The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe Quiz

Answer: The Pit and the Pendulum

This wonderful story really gives you a feeling of what the Spanish Inquisition must have been like.

Answer: childhood friend

In the beginning of the story, we read how the narrator received a letter from Roderick asking him to come, and the narrator commented how he hadn't seen Roderick since they were friends as children.

Answer: Head

This is one of Poe's funny ones. Subtitled "A Tale with a Moral", it satirises transcendentalism, and the idea that every story must have a moral significance.

Answer: the orangutan

This story, in which Poe introduced the French detective Dupin, keeps you guessing till the very end. It was incredibly written.

Answer: Valdemar

This was a very interesting story about a man who underwent hypnosis to help with an ailment. But the hypnotist became obsessed with the idea that he could put Mr. Valdemar in articolo mortis, or prolong his life after death, and paid for it in the end.

Answer: Pluto

Boy, I wouldn't want to be that poor cat: first he got his little eye taken out with a pen knife and then he (if the second cat is indeed, as the narrator suspects, a reincarnation of Pluto) got walled up with the narrator's wife!

Answer: His eye

"I think it was his eye--yes, it was this! It was all a pale blue with a film over it." The narrator's obsession with this eye led him to develop an intricate plan to kill the landlord, and eliminate the menace of his eye.

Answer: Red

The people holed up in an old abbey to protect themselves from the plague outside their walls hold a dance as entertainment, but one of the guests seems to be Death. Things go rapidly downhill.

Answer: Montresor

"For the love of God, Montresor!..Yes, for the LOVE OF GOD!" Fortunato did not appreciate being walled up by Montresor in retaliation for some unspecified slight.

Answer: Ligeia

These were the words that Ligeia spoke to her husband shortly before she died.

Answer: The Fall of the House of Usher

This was the poem, written by Roderick Usher, that the narrator set to music and sang to Usher to try and calm him down.

Answer: The Haunted Palace

"While, like a rapid ghastly river, through the pale door; a hideous throng rush out forever, and laugh--but smile no more." The story of a king whose palace is threatened by those who wish him ill illustrates the parlous state of Usher's mind.

Answer: Pym

Published in 1837, the book narrates Pym's adventures at sea after stowing away on a whaling ship. It has been suggested that Herman Melville may have obtained some of the ideas he used in "Moby Dick" from Poe's work.

Answer: Eye socket of a skull in a tree

For many, this story's main interest lies in its use of cryptography. Poe carefully had Legrand explain how he went about the process of solving a simple substitution cipher to interpret a cryptic message and locate the buried treasure.

Answer: axe

He kills her in rage when she tries to keep him from killing that cat that is a constant reminder of his guilt at mistreating it. This part still makes my blood run cold every time I read it. There's nothing more haunting than the imagination.