“The Tell-Tale Heart”
Obsession grows louder
StorylineA narrator insists on being perfectly rational. The more urgently that case is made, the less comfortable we become. Poe draws us into an extraordinary voice in one of his most concentrated explorations of obsession and the uneasy workings of the mind.
“How, then, am I mad?”
THE SHORT SHOT EDITION
A perfectly calm story. According to its narrator.
- Short Shot editionComplete story · Unabridged
- GenreGothic suspense
- Estimated reading time9–11 minutesStory · extras excluded
Short Shot edition on Amazon · opens in a new tab
At a glance
- Genre
- Gothic suspense
- Mood
- A delicious shiver
- First published
- 1843
- Author’s country
- United States
Read the opening · excerpt
True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.
THE EDITOR’S TAKE
SOMETHING DELICIOUSLY DARK
Why “The Tell-Tale Heart”?
- Our narrator would like you to know that everything is perfectly fine.
- Naturally, we have questions.
- We love Poe’s breathless voice and the way he turns a few pages into a very good reason to leave the lights on.
BEHIND THE STORY
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) explores obsession, guilt and the stories people tell themselves. His fiction helps shape the detective story and makes unreliable narrators disturbingly good company. Reassuring bedtime reading is not always on the agenda.
A question to savor
When a narrator insists that you trust them, what makes you hesitate?
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