Poe’s Stories is representative of the usual 19th-century Gothic literary fiction, specifically Gothic horror. These 11 stories were published between 1833 and 1845, spanning over a decade of Poe’s writing career. Poe is a master of walking the line between tension, terror, and horror, utilizing genre conventions and evocative imagery to direct the reader’s emotions throughout the story.
Familiar elements of the typical gothic horror (such as the gloomy, isolated setting, suspenseful atmosphere, foreboding architecture, intense emotions, and unfathomable phenomenons) help ground the shocking plots of these stories within a set of established bounds. At the same time, Poe also forges ahead and breaks new ground. His two detective stories (“The Murders in the Rue-Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter”) became the prototypes for the genre, introducing the concept of the clever, methodical crime-solver who enjoys solving cases like puzzles (like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes).
Poe uses epigraphs to begin 7 of these 11 stories. Each epigraph foreshadows the underlying theme or central idea explored in the story. Three of these epigraphs are written in English (“Ligeia,” “William Wilson,” and “The Murders in the Rue-Morgue”), two are written in French (“Manuscript Found in a Bottle” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”), and two are written in Latin (“The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Purloined Letter”). Poe’s use of epigraphs as a tool for foreshadowing is a distinctive quality in his writing. They serve as a signal for the reader, placing them on their toes and priming them with a sense of what to look for as they read the story. Some other common characteristics of Poe’s writing style in these stories include: a tendency towards melodrama; vivid, lush prose; references to classical and philosophical texts as well as the contemporary arts; and often long, winding, complex sentences. Poe’s syntax is carefully chosen for each character, as he is a master at using punctuation to convey the psychological state of his oft-troubled narrators.
