The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales

Oct 26, 2024 6:22 PM

Author:Edgar Allan Poe

With an essay by D. H. Lawrence.

'... an agility astounding, a strength superhuman, a ferocity brutal, a butchery without motive, a grotesquerie in horror absolutely alien from humanity...'

Horror, madness, violence and the dark forces hidden in humanity abound in this collection of Poe's brilliant tales, including - among others - the bloody, brutal and baffling murder of a mother and daughter in Paris in 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', the creeping insanity of 'The Tell-Tale Heart', the Gothic nightmare of 'The Masque of the Red Death', and the terrible doom of 'The Fall of the House of Usher'.

The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Reviews

Aimee Bender’s debut short-story collection shows a writer ready to flirt with the fantastical. Largely concerned with the love lives of young metropolitans and desperate housewives, her cheerily bizarre scenarios give romance a fresh twist … Bender is a writer with a very incendiary turn of phrase.

—— Independent

These stories are unusual, certainly and they take you inside people’s feelings. Bender gets you to see the world in very particular ways. Beautifully done; you won’t forget this.

—— Evening Standard

Hilarious, deep and a little bit dirty

—— Harper's Bazaar

Many of the stories in The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, begin with a premise just on the fringe of the familiar, then give it a tantalising twist ... Bender's stories are powered be voice - by pleasure of an electric simile and a restrained sauciness

—— New York Times Book Review

Fierce and true ... Fantastic!

—— Los Angeles Times Book Review

Makes you grateful for the very existence of language

—— San Francisco Chronicle

Bender has hit the ground running with this debut

—— Entertainment Weekly

Magical … a collection of mesmerisingly imaginative tales

—— Bella Magazine

Colours and landscapes are evoked in language that, at once lush and direct, is in itself a pleasure and a reminder that Malouf is also a poet of considerable talent

—— Aamer Hussein , Independent

His writing here has a fine descriptive delicacy and sensory exactness that act as guarantees of the stories' truth and the authenticity of the experiences they embody

—— Tom Deveson , Sunday Times

Malouf deals with both the vast and the seemingly unimportant... He does it with biting wit, elegance and a rare, uncluttered honesty

—— Chris Dolan , Saturday Herald

Poignant and wonderful story...concentrates, without effort, all Malouf's themes...it needs to be read

—— Prospect

Julian Barnes reminds us what an exhilarating experience it can be to read a really good critic.

—— Jane Shilling , Sunday Telegraph

A compulsive page-turner.

—— Tim Adams , Observer

Barnes’s passion for his writers is infectious.

—— Ion Trewin , Sunday Express

Blissfully intelligent.

—— Roger Lewis , Financial Times

The temptation to turn away is powerful, but the rewards for resisting it are considerable. These essays combine a scholarly breadth of knowledge with a powerful sense of the absurdities of the creative life.

—— Jane Shilling , Sunday Telegraph

Through the Window is a wonderful and very interesting collection of essays that rewards close, and also measured, reading.

—— Brendan Wright , Nudge

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