Edgar Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, the father of American horror fiction, first published his macabre short story "The Black Cat" in the August 19, 1843 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. The frightening tale of a murderer tormented by guilt over his terrible deeds is a classic. The narrator's admission that much of his bad behavior and deranged thinking is the result of demon alcohol is possibly autobiographical, as Poe himself struggled with alcoholism throughout his life. This short work is part of Applewood's "American Roots," series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America's most famous writers and thinkers.

The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe

Romy

Demon

I think it's an interesting short story, playing on the horror but saying it's only some "mere" events, as if it can happen to everyone. It also plays on the supernatural side of the horror, which was well-used.

Gabi🌸🌷

Sage

yeah i hated this book. i listened to the narration by NELSON OLMSTED and it made me shiver and jump on the train! in public! read it. you'll hate yourself. and the main character. but it's ok, we all need to be shaken up a little sometimes.

Trish

I've come to accept that horror and true crime are not my preferred genres and any novel that includes graphic murder scenes just isn't my cup of tea. 

This story features an unpredictable drunk who slaughters pets and spouses alike. Hard for me to be anything but appalled. I guess the two stars is to show my appreciation for Poe's violent imagination. Other than that, nothing I'd want to read again... unfortunately there's three more Poe short stories on my American Narratives course syllabus. They just had to focus on the American goth era this summer *palm hits forehead*.

Azaura A

Sophie Dowse 

This story genuinely left me with my mouth wide open. I'm still trying to mentally process what I've just read, but in summary it was a masterpiece. The complete confusion and guilt that the characters face, along with the horrifying violence shown is simply jaw dropping, and I'm sure this story will stay on my mind for many days to come.

Sage Lee

Meriem💫

Diana Platgalve

Madness, darkness, alcohol infused rage, and death. All combined in Poe's "The Black cat."
It's actually pretty accurate, how Poe was able to describe the rage, that wakes up in people after the rejection, experiencing it way more deeply when intoxicated. You do bad because it is bad, your cognitive abilities are so weakened that it is hard to control the rage; but when intoxication fades, you know that crime committed while being slave to it...was wrong.

Rita Santos

"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe is narrated in the first person, which leads to the fact that we cannot fully trust the narrator. The narrator tries to rationalize his actions to the reader. He begins by presenting an image of a happy marriage, of a good man who loved animals, and who blamed alcohol for his wickedness. At the beginning of the story he still feels remorse for what he has done, however, throughout the story we can see this change, "this feeling soon gave place to irritation".
	Poe shows us one of the possible results of society's alienation, by writing about a narrator who, as he changes his family environment for the tavern, eventually becomes an alcoholic and, as he suffers the consequences of alcoholism, somehow "loses" his morality and commits crimes. 
From this narration we can see his self-perception of his actions. The narrator's alcoholism, in a way, makes him free to manifest his perversity. We can contrast this work with transcendentalist principles by showing the narrator's lack of reason and morality, demonstrating that it is unreliable to trust our "inner-self" because we all have perversity in us.

Diptyalina Barman

Did anyone know that a synonym for VOMIT/BARF is CAT ?! 
but POE is mad GENIUS!

Danni’s Badass Books

⭐ 3.5 Stars ⭐ 

This made me rather uncomfortable. 

The writing was good, but the animal cruelty just didn't sit well with me so I didn't particularly enjoy reading, hence the rating.

It is disturbing, but if you like that sort of stuff go ahead and read this as it's only a short book.

Ilse

This book is good in the sense that it very effectively managed to disturb me and as a deep lover of cats (and animals in general) I hated reading the animal cruelty bits, which was almost the entire thing. The entire story escalates so quickly that I just cannot follow the logic as to how it does so (and rather not delve deeper into it to discover). Definitely hammered hom that I’m not one for disturbing horror stories and as such I’m going to stay well clear of Poe in the future

Bad Girl Bex

Would actually prefer to have given this a 3.5* rating (a 7/10 if the voting system was better) because it's not quite a 4, but definitely more than a 3. The dark rumblings of insanity and rage and hatred and evil, all about throughout the tale. We know that the protagonist is going to come to his own self-wrought downfall, but I wanted so desperately for the black cat to get its revenge on the abuse and murder of poor Pluto. I can read about all manner of despicable things being enacted upon humans of all ages, genders, walks of life and temperament. But reading about the abuse and torture of an innocent animal breaks my heart, makes me cry and I struggle to work through such content. Thankfully this miserable wretch was hoist by his own petard and ended up being punished, imprisoned for his crime of uxoricide. But I still feel that he deserved to have more agonies wrought upon him for daring to lay a finger on the heads of any of the household pets he eventually abused. I hope consumption set in, combined with insanity and he died in agony, both of the soul and the physical body. Good story though

razan 

all I'm saying is that I should've read this gem of a story many many years ago 
  wow

noha

" I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others."

Wow! Poe is literally the master of horror.

Animal cruelty is a terrible thing, and honestly some descriptions made me feel uncomfortable. The same thing would happen to you especially if you're a cat lover. Um, but I do like the story and I'd absolutely recommend it! yeah, I think everyone should read some of Poe's short stories.

Ps: it has the elements of the Tell-tale Heart; the narrator isn't in a stable state of mind.

Carla Aquino

Short and sweet!! I did keep thinking if Poe ever thought to murder his sickly wife while writing this though, which is kind of creepy.

Carolina Lopes

A tale of a man's descent into madness as he succumbs to his illness, portrayed by the horrifying actions which he takes (yet with no sign of remorse, as he always blames his surroundings for making him do terrible deeds). An amazing short story

The Black Cat

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