Suspense, fear and the supernatural provide the center for this tale by the master prose writer, Edgar Allan Poe. The "Cambridge English Dictionary" defines an imp as a "small evil spirit." The same dictionary says this about "perverse" as a noun, "strange and not what most people would expect or enjoy." Combine those two and that's a statement. There's murder here. And madness. What else would you expect from Poe? Librarian's note: this entry is for the story, "The Imp of the Perverse." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.