The Premature Burial
by Edgar Allan Poe
Poe's short horror story of being buried alive became a widespread fear during this period, and Poe captured the public's attention. The unnamed first-person narrator describes his struggles with "bouts of singular disorder that doctors agree to call catalepsy," a condition in which he accidentally enters a death-like trance. This leads to the fear of being buried alive ("True poverty" means "being buried while alive"). When he wakes up one morning, he discovers that his worst fears have come true! Premature Defin is considered one of the 100 greatest books of all time.
