Quotes from book
The Tell-Tale Heart

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It is related by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator’s sanity while simultaneously describing a murder the narrator committed. The victim was an old man with a filmy "vulture-eye", as the narrator calls it. The narrator emphasizes the careful calculation of the murder, attempting the perfect crime, complete with dismembering and hiding the body under the floorboards. Ultimately, the narrator's feelings of guilt, or a mental disturbance, result in hearing a thumping sound, which the narrator interprets as the dead man's beating heart.


Edgar Allan Poe photo
Edgar Allan Poe photo
Edgar Allan Poe photo
Edgar Allan Poe photo
Edgar Allan Poe photo

“And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?”

The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
Context: And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? -- now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.

Similar authors

Edgar Allan Poe photo
Edgar Allan Poe 126
American author, poet, editor and literary critic 1809–1849
Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 220
English poet, literary critic and philosopher
Heinrich Heine photo
Heinrich Heine 61
German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic
Matthew Arnold photo
Matthew Arnold 166
English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector…
Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 88
English poet, author
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 202
American poet
Jules Verne photo
Jules Verne 44
French novelist, poet and playwright
Robert Southey photo
Robert Southey 51
British poet
Oliver Wendell Holmes photo
Oliver Wendell Holmes 135
Poet, essayist, physician
Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo
Henri-Frédéric Amiel 50
Swiss philosopher and poet