Se trata de la primera colección bilingüe castellano-inglés de seis de las mejores novelas clásicas. Las traducciones al castellano han sido cuidadosamente seleccionadas. Los autores, universalmente
Las aventuras de Srthur Gordon Pym a bordo del viejo bergantín Grampus, es el relato más extenso de Poe. En él se encuentran los recuerdos literarios del romanticismo de Coleridge, una imaginación inagotable y secuencias de estremecedor pánico. Con esta travesía culmina el autor su peripecia novelística a través del mundo del terror y de la angustia.
Four short stories of murder and mystery, in which Edgar Allan Poe wrote about terrible people who lead strange lives. "Penguin Readers" is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series' combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English-speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre-20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders. "Penguin Readers" are graded at seven levels of difficulty, from "Easystarts" with a 200-word vocabulary, to Level 6 (Advanced) with a 3000-word vocabulary. In addition, titles fall into one of three sub-categories: "Contemporary", "Classics" or "Originals". At the end of each book there is a section of enjoyable exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles in the series are available with an accompanying audio cassette, or in a book and cassette pack.Additionally, selected titles have free accompanying "Penguin Readers Factsheets" which provide stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class.
The Black Cat es uno de los relatos más populares de Poe y uno de los precursores de la novela negra, en el que asocia al gato con el lado oscuro, desconocido, de la existencia humana. Ligeia fue considerado por su autor el mejor de sus cuentos, un relato lleno de carga psicologica, cuyo tema fundamental gira en torno a la confrontacion entre poder fisico y psiquico.
A stowaway aboard the whaling ship Grampus, Arthur Gordon Pym finds himself bound on an extraordinary voyage to the high southern latitudes. Poe's remarkable novel recounts the "incredible adventures and discoveries" of Pym and his companions. There is mutiny, appalling butchery, and the "exquisite horror" of cannibalism; premature burial within an impenetrable seaborne labyrinth; a corpse-ridden ghost ship, gigantic polar bears, and uncharted islands peopled by barbarian hordes.
Según H.P. Lovecraft, la diferencia entre E.A. Poe y sus ilustres predecesores estriba en que éstos habían trabajado a oscuras, sin comprender la base psicológica del atractivo del terror. Poe comprende el mecanismo y la fisiologia del miedo y de lo extraño, estudia la mente humana mas que los usos de la ficcion gotica, y trabaja con unos conocimientos analiticos de las verdaderas fuentes del terror, lo cual incrementa la fuerza de sus relatos y los libra de los absurdos inherentes al estremecimiento convencional y estereotipado. Asi pues, Poe no solo compuso obras maestras del genero, sino que tambien teorizo sobre el, buscando siempre la emocion estetica mas intensa, que a su juicio se encontraba en la provocacion del horror. La seleccion del presente volumen se centra exclusivamente en las historias que persiguen deliberadamente provocar dicho efecto: es decir, la radicalizacion del placer literario de lo macabro.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is internationally renowned as a pioneering master of the macabre. He is regarded as one of the world's great short story writers as well as a great lyric poet, and is credited with inventing the detective story and the modern gothic horror tale. He has been an important influence on many major American and European writers including William Faulkner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Baudelaire, H.P. Lovecraft, and William Butler Yeats, among many others. Poe's poetry, which is collected in this volume, is more personal than his prose. The themes of love, death, and despair which recur throughout reflect the anguish he suffered in his own troubled life. "Annabel Lee" is a haunting lament to his young wife, Virginia, who died of tuberculosis. "The Bells" is an eerie and melancholy meditation which recreates with brilliant musical language the hypnotic, funereal aura of ringing bells. "The Raven" is a comic tour de force in which the protagonist turns his strange visitor into a symbol of his own sorrow and loss. Poe's best poems remain some of the most popular and technically accomplished in the English language. This book features a deluxe cover, ribbon marker, top stain, and decorative endpaper with a name plate.
