The Pit and the Pendulum

The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. The intense darkness oppressed and stifled me so that I struggled for breath. Having been condemned to death by the Spanish Inquisition, the narrator descends into a kind of hell. Dizzy with weakness and fainting with fear, he experiences such torments that death itself would be welcome. What troubles him most is the eternal question: how will he die? Toledo Prison is notorious for the torture of the condemned. What minds have dreamed up the terror of the pit in the center of the cell? What is the significance of the painted figure of Time with his menacing pendulum? Why do the walls glow with heat? Experience with the narrator the intensity of his suffering when death seems inevitable but its form uncertain. Can anything, or anybody, help him?

Real Reads are accessible texts designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. Each book is a retelling of a work of great literature from one of the world's greatest cultures, fitted into a 64-page book, making classic stories, dramas and histories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions.

Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Publisher: Real Reads
Published: 09/01/2014
Pages: 64
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.32lbs
Size: 7.94h x 5.15w x 0.18d
ISBN: 9781906230807
Audience: Young Adult

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 10.1
Point Value: 1
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 7934 / Pit and the Pendulum

About the Author
Bennett, Felix: - FELIX BENNETT grew up in Bradford in northern England, and cut short a math and astronomy degree at University College, London, in order to spend more time as an illustrator. He trained at Bradford, then at the Camberwell School of Art. He now lives and works in London.Poe, Edgar Allan: - "Edgar Allan Poe (19 January 1809 - 7 October 1849) was an American poet and novelist best known for his gothic tales of mystery."Tavner, Gill: - GILL TAVNER was an English Teacher and Head of Department before turning to writing when she had young children of her own. She has also taught English in South East Asia, worked as a personal trainer, been a management trainee in an insurance company, led treks in Africa, run her own business and painted fake tattoos on Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Perhaps it is this variety that makes her such a versatile writer.

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