Edgar Allan Poe is most well known for his imposition of a total, underlying effect that a story builds up to, leaving the reader completely inebriated by that effect.  Poe is especially known for his use of horror and the darkly disturbing.  This underlying effect is found in The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, Lenore, Annabel Lee, The Mask of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart and other famous Edgar Allan Poe short stories.  The reason Poe enjoyed the short story so much is because the reader is able to begin, absorb, and finish the entire story in one sitting, allowing the instant, acute nature of his desired total effect to set in.  This is what makes short stories so popular today, and is a reason for the longevity of Poe’s stories.  To create this total effect, Poe relies heavily on sensory imagery, such as sound, sight, smell, etc.  He also describes lighting, with dark places often lit by candles or moonlight (if anything at all), making it symbolic for evil, often foreshadowing and equally dark deed.  It is perhaps from this that our society draws social stigmas about absence of light being associated with fear and evil.