Tomorrow, I will release an audio recording of Edgar Allen Poe

's "The Tell-Tale Heart."

I have rewritten the story to be easier for English learners, and I will be reading slowly and pronouncing each word clearly. The idea is to give good listening practice that you can use on your morning or evening commute.

Below is the unedited, original first paragraph of the 1843 short story:

True! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.