The midnight hour approaches You lie in bed & try to sleep but there is the howling of the wind outside the creak of a floorboard the scream of a cat the ticking clock Your heart beats your skin crawls & despite yourself you reach for this book & enter a world like a nightmare haunted by dark fears guilty secrets & the bloody consequences of rage revenge & obsession You cannot tear yourself away these tales will appall & yet enthrall you for no mere mortal can resist the master of Gothic horror Edgar Allan Poe