The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe are a macabre collection of tales involving murder, guilt, madness, and revenge. The most famous of these stories involve a man who tricks a supposed friend into a long, slow death; a prisoner being tortured by a slowly descending blade; a premature burial; and a guilty murderer who is convinced that he can hear his victim's heart still beating under the floorboards. Themes explored in these stories include sanity, madness, man's conscience, and the inevitability of death.