about adventure on the high seas, buried pirate treasure, and a famous balloon ride. Poe invented the detective story with tales like"Murders in the Rue Morgue" and"The Purloined Letter". Sherlock Holmes and other fictional detectives would later be based on the characters that Poe created. Poe wrote love stories and even a few strange little comedies. He attempted to explain the composition of the universe in a way that sounds a little like quantum physics. Explore this site and you'll see why I think Edgar Allan Poe deserves to be recognized as one of the most original, imaginative, and ingenious authors of our society.

Summaries

Poe wrote many stories on many different topics. If you don't know where to start, you can browse short summaries of Edgar Allan Poe stories, so you can find something that interests you. Don't worry, I don't give away the endings!!

Wordlist

This site makes it easy for you read Poe's stories. Poe knew several languages and had quite a large vocabulary. Poe's works are not hard to read but sometimes he uses obscure words or references that the average user may not know. Because of this, I've created an ever growing wordlist containing many of these words and their definitions. When a word in the wordlist appears in any story, it becomes hyperlinked to its definition.

Gallery

In the Gallery, you'll find a large collection of Edgar Allan Poe portraits and daguerreotypes. Learn the details behind each of Poe's commonly recognized portraits.

In the Poe Artwork section, browse a constantly updated selection of art from current artists who were inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, his poetry, and prose. Artists who have created paintings, drawings, or illustrations based on Poe or his works, are invited to contact me about featuring your work on this site.

The Gallery also features photography from various trips to Edgar Allan Poe historic sites, like the ones in Richmond and Baltimore.

About this Site

Poestories.com was originally built by Robert Giordano in 2005 using 100% standards compliant HTML and CSS, written from scratch. In 2019, Robert updated all of the code to an HTML5 "Responsive" layout for phones and mobile devices. This site should work equally well in old browsers from 10 years ago, all the way up to the latest Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge browsers. The site even works in Internet Explorer but why would you do that? Finally it means this site is fully functional with all styles turned off and is accessible to people with disabilities.

Enjoy your visit and don't forget to sign the guestbook.

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Edgar Allan Poe, short stories, tales, and poems

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by Robert Giordano This site contains short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe (Edgar Allen Poe is a common misspelling), story summaries, quotes, and linked vocabulary words and definitions for educational reading. It also includes a short biography, a timeline of Poe's life, and links to other Poe sites.

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Characteristics

Length: Short stories typically range from 1,600 to 20,000 words.

Although authors and critics have debated the length of the short story throughout literary history, most agree on a minimum of 1,600 and a maximum of 20,000 words. In his own contribution to the debate, Edgar Allen Poe suggested that a short story should take 30 minutes to two hours to read.

Subject: Short stories usually focus on a single subject or theme.

Subjects or themes may range from something as mundane as a daily errand or as thrilling as a ghost tale. A single, easily contained plot is one of the hallmarks of the short story and helps shape its other characteristics.

'In medias res': Short stories usually take place in a single setting and begin 'in medias res', which means 'into the middle of things' in Latin.

In general, short stories tend to begin and end abruptly, with little to no prior information and no major lapses in time. As they involve just one plotline and are limited in word length, there is little room or need for the extended developments we frequently find in novels.

A limited number of characters: Due to the limitations of the genre, short stories typically focus on just one or a couple of characters.

As short stories usually cover such brief periods of time, even a single character may never be fully developed.
However, historical examples, like some of Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales,' may find interesting ways of involving many different people.

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PPT