Shadow: A Parable

A scholar obsessed with his cousin's teeth tells you exactly how far a fixation can go. One of Poe's earliest and most disturbing studies of obsession, and still one of his hardest to shake.

Edgar Allan Poe

A narrator promises never to love again after his cousin dies, then finds out what that promise costs. Gentler than most Poe, and one of the few of his tales that lets grief end somewhere hopeful.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poe called this his best story. A widower remarries, his second wife falls ill, and the dead first wife refuses to stay where the dead belong.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poe's first published tale and his first gothic one. Two feuding families, a burning stable, and a horse that nobody can account for.

Edgar Allan Poe

A wife dies in childbirth and her daughter grows into something too familiar. A short, cold study of identity and inheritance that sets up much of Poe's later work.

Edgar Allan Poe