The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe

This book contains Edgar Allan Poe’s 1844 short story, The Premature Burial.

The narrator describes his life-long obsession and a resulting disorder that sees him slip in and out of death-like trances. His true fear is being mistaken for dead during a trance and buried without his knowledge – a situation that he takes numerous precautions against. After finding himself waking in a claustrophobic and confined space, he is able to confront his fears and embrace the inevitable.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author, editor, poet, and critic. Most famous for his stories of mystery and horror, he was one of the first American short story writers, and is widely considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre.

We are republishing this vintage text, The Premature Burial, in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Extract from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Premature Burial:

To be buried while alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality. That it has frequently, very frequently, so fallen will scarcely be denied by those who think. The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? We know that there are diseases in which occur total cessations of all the apparent functions of vitality, and yet in which these cessations are merely suspensions, properly so called. They are only temporary pauses in the incomprehensible mechanism. A certain period elapses, and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the magic pinions and the wizard wheels. The silver cord was not for ever loosed, nor the golden bowl irreparably broken. But where, meantime, was the soul?

***

Here, at edgarallanpoe.co.uk, you can find the best of this fantastic author’s novels, short stories, essays, and poems.

You can also find a biography of Edgar Allan Poe, along with some of his most famous and loved quotes and poems.

Through republishing works such as ‘The Premature Burial’, it is hoped that the writing of this author of mystery and the macabre, can continue to delight – almost two centuries after its initial publication.

Share