The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings

First published 1843 · 419 pages · English

11 quotes ★ 4.19 (245,356) Classics

Quotes from the Book

Now this is the point. You fancy me a mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded...

Villains!' I shrieked. 'Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! Tear up the planks! Here, here! It is the beating of his hideous heart!

True! - nervous - very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?

And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense? --now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.

I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.I heard many things in hell.

TRUE! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded –with what caution –with what foresight –with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it –oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly –very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! –would a madman have been so wise as this? And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously –oh, so cautiously –cautiously (for the hinges creaked) –I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights –every night just at midnight –but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture –a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees – very gradually –I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

I smiled,—for what had I to fear?

Did you know?

The title story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," was first published in January 1843 in the inaugural issue of The Pioneer, a Boston literary magazine edited by James Russell Lowell.
The anthology includes "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter," featuring detective C. Auguste Dupin, whom Poe helped establish as a model for later fictional detectives.
The volume contains Poe's only completed novel, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket."
The poetry selection includes "The Raven," one of the most famous poems in American literature.
Poe was one of the first American authors to attempt to earn a living exclusively through writing.

About Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American writer, poet, and critic best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre and for pioneering detective fiction. He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States and of early American literature.

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About the book

"The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings" is a Bantam Classic anthology that gathers a generous selection of Edgar Allan Poe's prose and poetry into a single volume. It collects sixteen of his most celebrated tales, among them "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Purloined Letter," and "The Pit and the Pendulum," together with his prose poem "Silence—A Fable" and his only novel, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym."

The collection is unified by Poe's abiding preoccupations: guilt, madness, mortality, and the unreliable workings of the human mind. Gothic terror and psychological suspense sit alongside the ratiocinative detective stories featuring C. Auguste Dupin, which helped establish the modern mystery genre. The poetry section rounds out the portrait of Poe's art, offering enduring verse such as "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," "The Bells," "Lenore," and "To Helen."

As a compact survey of Poe's finest short fiction and poems, the volume has served generations of readers as an accessible introduction to a writer widely regarded as a central figure of American Romanticism and Gothic literature and a pioneer of both detective fiction and the modern short story. Its assembled tales and poems continue to shape horror, mystery, and popular culture well beyond their nineteenth-century origins.

Key characters

C. Auguste DupinAmateur detective in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter"
The unnamed narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart"A murderer who insists on his own sanity while confessing his crime
Roderick UsherThe doomed master of the crumbling estate in "The Fall of the House of Usher"
Prince ProsperoThe nobleman who tries to escape plague in "The Masque of the Red Death"
MontresorThe vengeful narrator who walls up his enemy in "The Cask of Amontillado"
Arthur Gordon PymThe young stowaway narrator of Poe's only novel