Author:Edgar Allan Poe
Since their first publication in the 1830s and 1840s, Edgar Allan Poe's extraordinary Gothic tales have established themselves as classics of horror fiction and have also created many of the conventions which still dominate the genre of detective fiction. As well as being highly enjoyable, Poe's tales are works of very real intellectual exploration. Attentive to the historical and political dimensions of these very American tales, this new selection places the most popular -- `The Fall of the House of Usher', `The Masque of the Red Death', `The Murders in the Rue Morgue; and `The Purloined Letter' -- alongside less well-known travel narratives, metaphysical essays and political satires.
Richard Yates is a writer of commanding gifts: an astonishing skill and robust intelligence. His prose is urbane yet sensitive, with passion and irony held deftly in balance.
—— Saturday ReviewRichard Yates stands today as America's finest realistic novelist
—— The Boston GlobeYates is a realist par excellence. Read and weep
—— Kate AtkinsonThe most perceptive author of the twentieth century...A magnificent writer
—— The TimesOne of the greatest American novelists of the twentieth century
—— Sunday TelegraphEvery good writer I know acknowledges Yates as a master
—— Kurt VonnegutKeret's surreal conceits are couched in a wry, downbeat language...The effect is something like a sorrowful hybrid of Kafka and Donald Barthelme: deadpan on the surface, with a bassnote of discomfort and emotional alienation that makes even the briefest tales snag in the mind...Each piece is at once universal and particular...world-class gems. The translation is brilliant, too
—— Tim Martin , Daily TelegraphEtgar Keret is the voice of young Israel
—— IndependentOne of the greatest short story writers alive
—— Ben RiceOne of the most important writers alive... enchantingly witty
—— Clive JamesEtgar Keret's extraordinary imagination sets the reader free from slogans and headlines
—— Linda Grant