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Influence That Endures Ever More: Edgar Allan Poe

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Influence That Endures Ever More: Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe once said, “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most influential people in literary history and his words had the great power to impress the mind. More than 150 years after the death of Edgar Allan Poe, his writings are still influencing and inspiring writers today. Edgar Allan Poe was one of the a greatest literary influences of the 19th century and of today because of the way he changed the literary style of his time, he created a new genre of literature of both the horror and detective story, and he became the founder of the modern short story. Edgar Allan Poe was able to change the way …show more content…

This was considered to be the birth of the detective horror story (Hockensmith).In his writings, Poe, is able to leave with the reader feelings of immense suspense. He is able to leave tingling shivers of horror and mystery that leave lasting impressions on the brain in just small descriptive stories. Finally, Edgar Allan Poe can be regarded as the architect of the modern short story (“Edgar Allan Poe 1809–1849”). His works such as The Black Cat, the Murders in the Rue Morgue, the Tell-Tale Heart, the Pit and the Pendulum, and many others leave behind an enduring image of macabre and mystery in just a short read. In these tales, Poe doesn’t just tell the reader a scary story, he lets them live it. With a fluid tongue, Poe paints before the reader scenes of terrors that leave the reader hanging on the edge of their seats in built up suspense. In some of his stories he puts the reader in the role of the executioner or even in the victim’s role. For example in The Tell-Tale Heart, The narrator is trying to prove his sanity to himself just after he had murdered his aged roommate. In this story the narrator is driven murderous by the elderly man’s lustrous eye, as one goes through the tale the reader lives through the act of the horrific dismembering and even feels the pressure the narrator does as he reveals his crime to the police. “I talked more and with a

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