Works of Edgar Allan Poe Read online

  Works of Edgar Allan Poe

  Эдгар Аллан По

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  List of Works by Genre and Title

  List of Works in Alphabetical Order

  Edgar Allen Poe Biography

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  List of Works by Genre and Title

  Fiction :: Collected stories :: Short Stories :: Poetry :: Essays

  Fiction - Longer Works

  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838)

  The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall (1835)

  Collected stories

  Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840)

  The Prose Romances of Edgar A. Poe (1839-1841)

  Short Stories

  The Angel of The Odd

  The Assignation

  The Balloon-Hax

  Berenice

  Bon-Bon

  The Black Cat

  Business Man

  The Cask of Amontillado

  Colloquy of Monos and Una

  Conversation of Eiros and Charmion

  A Descent Into The Maelström

  Devil in The Belfry

  Diddling

  The Domain of Arnheim

  Duc De L'Omelette

  Eleonora

  The Facts in The Case of M. Valdemar

  The Fall of The House of The Usher

  Four Beasts in One

  The Gold-Bug

  Hop Frog

  How to Write A Blackwood Article

  The Imp of the Perverse

  The Island of the Fay

  King Pest

  Landor's Cottage

  Landscape Garden

  Ligeia

  Loss of Breath

  Maelzel's Chess-Player

  Man of The Crowd

  Man That Was Used Up

  The Masque of The Red Death

  Mellonta Tauta

  Mesmeric Revelation

  Metzengerstein

  Morella

  Ms. Found in a Bottle

  The Murders in the Rue Morgue

  The Mystery of Marie Roget

  Mystification

  Never Bet the Devil Your Head

  Oblong Box

  The Oval Portrait

  Pit And The Pendulum

  The Power of Words

  Predicament

  The Premature Burial

  The Purloined Letter

  Shadow -- A Parable

  Silence -- A Fable

  Some Words with a Mummy

  Spectacles

  Sphinx

  System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether

  A Tale of Jerusalem

  Tale of The Ragged Mountains

  The Tell Tale Heart

  Thou Art The Man

  The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade

  Three Sundays in a Week

  Von Kempelen And His Discovery

  Why The Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling

  William Wilson

  X-ing a Paragrab

  Poetry

  Al Aaraaf

  Alone

  Annabel Lee

  The Bells

  Bridal Ballad

  City In The Sea

  Coliseum

  Conqueror Worm

  A Dream

  Dream Within a Dream

  Dreamland

  Dreams

  Eldorado

  An Enigma

  Eulalie

  Evening Star

  Fairyland

  For Annie

  The Forest Reverie

  The Happiest Day

  Haunted Palace

  Hymn

  Imitation

  In Youth I Have Known One

  Israfel

  The Lake

  Lenore

  The Raven

  Romance

  Silence

  Sleeper

  Song

  Sonnet -- To Science

  Spirits of The Dead

  Tamerlane

  To F--

  To Frances S. Osgood

  To Helen

  To Isadore

  To Marie Louise

  To My Mother

  To One In Paradise

  To The River

  To Zante

  Ulalume

  A Valentine

  The Valley of Unrest

  The Village Street

  Essays

  Death of Edgar A. Poe by N. P. Willis

  Edgar Allan Poe: An Appreciation

  Life of Edgar Allan Poe by James Russell Lowell

  Old English Poetry

  Philosophy of Furniture

  The Philosophy of Composition

  The Poetic Principle

  ________

  A-Z Index

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  Al Aaraaf

  Alone

  Angel of the Odd

  Annabel Lee

  Balloon-Hoax

  Bells

  Berenice

  Black Cat

  Bon-Bon

  Bridal Ballad

  Business Man

  Cask of Amontillado

  City In The Sea

  Coliseum

  Colloquy of Monos and Una

  Conqueror Worm

  Conversation of Eiros and Charmion

  Death of Edgar A. Poe

  Descent Into The Maelström

  Devil in the Belfry

  Diddling

  Domain of Arnheim

  Dream

  Dream Within A Dream

  Dreamland

  Dreams

  Duc de L'Omelette

  Edgar Allan Poe: An Appreciation

  Eldorado

  Eleonora

  Enigma

  Epigram on title page

  Epimanes

  Eulalie

  Evening Star

  Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar

  Fairyland

  Fall of the House of Usher

