ish. His choice of words, vivid
pictures, and clearly evolved plots make his writings excellent
studies for any one who wishes to develop literary appreciation and to
learn to write.

GENERAL REFERENCES

_Studies and Appreciations_, L.E. Gates.

_American Prose Masters_, William Crary Brownwell.

_The Short Story in English_, Henry Seidel Canby.

_Edgar Poe_, R.H. Button.

_Inquiries and Opinions_, Brander Matthews.

"Life of Edgar Allan Poe," _Nation_, 89: 100-110.

"Weird Genius," _Cosmopolitan_, 46:243-252.

COLLATERAL READINGS

_Ligeia_, Edgar Allan Poe.

_The Cask of Amontillado_, Edgar Allan Poe.

_The Assignation_, Edgar Allan Poe.

_Ms. Pound in Bottle_, Edgar Allan Poe.

_The Black Cat_, Edgar Allan Poe.

_Berenice_, Edgar Allan Poe.

_The Tell-Tale Heart_, Edgar Allan Poe.

_The White Old Maid_, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

_Moonlight_ ("Odd Number"), Guy de Maupassant.

_A Journey_, Edith Wharton.

_The Brushwood Boy_, Rudyard Kipling.

_At the Pit's Mouth_, Rudyard Kipling.

The Gold Bug[1]

_By Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)_

What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad!
He hath been bitten by the Tarantula.
--_All in the Wrong_.[2]

Many years ago I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. He
was of an ancient Huguenot[3] family, and had once been wealthy; but a
series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid the
mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the
city of his forefathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan's
Island, near Charleston, South Carolina.

This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than
the sea sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point
exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a
scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of
reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation,
as might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any
magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort
Moultrie[4] stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings,
tenanted, during summer, by the fugitives from Charleston dust and
fever, may be found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole
island, with the exception of this western point, and a line of hard,
white beach on the seacoast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of
the sweet myrtle, so much p