King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: The Fall of the House of Usher

author: Edgar Allan Poe

genre: short story/horror

published: 1845

first line:

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.





Ahhhhh....Edgar Allan Poe. He doesn't disappoint. There's something about cuddling up on the couch at night reading Poe, draped in a blanket and sipping hot tea.
That's exactly how I read this short story.



In The Fall of the House of Usher the narrator is traveling by horseback and arrives at the house of Roderick Usher, who is his boyhood friend.
He will be staying there a few weeks. Roderick had written him a letter saying that he was suffering a 'mental disorder' and asking if he would come and stay with him a while.

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks.

As usual, Poe is intense. I enjoy his writing, it's so dark and dramatic.

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.

Once inside the house, a silent butler takes the visitor through the dark hallways to the master of the mansion. He finds Roderick looking pale and sick and blaming the house for his poor health as well as the illness of his sister Madeline.



The visitor spends a few days with Roderick. They read, Roderick plays the guitar and even sings. When the very ill Madeline passes away, Roderick insists on burying her in the family tomb located in the house, for two weeks, before taking her body to the cemetary. The narrator helps Roderick place her in the tomb, but does take notice that Madeline's cheeks are still rosey and she seems to be asleep.



One night a storm starts and Roderick appears at the narrators bedroom. He is very anxious and the narrator decides to read him a story to calm him. As the narrator reads the story, adn the storm rages, cracking and ripping sounds are heard from within the house. Roderick is terrified and is insisting that his sister Madeline is making the noises and was buried alive.





I liked this one, and the way Poe described the house was perfect. The imagery alone can give the reader chills and take them inside the house itself. I could totally picture the creepy mansion.


This is a great short story, especially if you want a quick dose of something spooky.

...the carvings of the ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode...

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