Tales of Terror

"The Monkey's Paw"Jacobs was considered a humorist in turn of the century England, but here he gives us a masterpiece of horror. "The Monkey's Paw" is a Gothic tale, warning us how easily wishes can go awry."The Pit and the Pendulum"One of Poe's most familiar works, "The Pit and the Pendulum" is the first-hand account of a prisoner during the Spanish Inquisition. It is a classic Gothic tale which deals with the experience of entrapment and torture."The Cone"Wells was primarily a writer of Science Fiction, but here he enters another realm. "The Cone" begins with a visit of two friends, the one showing the other his steel smelting operation. It ends with revenge."The Yellow Wallpaper"Written in 1892, this story of the mental breakdown of a young woman has a modern and realistic feel. It is Gilman's best-known work, and although it is an exceptional example of early feminist writing, it is, at heart, a portrait of terror.

About the Author

Edgar Allan Poe was born in January of 1809, the son of Boston actors. He was orphaned before he was three and was taken in by his godfather, John Allan, a merchant of Richmond, Virginia. After incurring gambling debts at the University of Virginia, he joined the army where, at eighteen, he published his first poems. He was dismissed from West Point, and then worked for various literary magazines. In 1836, while living in Baltimore, he married his fourteen-year-old cousin. He achieved acclaim for the Raven in 1845; two years later his wife died. In October of 1849, shortly after his engagement to a love of his youth, Poe was found semiconscious in the streets of Baltimore. He died days later.Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, England, on September 21, 1866. His father was a professional cricketer and sometime shopkeeper, his mother a former lady's maid. Although "Bertie" left school at fourteen to become a draper's apprentice (a life he detested), he later won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London, where he studied with the famous Thomas Henry Huxley. He began to sell articles and short stories regularly in 1893. In 1895, his immediately successful novel rescued him from a life of penury on a schoolteacher's salary. His other "scientific romances"-The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901), and The War in the Air (1908)-won him distinction as the father of science fiction.

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