"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story  written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842  in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New  Year's Present for 1843.  The story is about the torments  endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the  story describes his experience of being tortured. The  story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural.