Read by David Shaw-Parker, Richard Mitchley & Tom McLean (Unabridged: 6hrs 37mins)

The top 10 short stories of all time written by Edgar Allan Poe.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

Among those we call the dark masters, one name glimmers with a more ready menace: Edgar Allan Poe who can, in an instant, unleash and surround our fears with unspeakable torment. His words also bring careful consideration as his detective stories reveal the hidden clues.  Whatever the genre Poe is almost unrivalled in both story and solution.

In this compilation -