The TellTale Heart audiobook short story by Edgar Allan Poe Learn English through Story
[Music]
a short story from the works of edgar
allan poe
the raven edition
the telltale heart
[Music]
true
nervous very very dreadfully nervous i
had been and am
but why will you say that i am mad
the disease had sharpened my senses not
destroyed not dulled them
above all was the sense of hearing acute
i heard all things in the heaven and
earth i heard many things in hell
how then am i mad
how can and observe how healthily how
calmly i can tell you the whole story
it is impossible to say how first the
idea entered my brain
but once conceived it haunted me day and
night
object there was none passion there was
none i loved the old man he had never
wronged me he had never given me insult
for his gold i had no desire
i think
it was his eye
yes it was this
he had the eye of a vulture a pale blue
eye with a film over it
whenever it fell upon me my blood ran
cold and so by degrees
very gradually
i made up my mind to take the life of
the old man and thus rid myself of the
eye forever
now this is the point you fancy me mad
madman know nothing
but you should have seen me you should
have seen how wisely i proceeded with
what caution with what foresight with
what dissimulation i went to work
i was never kinder to the old man than
during the whole week before i killed
him
and every night about midnight i turned
the latch off his door and opened it
oh so gently
and then when i had made an opening
sufficient for my head i put in a dark
lantern
all closed
closed that no light shone out and then
i thrust in my head
oh you would have laughed to see how
cunningly i thrust it in
i moved it slowly
very very slowly so that i might not
disturb the old man’s sleep it took me
an hour to place my whole head within
the opening so far that i could see him
as he lay upon his bed
huh
would a madman have been so wise as this
and then when my head was well in the
room i under the lantern cautiously
oh so cautiously
cautiously for the hinges creaked
i undid it just so much that a single
thin ray fell upon the vulture eye
and this i did for seven long nights
every night just at midnight but i found
the eye always closed and so it was
impossible to do the work
for it was not the old man who vexed me
but his evil eye and every morning when
the day broke i went boldly into the
chamber and spoke courageously to him
calling him my name in a hearty tone and
inquiring how he has passed the night
so you see he would have been a very
profound old man indeed to suspect that
every night just at 12 i looked in upon
him while he slept
upon the eighth night i was more than
usually cautious in opening the door
a watch’s minute hand moves more quickly
than did mine
never before that night had i felt the
extent of my own powers of my sagacity
i could scarcely contain my feelings of
triumph
to think that there i was
opening the door little by little and he
not even to dream of my secret deeds or
thoughts
i fear he chuckled at the idea and
perhaps he heard me
for he moved on the bed suddenly as of
startled
now you may think that i drew back but
no
his room was as black as pitch with the
thick darkness for the shutters were
closed fastened through fear of robbers
and so i knew that he could not see the
opening of the door and i kept pushing
it on steadily
steadily
i had my head in and was about to open
the lantern when my thumb slipped upon
the tin fastening and the old man sprang
up in bed crying out who’s there
i kept quite still and said nothing for
a whole hour i did not move a muscle
and in the meantime i did not hear him
lie down
he was still sitting up in the bed
listening
just as i have done night after night
hearkening to the death watches in the
wall
presently i heard a slight groan and i
knew it was the groan of mortal terror
it was not a groan of pain or of grief
oh no
it was the low stifled sound that arises
from the bottom of the soul when
overcharged with ore
i knew the sound well
many a night just at midnight when all
the world slept it has welled up from my
own bosom deepening with its dreadful
echo the terrors that distracted me
i say i knew it well
i knew what the old man felt and pitied
him although i chuckled at heart
i knew that he had been lying awake ever
since the first slight noise when he had
turned in the bed
his fears had been ever since growing
upon him
he had been trying to fancy them
causeless
but could not he had been saying to
himself it is nothing but the wind and
the chimney it is only a mouse crossing
the floor
or it is merely a cricket which has made
a single chirp
yes he had been trying to comfort
himself with these suppositions
but he had found all in vain
all in vain
because death in approaching him had
stalked with his black shadow before him
and enveloped the victim and it was the
mournful influence of the unperceived
shadow that caused him to feel although
he neither saw nor heard
to feel the presence of my head within
the room
when i had waited a long time very
patiently without hearing him lie down i
resolved to open a little
a very very little crevice in the
lantern
so i opened it
you cannot imagine how stealthily
stealthily
until at length the simple dim ray like
the thread of the spider
shot from out the crevice and fell full
upon the vulture eye
it was open wide wide open and i grew
furious as i gazed upon it
i saw it with perfect distinctness
all a dull blue with a hideous veil over
it that chilled the very marrow in my
bones
