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The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection

By: Edgar Allan Poe
Narrated by: Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone
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Publisher's summary

Universally acclaimed as the maestro of horror and the morbid, Edgar Allan Poe's dark gift has for more than a century and a half set the standard for the genre. Here, 20 of Poe's most chilling stories and poems are performed by two of his most brilliant interpreters: Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone. Included are The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, Bells, The Gold Bug, and many more!
©2000 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved. (P)2000 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
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Critic reviews

2000 Winner of Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award: Archival Reissue

"Superb renderings...[Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone] know this material well...and know how to make it chill the listener. It's a romp for them and a delight for us." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    327
  • 4 Stars
    153
  • 3 Stars
    74
  • 2 Stars
    39
  • 1 Stars
    31
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    305
  • 4 Stars
    62
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    16
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    285
  • 4 Stars
    92
  • 3 Stars
    28
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    9

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Superior Poe!

There are many recordings of Poe's work -- ranging from the bland to the wildly overheated. This is the best, without paralell. Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price bring authority, wit and sensitivity to the tales and poems. These performers are not afraid to relish the juicy melodrama and they have the vocal equipment and training to make the language soar. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Oh, and by the way, the tales themselves are still scary, disturbing and haunting after all these years.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good, but could’ve introduced each story or split into individual chapters.

Good listen. But, the stories and poems are not split into chapters which makes it difficult to locate a specific story. I had to search the internet for the list which is below. Otherwise, enjoyed the audiobook.

1. To Marie Louise (Shew)
2. Alone
3. The City In The Sea
4. Berenice
5. The Fall Of The House Of Usher
6. Ligeia
7. The Haunted Palace
8. The Pit And The Pendulum
9. The Masque Of The Red Death
10. The Tell Tale Heart
11. The Gold Bug
12. The Black Cat
13. The Raven
14. The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar
15. The Cask Of Amontillado
16. The Bells
17. Annabel Lee
18. Eldorado
19. The Imp Of The Perverse
20. Morella

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb Narrations, but WHY NO TITLES?!

Such a classic author paired with pre-eminent actors in the macabre should rate perfection, but for some vexing reason unknown to me, none of the titles of the stories or poems are read before the tales themselves.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love it

Both are great readers for the works of Poe, wish they would tell title of each story at the beginning

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Utterly Unusable Formatting

As mentioned others--Price and Rathbone provide a masterful performance; however, the formatting is grossly unusable, especially to those not already intimately familiar with the works of Poe. I have little to add by way of content review...Poe's masterful. Copyright 2000 by Harper Collins Publishers, this performance is so poor that it makes you wonder how it could have lasted for 14 years and stupid people like me keep buying it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent performance, poor formatting.

As mentioned by other reviewers: a. Price and Rathbone provide a masterful performance here, and b. the formatting is bad enough to render the recording almost unusable, especially to those not already intimately familiar with the works of Poe. I have little to add by way of review, but I took the time to create a table of contents that I hope will be of assistance to other listeners.

1.) 0:10 - 2:03 To -----
2.) 2:03 - 3:10 Alone
3.) 3:15 - 6:23 The City in the Sea
4.) 6:28 - 31:20 Berenice
5.) 31:25 - 55:28 The Fall of the House of Usher *
6.) 55:30 - 1:44:27 Ligeia
7.) 1:44:30 - 1:46:49 excerpt from The Fall of the House of Usher
8.) 1:46:55 - 2:18:43 The Pit and the Pendulum
9.) 2:18:46 - 2:35:27 The Masque of the Red Death
10.) 2:35:33 - 2:49:37 The Tell-Tale Heart
11.) 2:49:40 - 3:45:27 The Gold Bug
12.) 3:45:30 - 4:12:19 The Black Cat
13.) 4:12:25 - 4:20:58 The Raven
14.) 4:21:03 - 4:38:00 The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
15.) 4:38:01 - 4:54:07 The Cask of Amontillado
16.) 4:54:13 - 4:58:23 The Bells
17.) 4:58:28 - 5:00:35 Annabel Lee
18.) 5:00:40 - 5:01:19 Eldorado
19.) 5:01:25 - 5:16:00 The Imp of the Perverse
20.) 5:16:06 - 5:31:22 Morella

*Selection #5, "The Fall of the House of Usher" skips a section of verse (marked as I-VI in the text), along with approximately one page on either side of this section. The skip occurs at 40:57. Selection #7 is of the missing verse (I-VI), though without the other material excluded from #5. Selection #5 has additional abridgments - a paragraph here, a sentence or a word there. I have not found any further abridgments in the other selections; if you find any, please post the information in a review.

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317 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

ok

Classic narration for sure. Unfortunately the audio needs to be cleaned up, and edited so the listener can skip from story to story. As it is, one must fast-forward to move past a poem or story.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great except for the formatting

4 stars - It was really good.

First, here is the table of contents because this audiobook doesn’t come with one. All the stories just run into each other so you need this table of contents if you want to find a specific story/poem. Also thanks Tom (another reviewer on Audible) for providing this list.

1.) 0:10 - 2:03 To -----
2.) 2:03 - 3:10 Alone
3.) 3:15 - 6:23 The City in the Sea
4.) 6:28 - 31:20 Berenice
5.) 31:25 - 55:28 The Fall of the House of Usher *
6.) 55:30 - 1:44:27 Ligeia
7.) 1:44:30 - 1:46:49 excerpt from The Fall of the House of Usher
8.) 1:46:55 - 2:18:43 The Pit and the Pendulum
9.) 2:18:46 - 2:35:27 The Masque of the Red Death
10.) 2:35:33 - 2:49:37 The Tell-Tale Heart
11.) 2:49:40 - 3:45:27 The Gold Bug
12.) 3:45:30 - 4:12:19 The Black Cat
13.) 4:12:25 - 4:20:58 The Raven
14.) 4:21:03 - 4:38:00 The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
15.) 4:38:01 - 4:54:07 The Cask of Amontillado
16.) 4:54:13 - 4:58:23 The Bells
17.) 4:58:28 - 5:00:35 Annabel Lee
18.) 5:00:40 - 5:01:19 Eldorado
19.) 5:01:25 - 5:16:00 The Imp of the Perverse
20.) 5:16:06 - 5:31:22 Morella

Also, some of these stories are abridged. I know for sure The Fall of House of Usher is missing sections and paragraphs. I don’t know for sure about the other stories but I assume they are also missing some parts.

This is a pretty good collection of stories and poems from Poe. I like almost all of these so it was great to relisten to them, especially with Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone as the narrators. Of these versions I think my favorite was The Pit and the Pendulum with Price as the narrator. He really brought out the horror of that story and made it feel very spooky.

Overall, this was an enjoyable collection even with the formatting problems. I read Poe’s stories every year around this time and I really enjoyed the horror and emotion captured in this audio collection.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lacking

Doesn't have a table of contents or chapter titles so it just goes straight into poems without any idea what's playing. The sound quality is quite low so I have to crank it loud to hear.
Dissapointed because the price point is a bit high for the quality.
Amazon is just lucky their voices are worth it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Damn, but the voices are creepy!

Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone are amazingly creepy! Mindblowingly disturbing voices combined with Poe's disturbing text and you have something to send chills up & down your spine. Perfect for Halloween.

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