Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Works Collection

By: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrated by: Philippe Duquenoy

Chapter titles have been updated to reflect the name of each poem/story as of March 2022.

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most prolific authors of his time, eventually gaining recognition for his tales of horror and his uncanny ability to paint a macabre picture with words.

The Complete Works Collection of Edgar Allan Poe contains over 150 stories and poems, separated into individual chapters, including all of Poe's most notorious works such as The Raven, Annabel Lee, A Dream Within a Dream, Lenore, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and many more.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2018 A.R.N. Publications

Disappointed

I’m a huge fan of Edgar. This really sucked and the poems aren’t even the same.../

Forced Narration.

The Stories are wonderful but the lack of labeling chapters is an annoyance. In a recording so long and full of different stories, there is difficulty keeping track of where one stoey ends and the other begins. My only other complaint is that the narrator has lapses in his accent that sound as if he is forcing the accent to fit story better but really all it does is distract from the work itself.

hate the voice

you would be better off finding a "text to speech" to read it to you! I honestly feel like that's what this is

Boring and overrated

This hurts to write, but I think his writing was boring. There were a few stand out stories and writings that were great, but outside of those few, everything was skippable. The reader was good.

Bad Bad Narrator

This is the best selection of stories and poems I've found yet and I'm a lifelong fan of Poe and have many books on him. That being said the narrator is terrible, his voice is monotone and one dimensional. He has no depth or character and it's obvious that this is his first time reading Poe, I liken it to a bored high school kid reading aloud in class. Plus he reads as if everything is one long continuous story. If you didn't know already know where the stories began and ended, you'd be lost. If you want a narrator that gives true depth and a sense of the gothic atmosphere listen to "Edgar Allen Poe the Complete Stories" read by Bob Thomley.

Good but need titles for the chapters and stories

I enjoyed how they included all of Poe’s works but I would like to see titles for the chapters and stories. A good tone for the stories

Reader gets on my nerves

Wasn’t expecting all the background on Poe. That was welcome. The British speaker however got on my nerves and I’m returning the book with some regret.

Chapters need titles

Great to hear all these, but for ease of reading would like to see the chapter titles reflect the story/poem- so to can move around to favorites easily.

Things we didn't know

I like listening to this before I go to sleep. You'll never tire of this reading and there are many writings I never knew, I never heard anyone mention Poe was one of the first science fiction writers but that's probably why my dad was so fond of him. I am really enjoying it and love listening to these stories

A good addition to the library

I like having complete work collections as a great way to explore an author’s more obscure works that are more difficult to find individually, especially if trying to avoid excessive duplications in your collection. This collection spans Poe’s works across multiple formats, from short stories to poems, a novel, essays, and a play. That said, I couldn’t find a lot of pattern to the ways the works are organized, but the pdf accompanying the audio book makes it simple to navigate to the correct chapter for the work you want to hear. There are also some accompanying illustrations which are a bit awkward in the audiobook format but are there for completeness.

In terms of the performance, I have listened to some other things narrated by Mr. Duquenoy, and he has some pros and cons. He does very well in general with pronunciation of some of the dated and obscure words Poe uses with some frequency, and does admirably in reading the many excerpts Poe includes in other languages including Latin, French, Spanish, German, and Italian. His intonation keeps the reader interested in some of the works that can otherwise get a bit dry or laborious with Poe’s complex writing style.

That said, I find his phrasing to be awkward on many occasions, putting stress or rising/falling intonation in unnatural (to my ear) places in the text such that it sometimes distracts from the work. In the prose works, I generally find his pros to outweigh his cons, but I find his readings of the poems difficult to enjoy because his phrasing feels so unnatural or forced. As some other reviewers have said, it does come across sometimes as if being read by a computer voice. I did notice a few words he pronounced incorrectly and one example of a word order mistake, but in general it seemed pretty solid in terms of accuracy. The narrator also reads with a British accent which I find to be a strange choice for an American poet.

In terms of the works themselves, they really span the gamut of format, with both long and short, numerous and serious, satirical and straightforward examples abounding. Poe can tend to unnecessary complexity and lack of brevity that can grow a bit tiresome in some works, to the point of getting in the way of the story, but on the whole feels more like a consequence of the age of the works than a defect of the writer per se. There are definitely outdated ideas of science, race (including some terms, concepts, and stereotypes that are objectionable to modern readers), and society that have to be read with an understanding of the period in which the work was written.

In general I don’t regret the 40 hours or so I spent listening to this and for those like me who like to listen to the greats, this is a decent choice!