Latest / Audiobooks & Scary Stories / The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe

Transcript

The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, the Oval portrait Edgar Allan Poe.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: The chateau into which my valet had ventured to make
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: forcible entrance, rather than permit me, in my desperately wounded condition,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to pass a night in the open air, was one
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of those piles of commingled gloom and grandeur which have
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so long frowned among the Apennines, not less in fact,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: than in the fancy of Missus Radcliffe. To all appearance,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: it had been temporarily and very lately abandoned. We established
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: ourselves in one of the smallest and least sumptuously furnished apartments.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: It lay in a remote turret of the building. Its
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: decorations were rich, yet tattered and antique. Its walls were
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: hung with tapestry and bedecked with manifold and multiform armorial trophies,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: together with an unusually great number of very spirited modern
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: paintings in frames of rich golden Arabesque. In these paintings,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: which depended from the walls not only in their main surfaces,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: but in very many nooks, which the bizarre architecture of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the chateau rendered necessary in these paintings. My incipient delirium
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: perhaps had caused me to take deep interest, so that
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I bade Pedro to close the heavy shutters of the room,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: since it was already night, to light the tongues of
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: a tall candle abram, which stood by the head of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: my bed, and to throw open far and wide the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: fringed curtains of black velvet which enveloped the bed itself.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I wished all this done that I might resign myself,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: if not to sleep, at least alternately, to the contemplation
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: of these pictures and the perusal of a small volume
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: which had been found upon the pillow, and which purported
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to criticize and describe them. Long long I read, and devoutly, devotedly,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I gazed, rapidly and gloriously. The hours flew by, and
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the deep midnight came. The position of the candle Abrim
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: displeased me, and out treaching my hand with difficulty. Rather
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: than disturb my slumbering valet, I placed it so as
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: to throw its rays more fully upon the book. But
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the action produced an effect altogether unanticipated. The rays of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the numerous candles, for there were many, now fell within
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a niche of the room, which had hitherto been thrown
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: into deep shade by one of the bed posts. I
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: thus saw in vivid light a picture, all unnoticed before.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: It was the portrait of a young girl just ripening
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: into womanhood. I glanced at the painting hurriedly, and then
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: closed my eyes. Why I did this was not at
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: first apparent even to my own perception. But while my
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: lids remained thus shut, I ran over in my mind
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: my reason for so shutting them. It was an impulsive
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: movement to gain time for thought, to make sure that
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: my vision had not deceived me, to calm and subdue
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: my fancy for a more sober and more certain gaze.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: In a very few moments, I again looked fixedly at
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the painting that I now saw Aright, I could not,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: and would not doubt, for the first flashing of the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: candles upon that canvas had seemed to dissipate the dreamy
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: stupor which was stealing over my senses, and to startle
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: me at once into waking life. The portrait I have
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: already said was that of a young girl. It was
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: a mere head and shoulders, done in what is technically
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: termed a vignette manner, much in the style of the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: favorite heads of Sully. The arms, the bosom, and even
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the ends of the radiant hair melted imperceptibly into the
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: vague yet deep shadow which formed the background of the whole.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: The frame was oval richly gilded and filigreed in Morey's kay.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: As a thing of art, nothing could be more admirable
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: than the painting itself. But it could have been neither
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the execution of the work, nor the immortal beauty of
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the countenance, which had so suddenly and so vehemently moved me.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Least of all could it have been that my fancy,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: shaken from its half slumber, had mistaken the head for
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: that of a living person. I saw at once that
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the peculiarities of the design of the vignette and of
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the frame must have instantly dispelled such idea, must have
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: prevented even its momentary entertainment. Thinking earnestly upon these points,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I remained for an hour, perhaps half sitting, half reclining,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: with my vision riveted upon the portrait. At length, satisfied
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: with the true secret of its effect, I fell back
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: within the bed. I had found the spell of the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: picture in an absolute life, likeliness of expression, which, at
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: first startling, finally confounded, subdued, and appalled me With deep
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and reverent awe. I replaced the candle abram in its
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: former position, the cause of my deep agitation being thus
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: shut from view, I sought eagerly the volume which discussed
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the paintings and their histories. Turning to the number which
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: designated the Oval portrait, either read the vague and quaint
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: words which follow. She was a maiden of rarest beauty,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and not more lovely than full of glee and evil
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: was the hour when she saw and loved and wedded
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the painter, He passionate, studious, austere, and having already a
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: bride in his art. She a maiden of rarest beauty,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and not more lovely than full of glee, all light,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: in smiles and frolicsome as the young fawn, loving and
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: cherishing all things, hating only the art which was her rival,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: dreading only the pallet and brushes and other untoward instruments
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: which deprived her of the countenance of her lover. It
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: was thus a terrible thing for this lady to hear
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the painter speak of his desire to portray even his
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: young bride. But she was humble and obedient, and sat
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: meekly for many weeks in the dark high turret chamber,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: where the light dripped upon the pale canvas only from overhead.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: But he, the painter, took glory in his work, which
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: went on from hour to hour and from day to day.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: And he was a passionate and wild and moody man,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: who became lost in reveries, so that he would not
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: see that the light which fell so ghastly in that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: lone turret, withered the health and the spirits of his bride,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: who pined visibly to all but him. Yet she smiled
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: on and still on, uncomplainingly, because she saw that the painter,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: who had high renown, took a fervid and burning pleasure
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: in his task, and wrought day and night to depict her,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: who so loved him, yet who grew daily more dispirited
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and weak, and in sooth. Some who beheld the portrait
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: spoke of its resemblance in low words, as of a
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: mighty marvel, and a proof not less of the power
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: of the painter than of his deep love for her,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: whom he depicted so surpassingly well. But at length. As
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the labor drew nearer to its conclusion, there were admitted
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: none into the turret. For the painter had grown wild
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: with the ardor of his work, and turned his eyes
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: from canvas merely even to regard the countenance of his wife.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And he would not see that the tints which he
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: her who sate beside him. And when many weeks had passed,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and but little remained to do save one brush upon
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the mouth and one tint upon the eye, the spirit
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of the lady again flickered up as the flame within
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the socket of the lamp. And then the brush was given,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and then the tint was placed. And for one moment
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the painter stood entranced before the work which he had wrought.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: But in the next while he yet gazed, he grew tremulous,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and very pallid, and aghast, and crying with a loud voice,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: this is indeed life itself. Turned suddenly to regard his beloved.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: She was dead,