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    The Fall of the House of Usher
    The Fall of the House of Usher
    The Fall of the House of Usher
    Ebook54 pages55 minutes

    The Fall of the House of Usher

    By Edgar Allan Poe

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The Fall of the House of Usher is a gothic novel by Edgar Allan Poe. The story tells of a mysterious house and an unnamed narrator's horrific experience with it.
    This Xist Classics edition has been professionally formatted for e-readers with a linked table of contents. This eBook also contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it.

    Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes



    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXist Publishing
    Release dateMar 26, 2015
    ISBN9781623958275
    Author

    Edgar Allan Poe

    Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. He is a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight; a cocreator of the film documentary (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies; and a three-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, Irrationally Yours, Payoff, Dollars and Sense, and Amazing Decisions. His TED Talks have been viewed more than 27 million times. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He lives in North Carolina with his family.

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    Reviews for The Fall of the House of Usher

    3.5/5

    405 ratings20 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This horror/suspense short story had a lot of buildup and mood-setting descriptions, but was a much shorter tale than I had anticipated or remembered. I think I used the dictionary function on my Nook more times in this story than I have in the last ten books I've read combined. This one didn't live up to my expectations for Poe, the master of suspense.
    • 5/5
      Dark and creepy; a great short story.
    • 3/5
      Read for coursera Fantasy and Science Fiction course. Good, lots of color--especially in varieties of gray/black--mentioned. Good mood setting. The story itself? Meh.
    • 3/5
      A classic gothic Poe novella. Good. Worth the read.
    • 4/5
      "The Fall of the House of Usher" recounts the terrible events that befall the last remaining members of the once-illustrious Usher clan—narrated by the boyhood friend of Roderick Usher. It is a gothic horror story and a great example of how an author such as Poe gets straight to the point. It is a quick read—but the fear and the horror grow with sentence. A 4 out of 5 stars.
    • 5/5
      Of course; I'd read this before (somewhere or other, I have an old set of the complete works of Poe, which I bought at the estate sale of a recently-deceased woman - I felt it was appropriate, somehow.) However, it's been a long time. A re-read was welcome, since I'd recently read "Madeline's Version" by F. Brett Cox, which gives another viewpoint on this tale.
      Still, for language and vivid imagery, the original Poe cannot be surpassed. Just the opening paragraphs bring the titular house to chilling 'life' as no other description of a cursed abode may even have done. A classic for a reason.
    • 4/5
      A gothic tale by Poe as the narrator visits an old friend. Things don't quite seem right, and the story quickly turns into a tale of horror. I'm pretty sure I read this at some point in the past, but it was a nice change of pace.
    • 3/5
      There’s overly exuberant Poe who tries to capture horror in an abundance of exclamations and a rush of words and then there’s the Poe who captures horror in a neurotic and melancholy creep of dread. I like the latter.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this little short story (novelette? It seems to rich and full to be called a short story). I think this is a story that could really benefit from re-reads (and re-re-reads and re-re-re-reads). The story grabs you from the opening description of the house of Usher, especially with it's subtle personification, specifically the several references to eyes and the eerie sense of doom. I am not enough of a scholar to be able to say what exactly created the feeling of unease, but as Usher and the narrator's paranoia rose, so did mine! I would recommend this quick, gripping read to anyone.
    • 4/5
      This is very thrilling story.I was interested in his book because Japanese famous writer Ranpo Edogawa is made by changing Edgar Allan Poe.The story is nice.But a little dreadful
    • 3/5
      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 - Deliciously disturbing.The Fall of the House of Usher - Not as interesting as his others, but good atmosphere.The Pit and the Pendulum - A delightful tale of suspense.The Masque of the Red Death - Meh. Weird for no reason and kind of boring.The Cask of Amontillado - I think makes Poe so memorable is his vivid first-person accounts from the point of view of a killer.The Assignation - I couldn't follow this one. What did the drowning child and the art aficionado have to do with one another?The Tell-Tale Heart - Funnier than I'd remembered. One of my all-time favorites.Diddling - A random essay on swindling.The Man That was Used Up - Silly, amusing, but ends a bit too abruptly.Narrative of A. Gordon Pym - Some good bits, but I think I just don't like maritime fiction.
