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Three famous horror stories of Edgar Allan Poe („The Black Cat“, „Hop Frog“ and „The Pit and the Pendulum“), translated into Latin by Nikolaus Groß. With drawings of Alfred Kubin and a detailed glossary.
The Black Cat, first published in United States Saturday Post, 19.th of Aug., 1843.
The
narrator loves animals. He and his wife have many pets, including a
large black cat named Pluto. This cat is especially fond of the
narrator and vice versa. Their mutual friendship lasts for several
years, until the narrator becomes an alcoholic. One night, after coming
home intoxicated, he feels that the cat is avoiding him intentionally.
In a fit of rage, he seizes the animal, pulls a pen-knife from his
pocket, and gouges out the cat’s eye.
From
that moment onward, the cat (understandably) flees in terror at his
master’s approach. At first, the narrator is remorseful and
regrets his cruelty. "But this feeling soon gave place to irritation.
And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit
of PERVERSENESS." He takes the cat out in the garden one morning and
hangs it from a tree, where it dies. That very night, his house
mysteriously catches on fire forcing the narrator and his wife to flee.
The
next day, the narrator returns to the ruins of his home to find,
imprinted on the single wall that survived the fire, the figure of a
gigantic cat, hanging by its neck from a rope.
At
first, this image terrifies the narrator, but gradually he determines a
logical explanation for it, and begins to miss Pluto. Some time later,
he finds a similar cat in a tavern. It is the same size and colour as
the original and is even missing an eye. The only difference is a large
white patch on the animal’s chest. The narrator takes it home,
but soon begins to loathe, even fear the creature. After a time, the
white patch of fur begins to take shape and, to the narrator, forms the
shape of the gallows. Then, one day when the narrator and his wife are
visiting the cellar in their new home, the cat gets under its
master’s feet and nearly trips him down the stairs. In a fury,
the man grabs an axe and tries to kill the cat but is stopped by his
wife. Enraged, he buries the axe in her skull instead. To conceal her
body he places her in a corner of the room and walls up the space. When
the police came to investigate, they find nothing and the narrator goes
free. The cat, which he intended to kill as well, has gone missing.
On
the last day of the investigation, the narrator accompanies the police
into the cellar. There, completely confident in his own safety, the
narrator comments on the sturdiness of the building and raps upon the
wall he had built around his wife’s body. A wailing sound fills
the room...
The pit and the pendulum, a story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1842. Undoubtedly, this is the most exciting story of Poe.
At
the beginning of the story an unnamed narrator (who is presumed French)
is brought before a trial of judges. He gives no explanation of why he
is there or what he is being imprisoned for. His hope is shown by three
tall white candles on a table. As they melt his hope of escaping goes
down too. When the judges give him his death sentence he passes out and
awakens in a dark prison. At first he thinks he is locked in a tomb but
he moves around and discovers that he is in a prison in Toledo. He
decides to explore the cell by placing a piece of his shirt against a
wall so he can count the paces around the cell however he passes out
before being able to measure the whole perimeter.
When
he wakes up he discovers bread and water near him which he eats
eagerly. He gets back up and tries to measure the prison again, finding
the perimeter one hundred steps on each side. He decides to cross the
room and slips on the hem of his shirt. He discovers when he hits the
ground that if he hadn't fallen he would have walked into a small
seemingly bottomless pit. He measures the depth of the pit by dropping
a rock into it and discovering it to be several hundred feet deep with
water on the bottom. The narrator falls asleep again and wakes up to
more bread and water. He eats it and discovers it was drugged and falls
asleep again.
When
he awakens, he discovers that the prison is slightly lit and that he is
strapped to a wooden board by ropes. He looks up in horror to see the
painted picture of Father Time on the ceiling, hanging from the figure
is a gigantic scythe pendulum swinging back and forth slowly. He soon
realizes that hour by hour the pendulum is slowly moving down and will
eventually hit him and slowly kill him. He tries to remain hopeful and
tries to devise an escape plan when he notices a strange sight...
Hop-Frog
is a court-fool. The king is delighted in him not only because of his
funny ideas, but also because he is a dwarf and a cripple.
Hop-Frog’s
only friend and confidant is the danseuse Tripetta – once from
some far remote barbarian country both they were sent as war trophies
to the court. Because it is true Hop-Frog is esteemed as a jester, but
in no way beloved, the coddled Tripetta often could support him. In the
court a great masquerade is approaching. The king and his seven
ministers consult in vain, which fancy dresses they should put on. So
they send for Hop-Frog and Tripetta.
The
king knows that Hop-Frog does not like wine, because the poor
court-fool by this beverage is excited until insanity. But the king
likes crude jokes and so he forces Hop-Frog to empty a bumper, and
because the jester has not immediately an idea, he gets a second. The
dwarf hesitates gasping for breath. Tripetta throws herself at the
king’s feet in order to ask for the suffering dwarf, but the
drunken tyrant pours the contents of the beaker into her face. A
strange crunching sound is heard in the hall.
Now
Hop-Frog’s mood seems to be changed, he is laughing while he
drinks the second bumper, and then he explains his plan for an
absolutely new kind of masquerade. The king and his ministers are
inspired with enthusiasm, and, at midnight, as it was foreseen, there
is a great agitation, when eight chained orang-outans stumbling and
roaring rush into the dancing hall, in which for safety reasons the
chandelier has been substituted by a lot of wall torches and all doors
have been bolted. At the hight of the wild uproar, the howling bunch of
chained orang-outans is approaching the chain, from which otherwise the
chandelier hanged down from the ceiling, and now the infuriated jester
carries out his dreadful revenge ...
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