Horror Story Review: "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe

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Although the condemned man doesn’t expect to be believed, he wants to unburden his soul. He’s to hang the next day. He knows he’s excitable and wants to make a record, in as plain language as possible, of what happened. He married young. Like his wife, he enjoyed the presence of pets. They had birds, gold fish, a fine dog, a monkey and… a cat. The cat was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, completely black in coloring. He named him Pluto. Pluto took a special liking to the narrator. He followed him around, climbed in his lap and purred. But the narrator took to drink, demon gin. He abused his wife and all the animals, but especially Pluto. Long ago and far away, a fourth grade teacher read this to us as a class around Halloween. Reading it now, with its mentions of alcoholism and animal torture and killing, I’m surprised he did. His greatest hesitation seemed to be over saying the word “hell” aloud. Granted, I wasn’t scarred for life. But this is a brutal story. It’s mitigated to some degree by knowing from the beginning the narrator will be punished for his misdeeds. He’s not asking for mercy, not even forgiveness. He’s asking maybe something closer to understanding. He’s an unspoken poster child for avoiding drinking. So, rather than kicking Edgar Allan Poe, I’ll cuddle my black cat, Gremlin. This story is available from Project Gutenberg in the collection The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe and as an audio book from Librivox: _____ Title: “The Black Cat” Author: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) First published: United States Saturday Post August 19, 1843 Source: ISFDB