''TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?'' And so begins ''The Tell-Tale Heart'', that compressed tale of Gothic composition. The characters and images that Edgar Allan Poe has gifted us are plentiful. Hugely influential to the short story genre, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) remains a lion of American letters. His morose explorations of human depravity render his tales exceptionally captivating. Here, in Volume I of II, is contained ''The Murders in the Rue Morgue'', ''The Black Cat'', ''The Tell-Tale Heart'', and ''Ligeria'', among many others. Many acknowledge Poe's tales as prototypes for the later development of the horror, mystery, and science fiction genres. Poe's life is perhaps as fabled and shrouded in mystery as his stories. His mysterious death remains a source of myth. Poe was firmly established in the Gothic movement of the time and further was a father of ''dark romanticism'' which explored the psychology of torment and death. These stories are sure to arrest and transport the reader to the unique world of Edgar Allan Poe.