A murderer is forced to reveal his crime by the sound of a beating heart, a mysterious figure wreaks havoc among a party of noblemen during the time of the plague, a grieving lover awakens to find himself clutching a box of his beloved blood-stained teeth, a man is obsessed with the fear of being buried alive – these are only some of the memorable characters and stories included in this volume, which exemplify Poe’s inventiveness and natural talent as a storyteller.

Immensely popular both during and after his lifetime, and a powerful influence on generations of writers and film-makers to this day, Edgar Allan Poe is still counted among the greatest short-story writers of all time and seen as one of the initiators of the detective, horror and science-fiction genres.

Contains: ‘Metzengerstein’, ‘MS Found in a Bottle’, ‘Berenice’, ‘Morella’, ‘Ligeia’, ‘The Devil in the Belfry’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘William Wilson’, ‘The Man of the Crowd’, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘A Descent into the Maelstrom’, ‘Never Bet the Devil Your Head’, ‘Eleonora’, ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘The Black Cat’, ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’, ‘A Tale of the Ragged Mountains’, ‘The Premature Burial’, ‘The Oblong Box’, ‘The Purloined Letter’, ‘Some Words with a Mummy’, ‘The Oval Portrait’, ‘The Imp of the Perverse’, ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’, ‘The Sphinx’.

Find out more about our Gothic Collection

Part of Alma Classics Evergreens Series

Part of Essential American Masterpieces (now at £25)