The Works of Edgar Allan Poe

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
All of Poe's stories, his one novel, and many of his poems.

Review
I distinctly remember being read, reading, and listening to recordings of Poe's stories and poems when I was a child, and hearing Joan Baez' rendition of ‘Annabel Lee'. So much later, I picked up this unwieldy complete edition at a discount bookshop. It's only decades later that I've actually gotten around to reading the whole thing.

The stories
Much to my surprise, the stories have less impact on me now. I supposed I've just read too many other books, and there's less suspense than I remembered. “The Pit and the Pendulum” in particular was much less tense. Still, by and large, it is his most famous stories (those from my childhood's Tales of Terror and Fantasy) that were most effective. Some others were also quite good, and Poe has a way with rather purple description and settings that draws you in. A few of his less-known stories wander erratically, and a handful are unabashedly descriptive rather than narrative. It often feels like a rushed discovery writer, finding out the story at the same time we do. But at his best, the stories are compelling and very spooky. You could get the best in a smaller collection, but there are some gems in this complete set.

The novel (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym)
While I knew Poe's key stories and poems pretty well, I'd never encountered his one novel. Having now read it, I can see why. It's an extremely disjointed piece seemingly stitched together from separate scraps and without any real effort at an ending. It's a mess at best and somtimes cruel – for example, a faithful dog appears with little logic, saves the narrator's life, and then is quickly abandoned; we don't even learn his fate for sure.

The poems
I seem to read far less poetry now than when I was young; I've somewhat lost patience with it, and Poe's long, meandering poems didn't impress me as before. A few still struck a chord, but by and large they'd lost their effect, though I can still sense what I responded to as a child.