The Oblong Box

"The Oblong Box" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1844, about a sea voyage and a mysterious box. Plot summary The story opens with the unnamed narrator recounting a summer sea voyage from Charleston, South Carolina, to New York City aboard the ship Independence. The narrator learns that his old college friend Cornelius Wyatt is aboard with his wife and two sisters, though he has reserved three state-rooms. After conjecturing the extra room was for a servant or extra baggage, he learns his friend has brought on board an oblong pine box: "It was about six feet in length by two and a half in breadth." The narrator notes its peculiar shape and especially an odd odor coming from it. Even so, he presumes his friend has acquired an especially valuable copy of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. The narrator has never met Wyatt's wife but heard she is a woman of "surpassing beauty, wit, and accomplishment". The box, the narrator is surprised to learn, shares the state-room with Wyatt and his wife, while the second room is shared by the two sisters. For several nights, the narrator witnesses his friend's surprisingly unattractive wife leaving the state-room every night around 11 o'clock and going into the third state-room before returning first thing in the morning. While she is gone, the narrator believes he hears his friend opening the box and sobbing, which he attributes to "artistic enthusiasm".