A well illustrated collection of four Poe short stories - a good introduction for anybody interested in his work.

I've always been a fan of Poe, constantly drawn in and intrigued by his surprise endings. And, his take are credit enough on their own, but with the artwork of Gris Grimly, they're taken to a whole new level. I can't call the art beautiful - it's just as much "can't-look-away " as the stories themselves. The art adds to the eerie tone and frightening events told, a beautiful pairing.

It was a little hard to understand the writing, but then I got used to it a little while later. I'm not upset by this fact, since this was written over a century ago. Probably almost two.
My favourite story has to be The Oblong Box. I must say, the contents of the box surprised even me. Just the whole story amazed me.
The illustrations are beautiful. They are peculiar, but I feel that they match the stories perfectly. I might have not been able to understand the stories if there weren't any pictures.... This is a little embarrassing to admit.
I loved the stories, I loved the illustrations, hence the 5 stars it deserves.

The illustrations were fabulous and really lifted the stories even more. Not a big fan of gore or horror but Edgar Allan Poe is the best.

Gris Grimly's illustrated four story volume Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Death and Dementia made it to the short list of the 2009 Cybils. I love Poe's stories and Grimly's illustrations do help bring them to life but we quickly disqualified the book because it's not a graphic novel. It's four illustrated and abridged stories.

The book contains four shortened versions of "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether", "The Oblong Box", and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" all illustrated and lettered as if they were graphic novel chapters. For younger teens who perhaps haven't read Poe yet, Gris Grimly's book would be a good introduction to the author. For graphic novel enthusiasts though it falls short.