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The Pit and the Pendulum
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“The Pit and the Pendulum”
“The Pit and the Pendulum” Illustration of a scene from “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe.

The Pit and the Pendulum

story by Poe
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The Pit and the Pendulum, Gothic horror story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in The Gift (an annual giftbook of occasional verse and stories) in 1843. The work helped secure its author’s reputation as a master of lurid Gothic suspense.

Like many of Poe’s stories, “The Pit and the Pendulum” is a dramatic monologue. Sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition, the imprisoned narrator finds himself in absolute darkness, in danger of falling to his death into a pit in the center of the cell. After narrowly escaping the razor-edged blade of a swinging pendulum, he is forced toward the pit by the hot metal dungeon walls that are closing in.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by René Ostberg.