The Pit and the Pendulum
4/5
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About this ebook
The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. The traditional elements established in popular horror tales at the time are followed but critical reception has been mixed.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. His parents, both touring actors, died before he was three. He was raised by John Allan, a prosperous Virginian merchant. Poe published his first volume of poetry while still a teenager. He worked as an editor for magazines in Philadelphia, Richmond and New York, and achieved respect as a literary critic. In 1836, he married his thirteen year-old cousin. It was only with the publication of The Raven and other Poems in 1845 that he achieved national fame as a writer. Poe died in mysterious circumstances in 1849.
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Reviews for The Pit and the Pendulum
214 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waking up in darkness, fearing a live burial; groping in the darkness almost falling into a pit; bound to a framework under a swinging pendulum while rats rush for their midnight snack; sizzling iron walls squeezing together, but not to cook hamburgers. These could be scenes from Indiana Jones and the Dungeons of Toledo. And yet, The Pit and the Pendulum is classic Poe: heart throbbing, adrenaline rushing, spine tinkling and hair raising suspense and terror. The story triumphs not only through its content but also its form; the words and sentences, like spectral needles and blades, pierce memory and imagination to engrave a tangy nightmare. Yes, before Stephen King, there was Edgar Allan Poe. Bon appetite!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Short, creepy as all get pout, macabre, & insidious, it's Poe at his blackest. We never know the age or name of the young man who is sentenced to death & finds himself in a dungeon. As he feels his way around, he attempts to discover the dimensions of his prison, trips, & falls right at the edge of a pit in the center of the cell. Terrified, he retreats to the edge of the cell, where he drinks the water that's provided for him by an unknown hand. When he wakes next, it's discovered that the water was drugged, & he's strapped to a table in what amounts to mummy wrappings, & then he notices the razor edged pendulum above him. In the hours/days(?) even he himself doesn't know, he watches it descend little by little, it's scythed edge sweeping back & forth with a hiss. At first he embraces what is sure to be his certain death, then snaps out of it, & devises an ingenious way to escape his winding sheets. The rest of the story I won't spoil.....
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pit and the Pendulum is easily one of my favorite Poe story’s. Set during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, it’s descriptive narrative lends weight to the tale. One can almost feel oneself beside the unnamed narrator facing the terror of the pit and feeling the breeze from the pendulum as it swings closer and closer.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love this story. It's creepy and it lingers in the brain forever.