The Tell-Tale Heart

True!-Nervous-Very, very dreadfully nervous...

Poe's story of a delusional killer who is driven to insanity by the sound of his dead victim's beating heart is essential reading. It is written from the point-of-view of this madman who fixates on specifics and attempts, in earnest, to persuade us of his sanity. Poe's prose is full of rhythm, especially through the use of repetition, which is also linked to insanity. This repetition builds as the tension swells until the narrator has an emotional outburst, first of violence, then of delirium. This is a masterful short narrative, and the first-person writing is utterly captivating, from the moment those first words make contact with our own eyes.