The Raven

A new selection of Poe's poetry and short stories, in an irresistible Little Clothbound Classics edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith

'Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore―
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.'

Uncanny and strange, Poe's writing defied convention, shocked readers, and confounded critics. This selection of his poetry and short stories demonstrates the astonishing power and imagination with which Poe probed the darkest corners of the human mind. The title poem, perhaps Poe's most famous work, follows a man's terrifying descent into madness after the loss of a lover, when he receives an unexpected visitor one bleak December night.

About the Author

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) was born in Boston and orphaned at an early age. Taken in by a couple from Richmond, Virginia, he spent a semester at the University of Virginia but could not afford to stay longer. After joining the Army and matriculating as a cadet, he started his literary career with the anonymous publication of Tamerlane and Other Poems, before working as a literary critic. His life was dotted with scandals, such as purposefully getting himself court-martialled to ensure dismissal from the Army, being discharged from his job at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond after being found drunk by his boss, and secretly marrying his thirteen-year-old cousin Virginia (listed twenty-one on the marriage certificate). His work took him to both New York City and Baltimore, where he died at the age of forty, two years after Virginia.