Edgar Allan Poe

The Pit and the Pendulum definitely has that iconic Poe voice.  Very dark and anxious with a lot left for interpretation.  It's a nice little climactic scene with even a bit of fantasy to it that touches on psychological workings.  I think that the shortness of the story really works well for it and that the quick ending lends a lot of power to the buildup.

The Fall of the House of Usher is similar in these characteristics, but is haunting in a much more usual way (ghosts and mansions and the like).  It reminded me of Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables in its gothic style, though perhaps a lot of that also has to do with the fact that the titles to these stories are attributed to the houses.  I'm not really sure what the point of this story was beside the fact that it was a mere form of entertainment, but I think I got more thrills from the former rather than The Fall even though it was more fitting to settings and topics that I usually prefer.

The Purloined Letter differs from these other two stories as it lacks the gloom that is so characteristic of Poe.  In fact, it's got an excessive amount of "intelligent" ramble that just seems like showing off.  It is, as a whole, a bit more lighthearted and comical but I don't think it engages as grippingly as the others do.  There is an air of cockiness that doesn't fit the author well, and I don't think that the detective genre fits him well.

I think, in general, I'm just glad all of these stories were short.