The Fall of the House of Usher

Overview

A man visits his dying friend, Usher, at his mansion, which may be haunted by a family curse.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews for this product are not available at this time.

Author Information

Bio of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 49), was born in Boston, USA. His parents were actors but both suffered from tuberculosis and died in 1811. The two-year-old Edgar was taken in by John Allan, a wealthy merchant - hence the middle name. He had a very happy childhood as the only child of a rich family. He did well at school, especially in languages and athletics. In 1926 Edgar went to the University of Virginia. In his first term her did no work, spending his time on wine, women and song! He had a huge row with his step-father and ran away to join the army. A few years later Mrs Allan begged her husband to find him and make up the quarrel. This happened but the two men never managed to have a good relationship again. When his wife died, John Allan remarried and his new wife hated Edgar. So, by 1831 he was out in the world, alone and broke. Edgar was by now writing poetry but with little success. He did find a new family, an aunt and married her fourteen-year-old daughter. They moved from place to place and so Edgar moved from job to job getting the occasional story printed. They were very poor, often cold and close to starvation. His wife was ill and Edgar was almost an alcoholic. When his wife died, Edgar began to court wealthy widows and his writing became more and more tortured. George Bernard Shaw called him, "the finest of finest of artists"; but he died alone in pain and poverty when he was only forty. Almost his last words were: "I wish to God someone would blow my damned brains out." - it is not difficult to see why some of his best-remembered stories are grotesque and macabre.

Customer Reviews

• How to create mood with words

  Posted May 06, 2009 by M. D. Benoit, Ottawa, Canada

  I recently finished Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher and was astonished and amazed at the flowery prose. At first I thought well, yeah, he wrote it in 1839 so that explains it. But I've read other Poe stories and none of it was so over the top. So I reread it and realized that Poe had used this type of prose to create the mood -- and that was the only goal. There is no moral to the story, no position (social or political), simply words that, combined, create this feeling of horror that spreads throughout. Here is an example:
  
  "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 everyday 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."
  
  

• Loved it!

  Posted November 12, 2009 by Laura, Honolulu

  This is more of a short story. This story gives you the creeps while reading it, that's how amazing Poe is....to be able to "creep" you out with just words and your imagination. True genius!!

Additional Info

Imprint

CONNECT eBooks Classics

Filesize

236.35 KB

Number of Pages

N/A

eBook ISBN

9781434001122