Lunchtime read: Selected Tales

One of the things I signed up for before heading off on holiday was to take part in the blogging book reviews that Penguin is running on its classics site. Once you register you get send a book at random and then have six weeks to get through it and post a review – well at least that was my understanding of it. Just before heading off for Switzerland The Selected Tales of Edgar Allan Poe turned up and so for probably the next fortnight will be providing reading over the lunch break.

Highlights from The Duc L’Omelette
The book starts with a story that throws you a little bit because it uses French just in the places that appear to be quite critical so you have a rough idea of what is happening but not a crystal clear one. It seems that a French duke has been taken from his coffin and dragged into hell where he has to accept his vices and then gamble on his future with the king.

Highlights from MS. Found in a Bottle
A man who ends up being tossed around in the storm finally ends up on some doomed ship that is destined to spend its days being tossed around the icy seas of the pole. He writes about his adventures and the other members of the crew, who are all old and don’t take any notice of him, and puts it in a bottle. He seems to be fighting the obvious that he will join the crew and be stranded with them forever.

More tomorrow…