Edgar Allan Poe: The Sphinx
Two men escape to the countryside to avoid a cholera epidemic. But what they find there may be more horrifying.
Brothers Grimm — The Golden Bird
Three brothers who are total idiots ignore the advice of a kind fox repeatedly. Sometimes the moral of the story in the Grimm stories is hard to find.
Brothers Grimm — Sweetheart Roland
Wicked step mother accidentally cuts off the wrong daughter’s head … then the other one turns into a duck to hide …
Edgar Allan Poe – Lenore
In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Lenore,” the grieving Guy de Vere angrily rejects the traditional mourning of a hypocritical community he blames for his young bride’s death, choosing instead to…
O Henry – Gift of the Magi
Imagine sacrificing your most prized possession to buy your loved one something for Christmas. And they do the same. First published in The New York Sunday World on December 10,…
Edgar Allan Poe – The City in the Sea
This poem tells the story of a city ruled by a personification of Death using common elements from Gothic fiction.
Edgar Allan Poe – To Marie Louise (1947)
The poem is addressed to Mrs. Marie Louise Shew, a friend of Poe’s and a nurse in Virginia.
Edgar Allan Poe – The Cask of Amontillado
“The Cask of Amontillado” tells the tale of a man taking fatal revenge on a friend who, he believes, has insulted him. Maybe he went a bit too far.