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The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe

Book Overview: 

The Narator is summoned to the remote mansion of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher. The Narrator reunites with his old companion, who is suffering from a strange mental illness and whose sister Madeline is near death due to a mysterious disease. The Narrator provides company to Usher while he paints and plays guitar, spending all his days inside, avoiding the sunlight and obsessing over the sentience of the non-living. When Madeline dies, Usher decides to bury her temporarily in one of his house's large vaults. A few days later, however, she emerges from her provisional tomb, killing her brother while the Narrator flees for his life. The House of Usher splits apart and collapses, wiping away the last remnants of the ancient family.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .t?—served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a basis. And it might have been for this reason only, that, when I again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy—a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity—an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn—a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.

Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its p. . . Read More

Community Reviews

Pure Classicness. Part II.

Yet another collection by legendary Poe. What is there to say? I love completionism! Another good but scarcely great mixed bag of sorts. You can always count on good ol’ Poe to get the job done… in an old fashioned convoluted kind of way. Thank God there was no poetry th

The Balloon-Hoax - Wow. That was really boring.
Ms. Found in a Bottle - Good suspense, but the ending confused me.
A Descent into the Maelstrom - Not too memorable.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - A rather silly Holmes-esque mystery tale.
The Purloined Letter - Not bad, but far too wordy.
The Black Cat -

This selection of short stories reveals Edgar Allan Poe in all his moods. All the stories have been reviewed, but some have their own separate reviews and star rating. These are indicated with links at the end. This review and star rating is for the remainder of this selection.

The Fall of the House

I was just going to read ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ to remind myself of it before reading T. Kingfisher's ‘What Moves the Dead’ which is presented as an extended retelling of the story. I found myself, however, reminded of how good a writer Poe was, and had to go on and reread many of the stor

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