Classic Literature on Radio
The Oval Portrait
por Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Oval Portrait” is a compact Gothic tale centered on a mysterious portrait and the young woman whose likeness it captures. Its unsettling premise explores the boundary between art and life, drawing the listener into an atmosphere of obsession and mounting unease.
Presented as a radio adaptation of classic literature, the story lends itself to intimate dramatic performance: narration and sound can bring its enclosed setting and eerie revelations vividly to life. The experience is brief and focused, with the tension unfolding through the tale’s images and its gradual disclosure of what lies behind the portrait.
Listeners drawn to Gothic fiction will find a haunting meditation on artistic devotion and its cost, told with Poe’s characteristic blend of mystery, melancholy, and the macabre.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.