Well if you haven't read 'The Pit and the Pendulum' go for it. Absolutely one of the best. Incredible build up of suspense. I still have a few more to get through so I'll see how they compare.
Sat 27/2/10 As came up in book group, endings of his stories can be a bit deflating. It made me think about would have been a more satisfactory ending as I read each story and I think the problem is that having delivered a shock factor in the body it's difficult to cap it off. I've just read 'Ligeia' and again Poe's favourite theme comes out. The storyteller is sitting with his 'dead' wife when she begins to show faint signs of life. For me, it is his build up suspense that is masterful, - "I listened in an agony of superstitious terror", and "I felt my heart cease to beat, my limbs go rigid where I sat." Have you ever woken up at night by an inexplicable noise and started to allow your imagination to run riot? Didn't it feel like that?
Is that the problem with his endings? After the spectacular build up of suspense is a disappointing finale almost inevitable?
Sat 27/2/10 As came up in book group, endings of his stories can be a bit deflating. It made me think about would have been a more satisfactory ending as I read each story and I think the problem is that having delivered a shock factor in the body it's difficult to cap it off. I've just read 'Ligeia' and again Poe's favourite theme comes out. The storyteller is sitting with his 'dead' wife when she begins to show faint signs of life. For me, it is his build up suspense that is masterful, - "I listened in an agony of superstitious terror", and "I felt my heart cease to beat, my limbs go rigid where I sat." Have you ever woken up at night by an inexplicable noise and started to allow your imagination to run riot? Didn't it feel like that?
Is that the problem with his endings? After the spectacular build up of suspense is a disappointing finale almost inevitable?
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