Early Halloween Reading

I've been re-reading some Edgar Allan Poe tales lately, and I've been struck (all over again) by his mastery of suspense. Admittedly, what was considered scary in the nineteenth century must be quite tame by our standards, but one still gets quite a thrill from reading The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum and my personal favourite, The Cask of Amontillado. I suppose that Poe knew better than most that man's potential for cruelty is boundless. And he was not afraid of plumbing those depths in his work.
But back to that suspense. The tale The Cask of Amontillado is particularly skillful on that score. Although you as the reader knows what must happen - he tells us in that fabulous first line "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge." - Poe draws you inexorably on, putting little crumbs in your way until suddenly, you've bought it all- hook line and sinker. It really is a rather outrageous tale. But it is a masterful display. My collection is hardly exhaustive (the Penguin Classics edition The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings), but you can get free texts on the Free Library. Just click here.