Showing results for "The Pit and the Pendulum" in Short Stories

“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 the unnamed prisoner in his quest for hope in a world of darkness and despair. This episode skyrocketed The Classic Tales Podcast to number 3 on iTunes’ Top 100 Podcasts chart.

'The Pit and the Pendulum', one of Poe's most well-renowned short stories, is centred around the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the listener because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasising its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories, which are aided by the supernatural.

This is a story from the Fall of the House of Usher collection. The horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, with its dungeon of death, and the overhanging gloom on the House of Usher demonstrate unforgettably the unique imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. Unerringly, he touches upon some of our greatest nightmares - premature burial, ghostly transformation, words from beyond the grave. Written in the 1840s, they have retained their power to shock and frighten even now.

First published in an 1842 literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843, "The Pit and the Pendulum" takes place during the Spanish Inquisition and follows the plight of a prisoner in a cell that has a pit and a pendulum. Unlike many of Poe's short stories, "The Pit and the Pendulum" does not rely on any supernatural elements to inspire fear but instead uses the narrator's heightened sensory experiences to do so.

Possibly the scariest horror story of all time. Captured and condemned to death by the Inquisition at Toledo, the narrator finds that his captors have devised a dungeon for him which exposes him to the most dreadful and drawn out psychological terror before certain death finally catches him. Every time he manages to escape one of their petrifying devices, another even more gruesome mode of execution is deployed.

Alcuni dei racconti di Poe che danno dello scrittore un ritratto completo e sconcertante: La rovina della casa degli Usher; Morella; Il gatto nero; Il pozzo e i lpendol; La lettera trafugata; Lo scarabeo d’oro; Il diavolo nella torre.