title: The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Stories: The Whole Story
author:  Edgar Allan Poe 
description: Grade 8 Up-This series entry presents Poe's unabridged text accompanied by annotated color and black-and-white illustrations and reproductions of various aspects of life during the stories' time periods. The selections include "The Gold-Bug," "The Oval Portrait," "The Cask of Amontillado," "Some Words with a Mummy," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." In some instances, as when there is a historical connection, the annotations are particularly enlightening, e.g., the information about the Inquisition and its relationship to "The Pit and the Pendulum." To maintain continuity, readers may prefer to read through the stories first and then return to the sidebars or vice versa. Libraries that own anthologies of Poe tales will not be denying readers the most important material-the stories themselves-if they pass on this one.<br /><i>Joanne K. Cecere, Highland High School, NY </i><br />Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: To my family and friends.
  
  Your support means everything.
  
    
  
  > I thrust my arms wildly above and around me in all directions. I felt
  > nothing: yet dreaded to move a step, lest I should be impeded by the walls
  > of a tomb.
  
  EDGAR ALLAN POE, ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’
  
   **Contents**
  
    
  
  PROLOGUE
  
  CHAPTER ONE
  
  CHAPTER TWO
  
  CHAPTER THREE
  
  CHAPTER FOUR
  
  CHAPTER FIVE
  
  CHAPTER SIX
  
  CHAPTER SEVEN
  
  CHAPTER EIGHT
  
  CHAPTER NINE
  
  CHAPTER TEN
  
  CHAPTER ELEVEN
  
  CHAPTER TWELVE
  
  CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  
  CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  
  CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  
  CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  
  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  
  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  
  CHAPTER NINETEEN
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  
  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  
  CHAPTER THIRTY-