Berenice (short story)
Short story by Edgar Allan Poe / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Berenice" is a short horror story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the Southern Literary Messenger in 1835. The story is narrated by Egaeus, who is preparing to marry his cousin Berenice. He tends to fall into periods of intense focus, during which he seems to separate himself from the outside world. Berenice begins to deteriorate from an unnamed disease until only her teeth remain healthy. Egaeus obsesses over them. When Berenice is buried, he continues to contemplate her teeth. One day, he awakens with an uneasy feeling from a trance-like state and hears screams. A servant reports that Berenice's grave has been disturbed, and she is still alive. Beside Egaeus is a shovel, a poem about "visiting the grave of my beloved", and a box containing 32 teeth.
"Berenice" | |
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Short story by Edgar Allan Poe | |
Text available at Wikisource | |
Original title | Berenice – A Tale |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Horror short story |
Publication | |
Published in | Southern Literary Messenger |
Publication type | Print (Periodical) |
Publication date | March 1835 |
Contemporary readers were horrified by the story's violence and complained to the editor of the Messenger. Although Poe later published a self-censored version of the work, he believed the story should be judged solely by how many copies it sold.