Ms. Found In A Bottle

Ms. Found In A Bottle is a small prototypical story by the master, whose extravagantly macabre tales have inspired such latter-day disciples as H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King. 


We follow an unnamed sailor at sea who finds himself in a series of traumatic circumstances. 


First, his vessel sails into a deadly storm; then it is hit and capsized by another ship. 


He soon realizes that no one notices his presence, even if he is standing right in front of them.  


As his ship spirals ever downward, he scrawls an "MS." telling of his adventures, which he then casts into the sea.


This bitter tale offers a fine chance to sample Poe’s ghoulish pleasures: the horror of being; the darkest depths of man’s soul; our deepest fears. It's all here. 


And the most terrifying thing about Poe's creations is that the threat doesn't come from a monster, or a devil but from inside ourselves, from within our hearts and minds.

 

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) has yet to be surpassed as the greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale. Since their first publication in the 1830s and 1840s, Poe's grotesque and sublime tales of mystery and madness have established themselves as classics of short fiction.