    • 5/5
      My first collection of the maestro's work. Inexorably moody.
    • 5/5
      I'd never read Poe before when I bought this book. I usually hate florid writing (basically, anything before the late 19th century) and a quick glance at the prose made me a little worried about whether I would even be able to make sense of it. However, I persevered and now I've finished all the stories and am sad cause I know there's no more to read.Poe understands horror and suspense to perfection. He also understands a lot of other things which nobody seems to appreciate anymore, IMO. Some of the more surreal stories in this collection reminded me strongly of Gogol. I'm not really a fan of surreal writing, but many of the other stories - especially the 'futuristic technology' ones - reminded me of some of Conan Doyle's stories, which is some of the highest praise I could give an author.In particular, I'm indebted to Poe for inspiring Conan Doyles's Sherlock Holmes, one of my favorite literary protagonists of all time. I actually think the Sherlock Holmes stories are better developed than Poe's detective tales, but one can forgive him since he pioneered the detective genre.My favorite story, by far, was 'Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'. I love a good adventure story, and this was an epic that just went on and on and oooon....in a very good way. It also showed how incredibly educated the author was on everything from the breedings habits of sea-birds to handling a ship. I learnt so much about random subjects from this story.I was going to try to list some of my other favorites, but there are just too many so I'm leaving it at this.
    • 3/5
      Edgar Allan Poe was the inventor of the thriller and made an very chilling work of his story "The Fall of the House of Usher". Being my favorite work of his besides "The Raven", I would recommend it to anyone. However, his stories all together are a bit too grim and gruesome for my taste.
    • 2/5
      I've read two stories from this collection for the 1001 books to read before you die list. The first one "The Purloined Letter" sucked. I DNF because it was so boring and really too much information to get through just to find out how he got his hands on the letter. However, the second story "The Fall of the House of Usher" was more of the Poe writing that I enjoy. It's about a haunted house with a poor man who is going crazy inside it. Ending was strange and left it to the reader's imagination what happened to Usher.
    • 4/5
      Classic Poe. The last scene is the best where the story the MC is reading aloud foreshadows the actual sounds heard in the house.
    • 4/5
      Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be one of the masters of short horror fiction and The Fall of the House of Usher, originally published in 1839, is a classic example of his skill. In about 40 pages this story touches on many Gothic elements such as a haunted house, a mysterious illness, a cursed family along with death and entombment. The author creates an atmospheric and creepy story that builds to its macabre finish as the narrator reveals the sinister and grotesque details that bring about the end of the Usher family.
    • 4/5
      Not to dote along a cliche, but it was simply thrilling detour: a bit purple perhaps, but enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      Poe's penchant for florid narrative and the fact that his works were written almost two centuries ago simply don't work for me. I find his style difficult and sometimes tedious. However, the actual storyline is compelling and for that he deserves credit.Worthwhile, but overrated.
    • 3/5
      It is interesting that the narrator of the story is a sane intelligent man whereas his friend is intelligent also, but is suffering from mental strain. Both are sophisticated and are reading exotic books to help the sick man to not focus on his mental state.
      “His chief delight, however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and curious book in quarto Gothic—the manual of a forgotten church—the Vigiliæ Mortuorum Secundum Chorum Ecclesiæ Maguntinæ."
      The intelligence is needed to make the storyline more believable. Give it a read because of Poe's descriptions set the mood for the story.

    Book preview

    The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe

    websitewww.XistPublishing.com

    Chapter 1

    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. I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into every-day life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with a shudder even more thrilling than before—upon the remodelled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.

    Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of the country—a letter from him—which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness—of a mental disorder which oppressed him—and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady. It was the manner in which all this, and much more, was said—it was the apparent heart that went with his request—which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons.

    Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been noted, time

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