It took me a little over a year to read the prose works of Edgar Allen Poe. Like with many classics, I had several editions of these tales, which contained either selections or collections of the tales. I eventually decided on actually reading a Chinese edition by Shanghai: World Publishing (上海：世界图书出版) because this edition had the most comfortable size, with a flexible hard cover and because the tales are arranged in thematic categories. However, this edition does not contain The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and Eureka, which, fair enough, aren't "tales".

I started reading The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and related tales in the Oxford Classics edition, and I must say I am very happy to have read the extremely insightful introduction. I then read Eureka in an edition by the Hesperus Press (London) and completed the so-called "Tales of Science" by reading The science fiction of Edgar Allan Poe in the Penguin Classics edition. All short stories and novellas in these three editions are also included in the Chinese (English-language) edition, but I did not reread them.

The short stories and novellas of Edgar Allen Poe are truly amazing classics of the highest order. The reason it too me so long to finish reading them (about 900 pages) is that to digest them it is advisable to read them leisurely, and not in a hurry, at least for me. I often took break of several days or weeks, to return to them.

The tales display a large variety of what I would call themes, some are like detective stories while others are more like horror stories, others yet very humoristic. The language is always very precise, and detailed. It is very obvious that these tales would likely be read aloud in a homely setting. In many tales the language has a poetic quality, words and names give clues to characters or the development of the tale, or are humorous in the given context.

I am very glad to have read this. ( )