Edgar Allan Рое is not only the finest, most terrifying writer of Gothic horror tales ever to have lived, he also wrote extraordinary poems and, with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", invented the detective story, paving the way for Sherlock Holmes. In this new collection, Poe"s genius is given its full breadth. In The Pit and the Pendulum" and other stories of horror - including terrifying classics like "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat" - Рое writes of the torments of ingenious, malevolent persecutors and of a mind"s own sickening madness, while in the mournful The Raven" and other poems, his writing is beautiful, elegiac and filled with dread. Selected and introduced by Peter Ackroyd (author of "London: The Biography" and "Рое: A Life Cut Short"), with a cover designed by the artist Harland Miller (who has previously curated an exhibition of contemporary artists" responses to Рое), "The Pit and the Pendulum" is a collection of works of a dark and brilliant genius. ...