Delightfully gruesome. I loved these short stories and Gris Grimly’s illustrations were perfect. I’m so glad I finally read this collection. If you are a fan of EAP, you owe it to yourself to add this book to your collection. ( )

This book is a collection of Edgar Allen Poe’s poems of The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, Hop-Frog, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Like most of Edgar Allen Poe’s literary works, the words flow together in a way that make you question his cleverness or insanity. For example, on page 7, it states, “I felt it had given me no reason of offense; hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin – a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it even beyond the reach of infinite mercy.” The poems in this book force the reader to question the line between genius and crazy, which I appreciated since many do not seem to realize the delicacy of human life. Another reason I enjoyed this book is the illustrations. The illustrations are impeccable. They capture the exact mood of Edgar Allen Poe’s poems (in my opinion) and expand the reader’s mind to be open to the artistic value behind the poet’s words, instruments of his creativity. For example, page 43 portrays the people at a party through the skewed eyes of the insane narrator; a woman’s lips comprise half her face and a gentleman’s eyes are of different sizes and shapes. ( )

This is an illustrated collection of four of Poe's stories: The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, Hop Frog, The Fall of the House of Usher.

It was o.k. Poe's a bit twisted and the illustrations were drawn to match. ( )

My friend Katie gave me this book. Are the tales disturbing? Yes. Are the illustrations disturbing? Yes. And that's how it should be. ( )

I have more than half a dozen books with Gris Grimly's illustrations, so needless to say I enjoy his work quite a bit. However, this book doesn't do much to showcase his talent, so I wouldn't recommend it if you're already not familiar with Grimly's work. ( )