Download or read book The Pit and the Pendulum written by Edgar Allan Poe and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-06-04 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates an intense interest in aesthetic issues and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. The Fall of the House of Usher describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past. In The Tell Tale Heart, a murderer's insane delusions threaten to betray him, while stories such as The Pit and the Pendulum and The Cask of Amontillado explore extreme states of decadence, fear and hate.