It was a black cat -- a very large one -- fully as large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one. Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body; but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast.

"The Black Cat" is a short story by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in the August 19, 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post . In the story, an unnamed narrator has a strong affection for pets until he perversely turns to abusing them.

A summary of “The Black Cat” (1843) in Edgar Allan Poe's Poe’s Short Stories. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Poe’s Short Stories and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.

Despite Poe’s insistence that his stories and poems do not contain morals and are designed solely to produce an effect, “The Black Cat” can be read as a cautionary tale about the dangers of alcoholism. The narrator’s descent into alcoholism leads him to commit a …

Edgar Allan Poe could do was stand and watch it burn to the ground. I thought of the cat as I watched it burn, the cat whose dead body I had left hanging in the cellar. It seemed almost that the cat had in some mysterious way caused the house to burn so that it could make me pay for my evil act, so that it could take revenge upon me.

2024年4月21日 · For works with similar titles, see The Black Cat. "The Black Cat". MS., 1842—1843. (cited: F. O. C. Darley, personal communication. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (2:42-54)

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One of Poe’s most horrifying and dark tales, “The Black Cat” contains Poe’s most vehement condemnations of alcohol and the ills it causes. The abundant symbolism, imagery, and psychological confusion throughout the story pull readers into …

2011年5月6日 · 爱伦•坡：《黑猫》 le chat noir. （从法语版翻译。 http://www.douban.com/note/148915998/） 我要说的故事极其荒唐，而又极其平凡，我并不企求各位相信。 连我亲身经历都无法置信的故事，若还指望人家相信，岂不是发了疯么？ 但是眼下我并没有发疯——亦绝非在梦中。 明天我就要死了，唯有趁今天说出一切，我才能让灵魂安生。 我迫切地要把一系列家常琐事清楚简洁，不加评语的公诸于世。 就是源于这些，我饱尝惊慌， …

More than any of Poe's stories, "The Black Cat" illustrates best the capacity of the human mind to observe its own deterioration and the ability of the mind to comment upon its own destruction without being able to objectively halt that deterioration.