By Edgar Allan Poe
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American writer, poet, editor and literary critic,
considered part of the American Romantic Movement.
Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe
was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short
story and is considered the inventor of the detectivefiction genre.
He is further credited with contributing
to the emerging genre of science fiction.
He was the first well-known American
writer to try to earn a living through
writing alone, resulting in a financially
difficult life and career.
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Words are frequently used for the way they
sound, as well as for their meanings.
Poe's rhythm and internal rhyme becomes
almost hypnotic in many poems.
 The difficult vocabulary reflects the
style of Poe's time period.
Every important word is intended
to evoke a mood or atmosphere in the
reader, and Poe aimed for the same
effect regardless of whether the work
was prose or poetry.
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Poe builds suspense throughout the stories,
revealing some facts while withholding others.
The narration is frequently first
person, which makes the reader's
connection to the story more intimate.
Poe's descriptions are usually
Minutely detailed to give a sense of
reality to the stories, despite their
supernatural atmosphere.
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The use of irony and black humor is common.
Gothic elements are usually prominent in his
writing: the supernatural, evil animals, and dark,
gloomy settings
Poe's depictions of how the human mind works
heighten a reader's connection to the story.
The surprise endings provide a reason to go back
through the work to look for clues missed on the
first reading.
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The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an
unspecified year and concerns the deadly revenge
taken by the narrator on a friend whom he claims has
insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories the narrative
revolves around a person being buried alive
As in "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe
conveys the story through the murderer's perspective.
First published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's
Lady's Book.
A legend holds that the inspiration for "The Cask
of Amontillado" came from a story Poe had heard
at Castle Island in Massachusetts when he was a
private there in 1827. According to this legend,
Poe was told the story of a lieutenant named
Drane who killed another officer, named Massie,
by burying him alive.
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Poe wrote his taleas a response to his personal rival Thomas Dunn
English.
Poe and English had several confrontations, usually revolving around
literary caricatures of one another.
One of English's writings went a bit too far, and Poe successfully sued his
editors at The New York Mirror for libel in 1846.
That year English published a revenge-based novel called 1844, or, The
Power of the S.F.
It included a character named Marmaduke Hammerhead, the famous
author of "The Black Crow", who uses phrases like "Nevermore" and "lost
Lenore", referring to Poe's poem "The Raven".
In this parody, Poe was depicted as a drunkard, liar, and domestic
abuser.