The Tell-Tale Heart

This schizophrenia makes it look like crazy, even though the narrator strives to prove otherwise. Whoever committed the crime shows his capacity for self-control and tells the details of the murder of the old man. Although he did not hate him, he is terrified and deep hatred for the eye of the old gentleman so he decides to murder the man to remove his evil eye. However, when he thinks he is free from all, now becomes obsessed with the beating of his hideous heart....

The quintessential Poe tale. He captures the experience of guilt in an impressive way. The timelessness of the telling is deeply impressive showing very little age as well. As one of Poe's most famous works there is nothing new I can add to its analysis but this is definitely an essential story for anyone to read.

True!-Nervous-Very, very dreadfully nervous...

Poe's story of a delusional killer who is driven to insanity by the sound of his dead victim's beating heart is essential reading. It is written from the point-of-view of this madman who fixates on specifics and attempts, in earnest, to persuade us of his sanity. Poe's prose is full of rhythm, especially through the use of repetition, which is also linked to insanity. This repetition builds as the tension swells until the narrator has an emotional outburst, first of violence, then of delirium. This is a masterful short narrative, and the first-person writing is utterly captivating, from the moment those first words make contact with our own eyes.