The Pit and the Pendulum
by Edgar Allan Poeliterary work· published 1842
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"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe and a work of horror fiction. It was first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, and is set very loosely during the Peninsular War between Spain and Napoleonic France (1808–1814), although it invokes the feared Inquisition of earlier centuries. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story inspires fear in the reader via its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing the inescapable reality of the coming doom. In this it is unlike Poe's stories which invoke the supernatural. The tale has been adapted to film several times.
Adaptations (2)
The Pit and the Pendulum has been adapted into 2 films, from 1961 to 1991.
The Pit and the Pendulum1961 · film · 80 min · dir. Roger Corman · IMDb ↗In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.
The Pit and the Pendulum1991 · film · 97 min · dir. Stuart Gordon · IMDb ↗IMDb6.050%Set during the height of Spanish Inquisition. The beautiful and kind-hearted Maria is arrested as a witch when she inadvertently cries out in horror at the public whipping of a child. As Maria’s husband Antonio tries to save her, Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor, determines to punish Maria with torture for the desire she inflames in him. Loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story.