  For Annie

  Forest Reverie

  Gold-Bug

  Hans Phaal

  Happiest Day

  Haunted Palace

  Hop Frog

  Hymn

  Imitation

  Imp of The Perverse

  In Youth I Have Known One

  Island of The Fay

  Israfel

  King Pest - A Tale Containing an Allegory

  Lake

  Landor's Cottage

  Landscape Garden

  Lenore

  Life of Edgar Allan Poe

  Ligeia

  Lionizing

  Loss of Breath

  Maelzel's Chess-Player

  Man of The Crowd

  Man That Was Used Up - A Tale of the Late Bugaboo and Kickapoo Campaign

  Masque of The Red Death

  Mellonta Tauta

  Mesmeric Revelation

  Metzengerstein

  Morella

  Ms. Found in a Bottle

  Murders In The Rue Morgue

  Mystery of Marie Roget

  Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

  Never Bet the Devil Your Head

  Oblong Box

  Old English Poetry

  Oval Portrait

  Philosophy of Composition

  Philosophy of Furniture

  Pit and the Pendulum

  Poetic Principle

  Power of Words

  Preface

  Premature Burial

  Purloined Letter

  Raven

  Romance

  Scythe of Time

  Shadow - A Parable

  Signora Zenobia

/>   Silence

  Siope

  Sleeper

  Some Words with a Mummy

  Song

  Sonnet -- To Science

  Spectacles

  Sphinx

  Spirits of The Dead

  System of Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether

  Tale of Jerusalem

  Tale of The Ragged Mountains

  Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque

  Tamerlane

  Tell-Tale Heart

  Testimonials

  Thou Art The Man

  Thousand-and-Second Tale Of Scheherazade

  Three Sundays in a Week

  To F--

  To Frances S. Osgood

  To Helen

  To Isadore

  To Marie Louise

  To My Mother

  To One In Paradise

  To The River

  To Zante

  Ulalume

  Valentine

  Valley of Unrest

  Village Street

  Visionary

  Von Jung

  Von Kempelen And His Discovery

  Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling

  William Wilson

  X-ing a Paragrab

  ________

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  The Prose Romances of Edgar A. Poe

  (1843)

  Electronically Developed by MobileReference

  The Murders in the Rue Morgue

  The Man That Was Used Up

  Edgar Allen Poe Biography

  ________

  The Angel of the Odd

  AN EXTRAVAGANZA.

  IT was a chilly November afternoon. I had just consummated an unusually hearty dinner, of which the dyspeptic truffe formed not the least important item, and was sitting alone in the dining-room, with my feet upon the fender, and at my elbow a small table which I had rolled up to the fire, and upon which were some apologies for dessert, with some miscellaneous bottles of wine, spirit and liqueur. In the morning I had been reading Glover's "Leonidas," Wilkie's "Epigoniad," Lamartine's "Pilgrimage," Barlow's "Columbiad," Tuckermann's "Sicily," and Griswold's "Curiosities"; I am willing to confess, therefore, that I now felt a little stupid. I made effort to arouse myself by aid of frequent Lafitte, and, all failing, I betook myself to a stray newspaper in despair. Having carefully perused the column of "houses to let," and the column of "dogs lost," and then the two columns of "wives and apprentices runaway," I attacked with great resolution the editorial matter, and, reading it from beginning to end without understanding a syllable, conceived the possibility of its being Chinese, and so re-read it from the end to the beginning, but with no more satisfactory result. I was about throwing away, in disgust,

  "This folio of four pages, happy work

  Which not even critics criticise,"

  when I felt my attention somewhat aroused by the paragraph which follows:

  "The avenues to death are numerous and strange. A London paper mentions the decease of a person from a singular cause. He was playing at 'puff the dart,' which is played with a long needle inserted in some worsted, and blown at a target through a tin tube. He placed the needle at the wrong end of the tube, and drawing his breath strongly to puff the dart forward with force, drew the needle into his throat. It entered the lungs, and in a few days killed him."

