"The Tell-Tale Heart" is one of a group of Poe stories that deal with obsession and madness. The central and most explicit of these stories is "The Imp of the Perverse" (1845), a combination of story and essay in which a Poe narrator discusses and illustrates how humans often persist in some act or behavior for the very fact that they should not. Although the story notes such examples as procrastination in action and digression in speech, the central example is murder and a compulsion to confess.

Even more closely related to "The Tell- Tale Heart" is the story "The Black Cat," in which Poe once again uses the notion of the Imp of the Perverse, some primitive force in the human mind that drives one to commit an act for the very reason that one should not. Once again, the story focuses on a protagonist who murders someone and then gives himself away by a final act of bravado, much like the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart."

Other Poe stories which deal with an obsession or an unmotivated compulsion to murder are "The Premature Burial" (1844) and "The Cask of Amontillado." Stories which focus on a central character who seems obsessed and thus whose sanity is in question are "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Berenice" (1835). "The Tell-Tale Heart" has been the subject of more than one film treatment, but the best version is a short animated film narrated by James Mason. The surrealistic animated images reflect the distorted psychological perspective of the narrator and visually reflect the principle elements of his obsession.

• Listen & Read Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart’’ and Other Stories is an audio-cassette recording packaged with a book. Produced by Dover Press, 1996.
• ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart’’ was adapted into a black-and-white film starring Sam Jaffe in 1980. It is available on video from Facets Multimedia, Chicago.
• In 1934, ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart’’ was made into a movie entitled Bucket of Blood starring John Kelt as The Old Man and Norman Dryden as the protagonist.
• In 1956, producer/director Lee W. Wilder loosely adapted two of Poe’s stories,‘‘The Gold Bug’’ and ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’’ in his movie Manfish.
• In 1962, ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart’’ was made into a British movie by director Ernest Morris. Known as The Tell-Tale Heart, it also carries the alternate title The Hidden Room of 1,000 Horrors. It is available on video from Nostalgia Family Video.
• In 1969, ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart’’ was made into an animated film narrated by actor James Mason. A Columbia Pictures release, it is also available on video.
• Another audio recording is available from Downsview of Ontario, Canada. Tales of Mystery and Horror features the voice of actor Christopher Lee. Produced in 1981.

Buranelli, Vincent. Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Twayne, 1961. This is a basic introduction to Poe's works, focusing primarily on his usual themes in both his fiction and poetry.

Carlson, Eric W., ed. The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966. This is an invaluable collection of the best known and most influential essays on Poe and his work.

Davidson, Edward H. Poe: A Critical Study. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957. One of the most intellectually powerful and thus one of the most influential studies of Poe, Davidson's book created a new respect for his work.

Hoffmann, Daniel. PoePoePoePoePoePoePoe. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972. Although this is a highly personal and idiosyncratic consideration of Poe, it is worth reading as a psychological study of his tales.

Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. New York: Appleton-Century Crofts, 1941. This is the most authoritative and most trustworthy biography of Poe.

Thompson, G. R: Poe's Fiction: Romantic Irony in the Gothic Tales. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. An important study of Poe's use of romantic irony in his tales to create hoaxes, this work represents a new approach to Poe's fiction.

Thomas, Dwight, and David Jackson, eds. The Poe Log. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. This is the most comprehensive biographical source for information about Poe; it includes thousands of documents and notes about his life on an almost daily basis.

Sources
Gargano, James W. ‘‘The Theme of Time in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’’’ In Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. V, no. 1 (Fall 1967): 378-82.

Gargano, James W. ‘‘The Question of Poe’s Narrators.’’ In College English, Vol. 25, no. 3 (December 1963): 177-81.

Robinson, E. Arthur. ‘‘Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’’’ In Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 19, no. 4 (March 1965): 369-78.

Ward, Alfred C. ‘‘Edgar Allan Poe: ‘Tales of Mystery and Imagination.’’’ In Aspects of the Modern Short Story: English and American. University of London Press, 1924, pp. 32-44.

Further Reading
Lewis, R. W. B. Edgar Allan Poe. Chelsea House, 1997. A critical study of Poe’s works.

Quinn, Arthur Hobsons, and Shawn J. Rosenheim. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Outlines Poe’s life with special emphasis on his works.

Rosenheim, Shawn, and Stephen Rachman. The American Face of Edgar Allan Poe. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. Essays on Poe that compare his work to that of Jorge Borges and contemporaries Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Wordsworth. Other essays discuss themes such as psychoanalysis, literary nationalism, and authorial identity as it relates to his work.