I got this for my dad for Christmas, or his birthday, can't remember which. He's a truck driver so he has a lot of time to listen to audio books, and he really enjoyed this one.

I'd used this version of Poe stories for my high school class through our school library, and I really like the Basil Rathbone/Vincent Price versions, so I decided to order my own copy as the library one was getting old. However, the version I received does not tell you which stories are on which CD - not on the CDs themselves or on an insert, so I'm going to have to listen through all of them and then mark them myself - BUMMER. Otherwise, I would definitely recommend this version.

Of course, Rathbone and Price are naturals for the genre, inbueing the narrative with gravity and nerve. My reservations are that the stories have been selectively abridged, sometimes (in my estimation) at the sacrifice of important details and narrative pace. From what I have heard, the poems don't suffer this unfortunate fate. Another caution would be that, because of the timbre of their voices, these retellings don't work well in the car--standard road noice makes listening to these CD's all but impossible; they really need to be listened to with nothing more than a crackling fireplace or the flutter of wings in the background.

I purchased this product to use with my students so that they could get a better feel for Poe's works without allowing pronunciation issues to slow them down. The readings are dramatic and clear, and they really helped my kids get into the story as they followed along. I would recommend them for any teacher or parent who wants to lead some young minds towards some classic literature!

We all know (or I hope we know) that Poe is a genius, but trust me when I say that in reading this Basil Rathbone is absolute genius as well! I cannot imagine a better voice for the material, and not only that, but the deliciously devious manner of his reading is perfect. It is exactly the way I imagine Poe writing the stories and poems. To hear Rathbone portray the maniacal narrator of "The Black Cat" or "The Cask of Amontillado" is an exercise in audio heaven. Not to mention "The Raven", which is fantastically gut-wrenching. Vincent Price is of course good too, but he got the short end of the stick with the material, relatively speaking (hearing "Ligeia" and "Morella" is just too similar). Rathbone is the star of these CD's. An earlier reviewer called this compilation "gutless". I feel sorry for someone who hears this and says that, because it is quite definitely anything but gutless!