Big heart

If you’d like a short burst of psychological horror, look no further than American writer and short-story specialist Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 Gothic-fiction classic, The Tell-Tale Heart. First published in a literary magazine in Philadelphia, US, and republished several times during his lifetime, it’s believed Poe was paid just US$10 (the equivalent of $446.23 in today’s money) for what is generally regarded as one of the finest short stories of all time. It is also one of the most reproduced in multiple forms. This story has not been confined to the written page but has taken on a life of its own in numerous guises. Its other incarnations include countless TV and radio versions; multiple silver-screen adaptations in various languages (English. Polish and Hindi among them) and attracting big-name directors such as Ridley Scott. It was also the subject of a 1927 American silent film (run time 20 minutes). Elsewhere there have been story adaptations, like The Old Dude's Ticker by American horror-fiction writer, Stephen King. Other representations include a video game, an animated short film; a hip-hop song; an American comic-book rendering; an Australian ballet and solo separate recitations of the story by Hollywood specialist horror and Dracula actors, Vincent Price and Bela Lugosi. The Tell-Tale Heart has also appeared in a host of horror-tale collections and anthologies. One hundred and eighty-three years later, this story refuses to fade away.