The Fall of the House of Usher (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Edgar Allan Poe
- First Published: 1839
- Type of Plot: Horror
- Time of Work: 1839
- Setting: Unspecified
- Principal Characters: The narrator, Roderick Usher, Madeline Usher
- Genres: Short fiction, Gothic fiction, Horror literature
- Subjects: Love or romance, Supernatural, Nineteenth century, Friendship, Incest, Mental illness, Fear, Sisters, Death or dying, Good and evil, Storms, Sick persons, Houses, mansions, or manors
- Locales: Earth
The Story
Summoned to the House of Usher by a “wildly importunate letter,” which “gave evidence of nervous agitation,” the first-person narrator goes to reside for a time with the writer of this letter, Roderick Usher. Although Roderick had been one of his “boon companions in boyhood,” the narrator confesses early in the story that “I really knew little of my friend”; yet, by the end of this gothic tale, he has learned more about the occupants of the House of Usher than he is equipped to deal with. Indeed, one of these occupants is Roderick's twin sister,...
[The entire page is 2022 words long]
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