Edgar Allan Poe may be one of the original Spooky Boys, but I honestly still can’t stand the vast majority of his writing… That being said, I still had to read this book, because I wasn’t about to miss out on an edition illustrated by Gris Grimly. Integrated throughout Poe’s text, Grimly illuminates the four stories in this volume by setting the pre-Victorian-esque scene, envisioning a myriad cast of weirdos, and ensuring that the tone of the stories is heightened through careful panelling. Each story contains its own style, some being closed in by heavy border work that brings to mind the enclosing floorboards beneath which a buried heart lies, others focusing on a portrait-driven aesthetic, and then others which bring to mind scientific anatomy textbooks - all carefully showcasing the range of Grimly’s unique artistic stylings. Compared to other illustrators, Grimly’s palette is of a lighter tone (utilising a dusty range of browns, rusts, and grey-blues), but still brings to mind the quiet horror of Poe’s writing through characterization and an emphasis on oddity. This is a careful departure from most horror-tinged tomes which prefer to soak their pages in the depths of bloody reds and darkest blacks, and honestly I think it works rather well for the handful of Poe’s stories contained herein. None of them are particularly bloody, and even while some have nocturnal scenes, the focus shifts to the characters rather than the scenery with Grimly’s treatment - a horror of the mind’s realism and mundanity, if you will. ( )

Student edition: 0590087622
Teacher's edition: 0590090526

Scholastic Book Services "Master Storyteller" editions edited by Sara Sheldon

Contents (Student edition):

Biographical Note

Stories:
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Ms. Found in a Bottle
The Cask of Amontillado
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Pit and the Pendulum
Ligeia
The Mask of the Red Death
A Descent into the Maelstrom
The Imp of the Perverse

Poems:
To Helen
Eldorado
The Raven
Sonnet - To Science
Ulalume
The Bells
Annabel Lee

A Selective Bibliography