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TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION
Edgar Allan Poe
CONTENTS
Chapter 3: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Chapter 4: MS. Found in a Bottle
Chapter 5: A Descent into the Maelström
Chapter 7: The Fall of the House of Usher
Chapter 8: The Pit and the Pendulum
Chapter 9: The Premature Burial
Chapter 10: The Masque of the Red Death
Chapter 11: The Cask of Amontillado
Chapter 12: The Imp of the Perverse
Chapter 13: The Island of the Fay
Chapter 15: The Tell-Tale Heart
Chapter 16: The Domain of Arnheim
Chapter 17: Landor’s Cottage A Pendant to ‘The Domain of Arnheim’
Chapter 18: The Assignation: Venice
Chapter 23: The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Chapter 24: The Mystery of Marie Rogêt1 A Sequel to ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue.’
Chapter 25: The Purloined Letter
Chapter 26: The Colloquy of MONOS and UNA
Chapter 27: The Conversation of EIROS and CHARMION
Chapter 28: A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
Classic Literature: Words and Phrase Adapted from the Collins English Dictionary
What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad!
He hath been bitten by the Tarantula.
—All in the Wrong.
Many years ago I contracted an intimacy with a Mr William Legrand. He was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid the mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the city of his forefathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan’s Island, near Charleston, South Carolina.
This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the sea sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds and slime, a favourite resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation, as might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted, during summer, by the fugitives from Charleston dust and fever, may be found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole island, with the exception of this western point, and a line of hard, white beach on the sea-coast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle so much prized by the horticulturists of England. The shrub here often attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost impenetrable coppice, burdening the air with its fragrance.
In the inmost recesses of this coppice, not far from the eastern or more remote end of the island, Legrand had built himself a small hut, which he occupied when I first, by mere accident, made his acquaintance. This soon ripened into friendship—for there was much in the recluse to excite interest and esteem. I found him well educated, with unusual