The Imp of the Perverse  (Paperback, Edgar Allan Poe)

Edgar Allan Poe, a 19th-century American author and critic, wrote the short story "The Imp of the Perverse." It begins as an essay and explores the narrator's destructive tendencies as symbolised by The Imp of the Perverse. The narrator explains this spirit as the agent that tempts a person to do things "merely because we believe we should not." The narrator outlines at length his thesis on "The Imp of the Perverse", which he says motivates people to conduct activities against their self-interest.