This is topic Favorite Writing of Poe's in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
 
I don't know why I haven't started this topic yet...but what's your favorite writing of EAP's, short story or poem?

Anyway, my favorite is The Cask of Amontillado.
 

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Posted by JonnyNotSoBravo (Member # 5715) on :
 
No no no...you can't have that favorite, that's my favorite! I even have a member name Amontillado (member # 1926).

The pit and the pendulum is okay, the telltale heart is good, and the house of Usher is good...
 

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Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
 
I like The Fall of the House of Usher. I actually saw a play based from that book... And I also saw the movie. The REALLY old movie. It was laughable.
 

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Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
 
You have to have heard my father read me The Raven as an impressionable 10 year old to understand why it will always be my favorite -
 

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Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
 
I adore The Raven as well Shan. I loved it when I was easily impressed and I loved it when we picked it apart in college. It withstood all the tests because it's just brilliantly done.

I also like Annabel Lee, though that is truly an irreverent poem.
 

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Posted by Lalo (Member # 3772) on :
 
Poe's most technically advanced work -- in regards to simple emotion evokation -- in my opinion, is "The Bells." Brilliant.

As far as my favorite, I won't disgrace Poe by naming one. He's quite possibly my favorite American poet, even with my respects to Whitman and Frost (and Thoreau, and whomever else I'm insulting through failure of citation).
 

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Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
 
I have always been captivated by The Masque of the Red Death.

quote:

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There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made.

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Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
 
Do you know, Narnia - we were taking a rest stop at a (well, rest stop) in Oregon, facing the Columbia on a beautiful early fall day when my dad read that to me - it's amazing to me that I can remember that day so clearly, not just the sights but the inflection and tone as he read it to me . . .

he was a drama/theatre major at BYU before 'Nam got hold of him . . .

I used to love pouring through his yearbooks from highschool and college to see the pictures of him in all the different plays and musicals -

I think my uncle, his oldest -only - brother, still teaches there . . . hmmm - I'll have to get caught up on who's where in the family -

Edited to add: Excellent quote, Mrs. M - yes!

[ October 29, 2003, 12:20 AM: Message edited by: Shan ]
 

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Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
 
Christopher Walken doing The Raven.
 

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Posted by Marek (Member # 5404) on :
 
The Mask of the Red Death is my favorite of his short stories, I always wanted to be the mask of the red death for Halloween.

And of his poems my favorite was always "Anabel Lee" "many and many a year ago in a kindom by the sea..."

*goes to read from collection of Poe's works, realizes it is 2:00am and goes to sleep instead*
 

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Posted by eslaine (Member # 5433) on :
 
I hate to be really cliche', but I guess my favorite is still The Telltale Heart. The prose is so tight! Not a word wasted, the fear of the protagonist is tangible. It was one of the first things of Poe's that I read, and still a tough act to follow!

I love all the Poe short stories I've ever read though. That one is just too concise and perfect, you couldn't change a word of it to make it better.
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
If I had to pick a single favorite...

Well, I don't think I could. Among my favorites are The Raven, "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Masque of the Red Death", The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (which is, interestingly enough, his only novel), "The Telltale Heart", The Bells...

Basically, I've never read anything by Poe that hasn't been fantastic.

[ October 29, 2003, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: Noemon ]
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
Oddly enough, I'd like to echo Noemon.

I'd also add "The Black Cat" as memorable, although not really "enjoyed." (It has stuck with me after completely scaring the jebus out of me.)
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
That's shocking CT! Just shocking!

You know, I don't think I'm familiar with The Black Cat. I'll have to google for it when I get a minute.

Anybody ever read any of Charles Brockton Brown's stuff? He was the first American novelist, and was very into spontaneous human combustion. It was from him that I got the now-oft-used phrase "gobbets of flesh". Unfortunately, none of his work seems to be available on Amazon.com.

[ October 29, 2003, 10:36 AM: Message edited by: Noemon ]
 

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Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
 
I've not read a great deal of EAP, but I have always loved the raven and the tell tale heart.
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
I love the Black Cat. I was the hit of girls' camp the year I was fourteen because I scared the snot out of the twelve-year-olds with a fifteen minute version of The Black Cat.

I love Poe - it's hard to pick a favorite. I like The Pit and The Pendalum. As for poems, my favorites are Alone, Eldorado, and Israfel.

quote:

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If I could dwell
Where Israfel
Hath dwelt, and he where I,
He might not sing so wildly well
A mortal melody,
While a bolder note than this might swell
From my lyre within the sky.

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quote:

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But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. 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 give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?

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Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
 
I have written a few "modernizations" of classics. My "Little Red" is an interesting retelling of Red Riding Hood. I've also done a modern Prometheus story and have a modern Oedipus story half done.

Is it time for a modern Red Masque? The Plaque this time is Aids, the castle is the church of "We are holier than thou!" (not a church that embraces community, but one that turns its back on sinners.

Hmmmm.

I see potential.
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
I've been working, on and off, on a modern Gilgamesh, set in a small midwestern high school. If I ever finish it it should be pretty funny.
 

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Posted by Paul Goldner (Member # 1910) on :
 
Katharina-
By far my favorite poe short story is the pit and the pendulum. I thought I was going to get away with the only nod in that direction until your post

I love the raven, annabel lee, and eldorado.
 

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Posted by pepperuda (Member # 1573) on :
 
Argh!! Pick a favorite?!!! I've always been partial to The Pit and the Pendulum and The Cask of Amontillado. Then again, I echo whoever said there wasn't a work of Poe that they didn't like.
 

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