  Upon seeing this I fell into a great rage, without exactly knowing why. "This thing," I exclaimed, "is a contemptible falsehood - a poor hoax - the lees of the invention of some pitiable penny-a-liner - of some wretched concoctor of accidents in Cocaigne. These fellows, knowing the extravagant gullibility of the age, set their wits to work in the imagination of improbable possibilities - of odd accidents, as they term them; but to a reflecting intellect (like mine," I added, in parenthesis, putting my forefinger unconsciously to the side of my nose,) "to a contemplative understanding such as I myself possess, it seems evident at once that the marvelous increase of late in these 'odd accidents' is by far the oddest accident of all. For my own part, I intend to believe nothing henceforward that has anything of the 'singular' about it."

  "Mein Gott, den, vat a vool you bees for dat!" replied one of the most remarkable voices I ever heard. At first I took it for a rumbling in my ears - such as a man sometimes experiences when getting very drunk - but, upon second thought, I considered the sound as more nearly resembling that which proceeds from an empty barrel beaten with a big stick; and, in fact, this I should have concluded it to be, but for the articulation of the syllables and words. I am by no means naturally nervous, and the very few glasses of Lafitte which I had sipped served to embolden me no little, so that I felt nothing of trepidation, but merely uplifted my eyes with a leisurely movement, and looked carefully around the room for the intruder. I could not, however, perceive any one at all.

  "Humph!" resumed the voice, as I continued my survey, "you mus pe so dronk as de pig, den, for not zee me as I zit here at your zide."

  Hereupon I bethought me of looking immediately before my nose, and there, sure enough, confronting me at the table sat a personage nondescript, although not altogether indescribable. His body was a wine-pipe, or a rum-puncheon, or something of that character, and had a truly Falstaffian air. In its nether extremity were inserted two kegs, which seemed to answer all the purposes of legs. For arms there dangled from the upper portion of the carcass two tolerably long bottles, with the necks outward for hands. All the head that I saw the monster possessed of was one of those Hessian canteens which resemble a large snuff-box with a hole in the middle of the lid. This canteen (with a funnel on its top, like a cavalier cap slouched over the eyes) was set on edge upon the puncheon, with the hole toward myself; and through this hole, which seemed puckered up like the mouth of a very precise old maid, the creature was emitting certain rumbling and grumbling noises which he evidently intended for intelligible talk.

  "I zay," said he, "you mos pe dronk as de pig, vor zit dare and not zee me zit ere; and I zay, doo, you mos pe pigger vool as de goose, vor to dispelief vat iz print in de print. 'Tiz de troof - dat it iz - eberry vord ob it."

  "Who are you, pray?" said I, with much dignity, although somewhat puzzled; "how did you get here? and what is it you are talking about?"

  "Az vor ow I com'd ere," replied the figure, "dat iz none of your pizzness; and as vor vat I be talking apout, I be talk apout vat I tink proper; and as vor who I be, vy dat is de very ting I com'd here for to let you zee for yourzelf."

  "You are a drunken vagabond," said I, "and I shall ring the bell and order my footman to kick you into the street."

  "He! he! he!" said the fellow, "hu! hu! hu! dat you can't do."

  "Can't do!" said I, "what do you mean? - I can't do what?"

  "Ring de pell;" he replied, attempting a grin with his little villanous mouth.

  Upon this I made an effort to get up, in order to put my threat into execution; but the ruffian just reached across the table very deliberately, and hitting me a tap on the forehead with the neck of one of the long bottles, knocked me back into the arm-chair from which I had half arisen. I was utterly astounded; and, for a moment, was quite at a loss what to do. In the meantime, he continued his talk.