Poe's most iconic horror stories. Despite a terrible plague ravaging the land, Prince Prospero hosts a lavish masquerade ball. The festivities are a complete success—until midnight, when a stranger appears wearing the mask of the plague itself, and terror grips the castle. The Mask of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher, William Wilson, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat. Poe is the undisputed master of literary horror, dissecting the dark side of the human soul. This collection presents 20 eerie stories in a special hardcover edition embossed with silver foil. The greatest horror author in the world in the original English edition. "If everyone who received a check for a story that owes its origin to Poe had to pay a tithe for a monument to the master, he would have a pyramid as large as that of Cheops." Arthur Conan Doyle. Edgar Allan Poe is considered one of the founders of horror literature. His poetry became the foundation of symbolism. "Poe consistently and inexorably created magic, while his greatest contemporaries merely produced beauty. [...] Thus, his superiority has cost him his reputation. [...] Above all, Poe is great because he forgoes cheap incentives, such as sex, patriotism, combat, sentimentality, snobbery, gluttony, and the whole vulgar rest of what his profession has to offer." George Bernard Shaw. "Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see." Edgar Allan Poe. "Years of love were forgotten in the dislike of a moment." Edgar Allan Poe.