"The Black Cat" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. In the story, an unnamed narrator has a strong affection for pets until he perversely turns to abusing them. His favorite, a pet black cat, bites him one night and the narrator punishes it by cutting its eye out and then hanging it from a tree. The home burns down but one remaining wall shows a burned outline of a cat hanging from a noose. He soon finds another black cat, similar to the first except for a white mark on its chest, but he develops a hatred for it as well. He attempts to kill the cat with an axe but his wife stops him; instead, the narrator murders his wife. He conceals the body behind a brick wall in his basement. The police soon come and, after the narrator's tapping on the wall is met with a shrieking sound, they find not only the wife's corpse but also the black cat that had been accidentally walled in with the body and alerted them with its cry.
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It is told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator's sanity while simultaneously describing a murder the narrator committed. The victim was an old man with a filmy pale blue "vulture-eye", as the narrator calls it. The narrator emphasizes the careful calculation of the murder, attempting the perfect crime, complete with dismembering the body in the bathtub and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately, the narrator's actions result in hearing a thumping sound, which the narrator interprets as the dead man's beating heart.
"The Cask of Amontillado" is a short story by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book. The story, set in an unnamed Italian city at carnival time, is about a man taking fatal revenge on a friend who, he believes, has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative follows a person being buried alive – in this case, by immurement. As in "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe conveys the story from the murderer's perspective.
"Dolan's Cadillac" is a novella by Stephen King. It was originally published in Castle Rock, King's official newsletter, in monthly installments from February to June 1985. In 1993, "Dolan's Cadillac" was collected in Nightmares & Dreamscapes. The story is narrated by the protagonist, a schoolteacher, and there is only one other main character, Dolan.
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, then included in the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840. The short story, a work of Gothic fiction, includes themes of madness, family, isolation, and metaphysical identities.
Catalepsy is a neurological condition characterized by muscular rigidity and fixity of posture regardless of external stimuli, as well as decreased sensitivity to pain.
"Berenice" is a short horror story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the Southern Literary Messenger in 1835. The story is narrated by Egaeus, who is preparing to marry his cousin Berenice. He tends to fall into periods of intense focus, during which he seems to separate himself from the outside world. Berenice begins to deteriorate from an unnamed disease until only her teeth remain healthy. Egaeus obsesses over them. When Berenice is buried, he continues to contemplate her teeth. One day, he awakens with an uneasy feeling from a trance-like state and hears screams. A servant reports that Berenice's grave has been disturbed, and she is still alive. Beside Egaeus is a shovel, a poem about "visiting the grave of my beloved", and a box containing 32 teeth.
Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive.
The Fall of the House of Usher is an opera by Peter Hammill (music) and Chris Judge Smith (libretto). It is based on the 1839 short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe.
Taphophobia is an abnormal (psychopathological) phobia of being buried alive as a result of being incorrectly pronounced dead.
A safety coffin or security coffin is a coffin fitted with a mechanism to prevent premature burial or allow the occupant to signal that they have been buried alive. A large number of designs for safety coffins were patented during the 18th and 19th centuries and variations on the idea are still available today.
"Hop-Frog" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character, a person with dwarfism taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for the king's striking of his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses the king and his cabinet as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all by setting their costumes on fire before escaping with Trippetta.
American poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe has had significant influence in television and film. Many are adaptations of Poe's work, others merely reference it.
Edgar Allan Poe has appeared in popular culture as a character in books, comics, film, and other media. Besides his works, the legend of Poe himself has fascinated people for generations. His appearances in popular culture often envision him as a sort of "mad genius" or "tormented artist", exploiting his personal struggles. Many depictions of Poe interweave elements of his life with his works, in part due to Poe's frequent use of first-person narrators, suggesting an erroneous assumption that Poe and his characters are identical.
Shadow of the Raven is the eighth album by gothic duo Nox Arcana. This time the composers Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski honor Edgar Allan Poe, the author of "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Fall of the House of Usher, "The Tell-Tale Heart" and other tales of suspense and horror, as well as the famous poem "The Raven". Nox Arcana's Shadow of the Raven was cited in the academic book Handbook of Intermediality: Literature - Image - Sound - Music in reference to the vast legacy of Poe's works in music.
The Premature Burial, also known as Premature Burial, is a 1962 American horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Ray Milland, Hazel Court, Alan Napier, Heather Angel and Richard Ney. The screenplay by Charles Beaumont and Ray Russell is based upon the 1844 short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. It was the third in the series of eight Poe-themed pictures, known informally as the "Poe Cycle", directed by Corman for American International Pictures.
Tales of Poe is a 2014 anthology film directed by independent filmmakers Bart Mastronardi and Alan Rowe Kelly. As of February 2019, the film has grossed over $5k from video sales.
The London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial was an association that was co-founded in 1896 by William Tebb and Walter Hadwen. In the 1800s, it was not common nor mandatory for a physician to examine a body after death and declare the person deceased. The absence of a final check by a competent person for signs of life led to fears of premature burial. The London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial was created to bring attention to the perceived problem of this state of affairs. The association campaigned for improvements in death certification and for the building of "safety coffins" with warning devices that could be activated by a person mistakenly declared dead and buried.
"Loss of Breath", also known as "Loss of Breath: A Tale Neither in Nor Out of 'Blackwood' ", is a short story written by American author Edgar Allan Poe under the pseudonym "Littleton Barry". A satirical tale, the story is narrated by Mr. Lackobreath who recounts his attempt to find and reclaim his lost breath, which he had literally misplaced. Throughout his journey, he is repeatedly dismembered and disfigured, falsely assumed to be dead, hanged, locked away, and prematurely interred. The absurd exaggerations may be explained by the fact that the tale was meant to satirize fiction published in the Edinburgh Blackwood Magazine, which was known for its sensational texts.
A burial artist is a person who intentionally endures premature burial by being voluntarily buried for extended periods as a form of human endurance contests, endurance art, escapology, or magic (illusion).
