Project Gutenberg's The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe

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Title: The Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Volume 4 (of 5) of the Raven Edition

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Release Date: May 19, 2008 [EBook #2150]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE ***

Produced by David Widger

THE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE

IN FIVE VOLUMES

VOLUME FOUR

The Raven Edition

Contents:

The Devil in the Belfry
Lionizing
X-ing a Paragraph
Metzengerstein
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether
The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.
How to Write a Blackwood article
A Predicament
Mystification
Diddling
The Angel of the Odd
Mellonia Tauta
The Duc de l'Omlette
The Oblong Box
Loss of Breath
The Man That Was Used Up
The Business Man
The Landscape Garden
Maelzel's Chess-Player
The Power of Words
The Colloquy of Monas and Una
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
Shadow.--A Parable

THE DEVIL IN THE BELFRY

What o'clock is it?--_Old Saying_.

EVERYBODY knows, in a general way, that the finest place in the world
is--or, alas, was--the Dutch borough of Vondervotteimittiss. Yet as
it lies some distance from any of the main roads, being in a somewhat
out-of-the-way situation, there are perhaps very few of my readers
who have ever paid it a visit. For the benefit of those who have not,
therefore, it will be only proper that I should enter into some account
of it. And this is indeed the more necessary, as with the hope of
enlisting public sympathy in behalf of the inhabitants, I design here
to give a history of the calamitous events which have so lately occurred
within its limits. No one who knows me will doubt that the duty thus
self-imposed will be executed to the best of my ability, with all
that rigid impartiality, all that cautious examination into facts, and
diligent collation of authorities, which should ever distinguish him who
aspires to the title of historian.

By the united aid of medals, manuscripts, and inscriptions, I a