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    The Pit and the Pendulum
    The Pit and the Pendulum
    The Pit and the Pendulum
    Audiobook42 minutes

    The Pit and the Pendulum

    Written by Edgar Allan Poe

    Narrated by B. J. Harrison

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “I was sick, sick unto death with that long agony,” begins one of the most famous tales from the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Through the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, we follow the straying mind of an unnamed prisoner in his quest for hope in a world of darkness and despair.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherB.J. Harrison
    Release dateOct 7, 2007
    ISBN9781937091552
    The Pit and the Pendulum
    Author

    Edgar Allan Poe

    Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. His parents, both touring actors, died before he was three. He was raised by John Allan, a prosperous Virginian merchant. Poe published his first volume of poetry while still a teenager. He worked as an editor for magazines in Philadelphia, Richmond and New York, and achieved respect as a literary critic. In 1836, he married his thirteen year-old cousin. It was only with the publication of The Raven and other Poems in 1845 that he achieved national fame as a writer. Poe died in mysterious circumstances in 1849.

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    Reviews for The Pit and the Pendulum

    4/5

    235 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      One of my favorite works from Edgar Allan Poe. I highly recommend this work
    • 5/5
      GREAT! Poe has a way of keeping a reader on the edge of their seat until the last word is read. Do yourself a favor, read everything this man has written!
    • 5/5
      Frankly, this remains today one of the most utterly disgusting tales in all of English literature. You can feel the nipping of the rats on your flesh as you read it.
    • 4/5
      The Pit and the Pendulum is easily one of my favorite Poe story’s. Set during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, it’s descriptive narrative lends weight to the tale. One can almost feel oneself beside the unnamed narrator facing the terror of the pit and feeling the breeze from the pendulum as it swings closer and closer.
    • 4/5
      Short, creepy as all get pout, macabre, & insidious, it's Poe at his blackest. We never know the age or name of the young man who is sentenced to death & finds himself in a dungeon. As he feels his way around, he attempts to discover the dimensions of his prison, trips, & falls right at the edge of a pit in the center of the cell. Terrified, he retreats to the edge of the cell, where he drinks the water that's provided for him by an unknown hand. When he wakes next, it's discovered that the water was drugged, & he's strapped to a table in what amounts to mummy wrappings, & then he notices the razor edged pendulum above him. In the hours/days(?) even he himself doesn't know, he watches it descend little by little, it's scythed edge sweeping back & forth with a hiss. At first he embraces what is sure to be his certain death, then snaps out of it, & devises an ingenious way to escape his winding sheets. The rest of the story I won't spoil.....
    • 5/5
      I love this story. It's creepy and it lingers in the brain forever.
    • 4/5
      Waking up in darkness, fearing a live burial; groping in the darkness almost falling into a pit; bound to a framework under a swinging pendulum while rats rush for their midnight snack; sizzling iron walls squeezing together, but not to cook hamburgers. These could be scenes from Indiana Jones and the Dungeons of Toledo. And yet, The Pit and the Pendulum is classic Poe: heart throbbing, adrenaline rushing, spine tinkling and hair raising suspense and terror. The story triumphs not only through its content but also its form; the words and sentences, like spectral needles and blades, pierce memory and imagination to engrave a tangy nightmare. Yes, before Stephen King, there was Edgar Allan Poe. Bon appetite!