The GoldBug, Edgar Allan Poe
The GoldBug, Edgar Allan Poe
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The Gold-Bug

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrator: AI Voice George Pearson

Unabridged: 1 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/04/2024

Synopsis

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. William Legrand has lost his fortune and retreated to a hut on Sullivan's Island off the coast of Charleston, with only his servant Jupiter for company. When he finds a strange scarab beetle of unnatural weight and colour, his friend the narrator begins to fear for his sanity.

Legrand sketches the beetle on a scrap of parchment picked up on the shore. Held near the fire, the parchment reveals a death's head, a goat, and a long string of figures and symbols where nothing had been before. It is a cipher, and Legrand is certain it leads to the buried treasure of Captain Kidd.

What follows is one of the most famous puzzles in literature: a step-by-step decipherment by letter frequency, then a night expedition inland with a spade, a tulip tree, and instructions that must be followed exactly or the whole thing fails.

First published in 1843 and an immediate popular sensation, Edgar Allan Poe's tale of ciphers and buried gold effectively invented the cryptographic puzzle story and shaped everything from Treasure Island to The Da Vinci Code. This unabridged audiobook edition presents the complete original text.

About Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet, short story writer, editor, and literary critic who is credited with inventing the detective fiction genre and with contributing to the emerging science fiction genre. He began his literary career with the anonymous publication of a collection of his poems entitled Tamerlane and Other Poems. He then turned to writing prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming well known for his particular style of literary criticism. He served for a time on the staff of the New York Mirror, in which his poem "The Raven" was published. Poe's other well-known works include his stories "The Purloined Letter," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Mystery of Marie Roget."

Reviews

Goodreads review by Steven

La prosa de Edgar Allan Poe es adictiva. Muy buen relato. Erróneamente clasificado en Goodreads en el género de horror, El escarabajo de oro nos cuenta la aventura de William Legrand y su intento por encontrar el tesoro enterrado por el pirata Kidd. Sí, la temática puede parecer un cliché, pero este......more

Goodreads review by Peter

One of the best treasure hunting stories ever written! Legrand discovers a mysterious gold bug that resembles the form of a human skull. But what has the bug to do with the strange parchment and what's written in invisible ink upon it? Poe finds some strange numbers written and gives a brilliant des......more

Goodreads review by Francesc

Buen relato de Poe. No es tan opresivo como otros, pero la trama es bastante compleja. A good story of Poe. It's not as oppressive as others, but the plot is quite complex.......more

Goodreads review by Bren fall in love with the sea.

This was so different than anything I have ever read by Poe. A treasure hunt such as one has never experienced. Sensational! It's Poe though so should one really expect anything else? Anyway, I had no idea this book even existed. I was made aware of it by another Poe fan who remarked that it was her f......more

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