posted
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.
Posts: 873 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
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 -
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
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. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
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).
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have always been captivated by The Masque of the Red Death.
quote: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.
posted
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 -
posted
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.
Posts: 2506 | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
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.
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.)
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
| IP: Logged |
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.
posted
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: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.
I am also impressed that Poe, before Doyle, created the great logical private detective (Murder in the Rue Morge). He is the great grandfather of CSI.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'll echo Mrs.M, marek, no-mo, and CT on the Masque of the Red Death.
----- RE: Charles Brockden Brown -- Yep, I've read him. _Wieland_ and _Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist_. Good stuff. Those two works are bundled together in a Penguin Classics edition that is still in print.
_Wieland_ should be required reading -- while overwrought in places (but, hey, we're talking the first true American gothic novel here so what do you expect) it's fascinating and spooky.
EDIT: Oh, yeah. I've also always been partial to _The Man of The Crowd_.
posted
"Hop Frog" is pretty good (and perhaps doesn't get as much attention as his other works. Read it for free here. Project Gutenberg is a great resource for bibliophiles . . .
Posts: 224 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote: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?
posted
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.
posted
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.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
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.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
It was laughable.
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
