Home > Gothic Literature > Poe, Edgar Allan (1809 - 1849) - Edgar Allan Poe (Story Date 1842)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

EDGAR ALLAN POE (STORY DATE 1842)

SOURCE: Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Oval Portrait." In Great Ghost Stories: 34 Classic Tales of the Supernatural, compiled by Robin Brockman, pp. 55-7. New York: Gramercy Books, 2002.

The following short story was first published in Graham's Magazine in 1842.

The château into which my valet had ventured to make forcible entrance, rather than permit me, in my desperately wounded condition, to pass a night in the open air, was one of those piles of commingled gloom and grandeur which have so long frowned among the Apennines, not less in fact than in the fancy of Mrs Radcliffe. To all appearance it had been temporarily and very lately abandoned. We established ourselves in one of the smallest and least sumptuously furnished apartments. It lay in a remote turret of the building. Its decorations were rich, yet tattered and antique. Its walls were hung with tapestry and...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. Edgar Allan Poe (Story Date 1836)
   2. Edgar Allan Poe (Story Date 1842)
4. General Commentary
   1. Maurice LéVy (Essay Date 1968)
   2. Clark Griffith (Essay Date 1972)
5. Title Commentary
   1. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
   2. "The Fall of the House of Usher"
6. Further Reading

1. Edgar Allan Poe