but i could see nothing else of the old
man’s face or person
for i had directed the ray as if by
instinct precisely upon the damned spot
and have i not told you that what you
mistake for madness is but over
acuteness of the senses now i say there
came to my ears a low dull quick sound
such as a watch makes when enveloped in
cotton
i knew that sound well too
it was the beating of the old man’s
heart it increased my fury as the
beating of a drum stimulates the soldier
into courage
but even yet i refrained and kept still
i scarcely breathed
i held the lantern
motionless i tried how steadily i could
maintain the ray upon the eye
meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart
increased it grew quicker and quicker
and louder and louder every instant
the old man’s terror must have been
extreme
it grew louder i say louder every moment
do you mark me well
i have told you that i am nervous so i
am
and now at the dead hour of the night
amid the dreadful silence of that old
house so strange a noise as this excited
me to uncontrollable terror
yet for some minutes longer i refrained
and stood still
but the beating grew louder louder i
thought the heart must burst
and now a new anxiety sees me the sound
would be heard by a neighbor
the old man’s hour had come
with a loud yell i threw open the
lantern and leaped into the room he
shrieked once
once only
in an instant i dragged him to the floor
and pulled the heavy bed over him
i then smiled gayly to find the deed so
far done
but for many minutes the heart beat on
with a muffled sound
this however did not vex me it would not
be heard through the wall
at length it ceased
the old man was dead
i removed the bed and examined the
corpse yes
he was stoned stone dead i placed my
hand upon the heart and held it there
many minutes
there was no pulsation he was stoned
dead his eye
would trouble me no more
if still you think me mad you will think
so no longer when i describe the wise
precautions i took for the concealment
of the body
the night waned and i worked hastily but
in silence
first of all i dismembered the corpse i
cut off the head and the arms and the
legs
i then took up three planks from the
flooring of the chamber and deposited
all between the scantlings
i then replaced the boards so cleverly
so cunningly that no human eye not even
his could have detected anything wrong
there was nothing to wash out no stain
of any kind no blood spot whatever
i had been too wary for that
a tub had caught all ha ha
when i had made an end of these labors
it was four o’clock still dark as
midnight
as the bell sounded the hour there came
a knocking at the street door
i went down to open it with a light
heart for what had i now to fear
there entered three men who introduced
themselves with perfect swavity as
officers of the police
a shriek had been heard by a neighbor
during the night
suspicion of foul play had been aroused
information had been lodged at the
police office and they the officers have
been deputed to search the premises
i smiled for what had i to fear i obeyed
the gentleman welcome
the shriek i said was my own in a dream
the old man i mentioned was absent in
the country
i took my visitors all over the house i
made them search search well
i led them at length to his chamber i
showed them his treasures secure
undisturbed
in the enthusiasm of my confidence i
brought chairs into the room and desired
them here to rest from their fatigues
while i myself in the wild audacity of
my perfect triumph placed my own seat
upon the very spot beneath which reposed
the corpse of the victim
the officers were satisfied my manner
had convinced them
i was singularly at ease
they sat and while i answered cheerily
they chatted of familiar things
but
here long i felt myself getting pale and
wish them gone
my head ached and i fancied a ringing in
my ears
but still they sat and still chatted
the ringing became more distinct
it continued and became
more distinct i talked more freely to
get rid of the feeling but it continued
and gained definiteness until at length
i found that the noise was not within my
ears
no doubt i now grew very pale
but i talked more fluently and with a
heightened voice
yet the sound increased and what could i
do
it was a low dull quick sound
much such a sound as a watch makes when
enveloped in cotton
i gasped for breath and yet the officers
heard it not
i talked more quickly more vehemently
but the noise steadily increased
i arose and argued about trifles in a
high key and with violent gesticulations
but the noise steadily increased why
would they not be gone
i paced the floor to and fro with heavy
strides as if excited to fury by the
observations of the men
but the noise steadily increased oh god
what could i do
i phoned i raved i swore i swung the
chair upon which i had been sitting and
grated it upon the boards but the noise
arose overall and continually increased
it grew louder louder louder
and still the men chatted pleasantly and
smiled
was it possible they heard not
almighty god no
no they heard they suspected they knew
they were making a mockery of my horror
this i thought and this i think
but anything was better than this agony
anything was more tolerable than this
derision i could bear those hypocritical
smiles no longer
i felt that i must scream or die and now
again hark
louder louder louder
villains i shrieked dissembled no more i
admit the deed tear up the planks here
here it is the beating of his hideous
heart
end of the tell-tale heart by edgar
allan poe
thank you for listening