THE OBLONG
BOX BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
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views•May 22, 2020
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The Oblong
Box by Edgar Allan Poe
Story level
2
Audio book
with subtitle
"The
Oblong Box" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1844,
about a sea voyage and a mysterious box.
The story
opens with the unnamed narrator recounting a summer sea voyage from Charleston,
South Carolina, to New York City aboard the ship Independence. The narrator
learns that his old college friend Cornelius Wyatt is aboard with his wife and
two sisters, though he has reserved three state-rooms. After conjecturing the
extra room was for a servant or extra baggage, he learns his friend has brought
on board an oblong pine box: "It was about six feet in length by two and a
half in breadth." The narrator notes its peculiar shape and especially an
odd odor coming from it. Even so, he presumes his friend has acquired an
especially valuable copy of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. The narrator
has never met Wyatt's wife but heard she is a woman of "surpassing beauty,
wit, and accomplishment".
The box, the
narrator is surprised to learn, shares the state-room with Wyatt and his wife,
while the second room is shared by the two sisters. For several nights, the
narrator witnesses his friend's surprisingly unattractive wife leaving the
state-room every night around 11 o'clock and going into the third state-room
before returning first thing in the morning. While she is gone, the narrator
believes he hears his friend opening the box and sobbing, which he attributes
to "artistic enthusiasm".
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