Other editions of book The Fall of The House of Usher - Literature Classics

Roderick Usher’s fate is inextricably intertwined with that of his sister, Madeline, and that of their estate. As one falls, so do they all. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is considered Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest work, and a masterpiece of Gothic horror. A pioneer of the short story genre, Poe’s stories typically captured themes of the macabre and included elements of the mysterious. His better-known stories include “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.

The narrator has receives an odd letter from an old friend, Roderick Usher, requesting his presence. The contents of the letter revealed that Usher is suffering from numerous illnesses, both mental and physical.Roderick Usher and his twin sister Madeline are the last two Ushers in a long line of Ushers whose family tree has never branched. The phrase "House of Usher" refers to both the house and the family. Roderick excitedly welcomes the narrator. They are talking. The narrator learns that Roderick's sister is near death. The narrator has been spending several days attempting to cheer up Roderick, but it is unable. Roderick suggested that this house is making him sick, something which the narrator has already suspected.

Roderick Usher’s fate is inextricably intertwined with that of his sister, Madeline, and that of their estate. As one falls, so do they all. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is considered Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest work, and a masterpiece of Gothic horror.A pioneer of the short story genre, Poe’s stories typically captured themes of the macabre and included elements of the mysterious. His better-known stories include “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.

The Fall of the House of Usher "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. " "The Fall of the House of Usher" has a beautiful glossy cover and a blank page for the dedication. The book has 68 pages.

Edgar Allan Poe's gothic tale of the crumbling Usher mansion -- and its ghastly inhabitants -- comes to life as never before in this amazing audiobook.SUMMARY: The tale opens with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a distant part of the country complaining of an illness and asking for his help. Although strong-willed Poe wrote this short story before the invention of modern psychological science, Roderick's symptoms can be described according to its terminology. They include hyperesthesia (hypersensitivity to light, sounds, smells, and tastes), hypochondria (an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness), and acute anxiety. It is revealed that Roderick's twin sister, Madeline, is also ill and falls into cataleptic, death-like trances. The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings, and attempts to cheer him by reading with him and listening to his improvised musical compositions on the guitar. Roderick sings "The Haunted Palace", then tells the narrator that he believes the house he lives in to be sentient, and that this sentience arises from the arrangement of the masonry and vegetation surrounding it.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" shows Poe's ability to create an emotional tone in his work, specifically feelings of fear, doom, and guilt. These emotions center on Roderick Usher, who, like many Poe characters, suffers from an unnamed disease. Like the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart", his disease inflames his hyperactive senses. The illness manifests physically but is based in Roderick's mental or even moral state. He is sick, it is suggested, because he expects to be sick based on his family's history of illness and is, therefore, essentially a hypochondriac. Similarly, he buries his sister alive because he expects to bury her alive, creating his own self-fulfilling prophecy. The House of Usher, itself doubly referring both to the actual structure and the family, plays a significant role in the story. It is the first "character" that the narrator introduces to the reader, presented with a humanized description: its windows are described as "eye-like" twice in the first paragraph. The fissure that develops in its side is symbolic of the decay of the Usher family and the house "dies" along with the two Usher siblings. This connection was emphasized in Roderick's poem "The Haunted Palace" which seems to be a direct reference to the house that foreshadows doom.

Roderick Usher’s fate is inextricably intertwined with that of his sister, Madeline, and that of their estate. As one falls, so do they all. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is considered Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest work, and a masterpiece of Gothic horror. A pioneer of the short story genre, Poe’s stories typically captured themes of the macabre and included elements of the mysterious. His better-known stories include “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.