Un hombre perdiendo todo rastro de su temperamento apacible a manos del alcoholismo, la violencia, el suspenso, el horror, la soberbia, gatos sin ojos, gatos negros, gatos que tal vez son brujas... Todo en un mismo relato.

Leí El Gato Negro por primera vez cuando estaba en el colegio y hoy, releyendo la historia, la recordaba a la perfección. Me encanta cómo Poe juega con la creencia de que los gatos negros pueden ser brujas camufladas durante todo el relato y cómo hace que su protagonista, el hombre entregado al alcohol, vaya perdiendo gradualmente su temple, su amor por los animales y la paciencia que lo caracterizaba. Además, siento que las escenas que retratan los arranques de violencia y locura son increíbles, pues trascienden un poco el papel.

En esta relectura noté algo que me pareció muy curioso y es el cierto paralelismo que hay con el final de El Corazón Delator. Si han leído El Gato Negro, díganme, ¿soy la única que nota la similitud o realmente está allí?

Being a fan of Poe I’m surprised that I missed reading this one! So glad that I finally read it! Poe’s writing, as we fans of his, draws you in from the first page. Definitely a good short story for the month of October. Creepy + scary = Poe!

4 Stars. One of Poe's big ones. I believe the concept of this story is out there just beyond individual awareness, in the ether of community consciousness. I've never read it, nor seen anything on TV, yet I knew what was coming. The joy was the journey. The author pulls us along well. One wonders whether, as modern society becomes less superstitious, and that surely is happening, awareness of literature in such a vein is diminishing as the superstitions do? Or is it just that the story is almost 180 years old? It first appeared in "Saturday Evening Post" in 1843; my read was from "The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales" of 1960. A gentle and happy man who, along with his wife, enjoyed pets of all types, from dogs to goldfish and rabbits, had a special one, a large black cat named Pluto. That name became popular in the next century with the appearance of the Disney character and the 1930 discovery of the planet. Unfortunately the man descended, through the "Fiend Intemperance," alcohol, to animal and spousal abuse. Of course black cats aren't witches in disguise, nor are curses real, but this man and this cat should never have met! (November 2020)

داستان کوتاه عجیبی بود!اینکه چطور این موجود دو پا می‌تونه با نیروی خشم چه آتش‌هایی علیه خود و دیگران به پا کند بماند، اما حیوانات و غرایز اونها تا چقدر می‌تونه در برابر خباثت و دنائت انسان، متظاهر بشه و خودنمایی کنه!
اینکه انسان هم می‌تواند با کنترل درونی به جایگاهی والا برسه و یا اینکه با بی‌پروایی به أضل حایگاه حیوانیت سقوط کنه.
فتأمل!

GOODREADS POLL QUESTIONS: What did you think of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, THE BLACK CAT?
...
READER RESPONSES:
n  n

OUCH....well I didn’t hate this anti black cat hit piece as much as the unbiased poll respondents did, but I didn’t really like it either. Of course, as a member of the GLASS Association (Get Lousy Drunk and Sing Showtunes), I will say that I found the negative portrayal of excess alcohol consumption to be both misleading and offensive and may have allowed that anger to color my opinion.
n  n

Regardless, for me this story pretty much floated between “meh” and “so so” with occasional gusts up to okay. The writing was fine, though I think Poe Boy has certainly shown far more literary prowess than he displayed here. Still, I would easily have forgiven less than brilliant prose if the story had been good.

Uh…it wasn’t….or, at the very least, it wasn’t good enough to engage me the way I would have liked. Much of this had to do with the story dynamic which just felt forced and far-fetched.

The story begins with Mr. “kind, sweet, animal lover” who is happily married to Mrs. “kind, sweet animal lover” and has a lot of kind, sweet and well-loved animals, especially a large black cat named Pluto. So Dr. Doolittle begins sampling the local fermented beverages and quickly becomes a raging alcoholic madman who not only HATES animals, but enjoys committing surgical atrocities on them….WOAH!! BACK UP!!...HUH?
n  n

It just didn’t make sense to me and I lost interest fairly early which is tough to do with a story only 15 pages long (so hats off to Poe on that score). The journey from Mike Brady to Hannibal Lector was just too much of a stretch and the story's arms weren't long enough to reach. Anyway, from there the plot just strolled deeper into the land of “Yeah Right” until finally coming to a stop at the oh so predicable ending. Even the trademark dread that Poe is usually so good at imbuing in his stories was almost totally absent.

Thus, for me, a disappointment given how much I have loved many of his stories.

قط يساوي شعور عادي يختلف من شخص إلى آخر

قط أسود شعور بالإنزعاج

قط أسود في الليل شعور بإنزعا�� حاد مصحوب بخوف

قط أسود بعين واحدة في ليل مظلم شعور بخوف و فزع قد يؤديان بصاحبهما إلى ارتكاب أعمال جنونية .

قصة القط الأسود للكاتب الأمريكي المشهور " إدجار ألان بو " التي تظهر ببساطة عبقريته .

Πρώτη επαφή με το έργο του Πόε, 5 αστεράκια *****

Gosh, this was so short (I am glad it was) and yet still managed to send shivers down my spine.
Honestly, I was really grossed out and found it hard to finish this story.

The horror of "The Black Cat" written by Edgar Allan Poe is not only about the gradual degradation of the character, descent into madness and the committing of gruesome and cruel crimes without feeling remorse, but it is also about the distortion of the main character's perception of good and evil and the reader's slow partial conviction of his "innocence" due to his mentally ill psyche and alcohol abuse.

this was crazy i just ended up getting bored kinda

karma is a cat

Un grande classico del gotico/horror da uno dei maestri indiscussi del terrore, dell'incubo. In poche pagine Poe riesce a creare una tale atmosfera inquietante, dove l'orrore è dentro di noi.
Magistrale!

#2016-aty-reading-challenge-week-51: a short story from a well-known author.

My love for Edgar Allan Poe's short stories began in seventh grade. My language arts teacher was a very dramatic looking woman: skeletally thin with long raven black hair which was parted in the middle and tightly pulled back into a chignon, revealing razor-sharp cheekbones. No person alive could install more of a sense of horror and dread in us than she did as she read Poe's stories aloud to our class. And we loved it!

The narrator of this story, who is confessing his sins while awaiting the punishment for his crimes, wants to blame everything on intemperance and 'the primitive impulses of the human heart,' but it soon becomes obvious that this man is totally remorseless and insane and is getting what he so richly deserves! Marvelous atmospheric story--perfect for the Halloween season (or any time you want a good scare!)