Plot analysis

“The Fall of the House of Usher” follows a traditional story arc with conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The opening scene of the narrator riding up to an old and ominous house foreshadows the darkness to come. The main conflict that drives the story is the narrator’s coming to help Roderick recover from an illness. Action rises with Madeline's apparent death and Roderick's descent into madness over his fears about the house being sentient. The raging storm, Madeline’s rising from the dead, and her subsequent collapse onto Roderick, which kills them both, acts as the climax. Action falls when the narrator flees the house and watches it sink into the tarn. Because Poe intentionally leaves the story without a lesson, the only resolution is the sight of the tarn and the realization that neither the family nor the house will ever be seen again.

Point of view

Poe tells the story through a first-person narrator who recounts the events as he remembers them. Thus the point of view is important to analyze when studying “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The fallibility of the narrator’s memory and his lack of confidence in the supernatural things he sees cast the events of the story into question. Readers cannot be certain of what is true and what is skewed by time and imagination. The narrator employs his ability to reason, explaining potentially supernatural events with logic, but as the story goes on, terror floods his analytical mind. The corruption of the rational narrator creates more uncertainty around whether or not the events are supernatural or merely products of the narrator’s isolation and madness. The unreliable narrator destabilizes the story. The lack of a definitive answer as to what happened leaves readers to decide if the story’s events are the result of madness or supernatural forces—or both.

Setting

Poe does not specify the story’s location or time period. This makes it possible for the story to take place in a variety of settings. This lack of specificity makes the story engaging, because it allows readers to fill in details for themselves and insert themselves into the narrator’s story telling. However, Poe does carefully control the mood by setting the story in a desolate countryside in autumn. The story takes place entirely in and around a gloomy mansion, adding to the feeling of isolation and sense of entrapment.

Symbolism

After arriving at the House of Usher, the narrator makes a direct comparison between the house and the family itself. The mansion acts as a symbol of the once great Usher family that has fallen to ruin. The house is isolated and cut off from the outside world just like the Usher siblings. As the house decays, so do the Ushers and their mental state. The decrepit interior reflects the state of mind of both Roderick and Madeline as isolation eats away at their sanity. The house eventually sinks into the tarn, signifying the end of the Usher line. The symbolism of the house and the family highlight the fact that all things decay.

The narrator also acts as a symbol of both rationality and a bridge to the outside world for the Usher siblings. The narrator thinks critically about fear and its causes from the first time he sees the house. He attempts to determine what specifically about the house makes him uneasy and recognizes that he what he fears could be the result of his imagination. However, the longer the narrator stays in the house, the more fear overcomes him, showing that fear and imagination often overcome rationality. Although doctors come and go to monitor Roderick’s and Madeline’s health, the narrator is their main connection to the outside world. Roderick’s letter asking the narrator to come cheer him up demonstrates that the doctors’ presence does not ease his isolation. Since the narrator is a symbol of rationality, he also then represents Roderick’s connection to sanity. The speaker’s final flight from the house shows the Ushers’ complete departure from reality. Their last tie to the rest of the world is broken.

Historical context

The story can be read as a reaction to transcendentalism and Romanticism, two of the prevailing philosophical movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. Transcendentalism claims that divinity is present in all nature and humanity and that a person can transcend the material world through the study of nature. In contrast, Poe portrays nature as malevolent, humanity as mad, and the supernatural as evil. While transcendentalism praises nature and its essential goodness, Poe depicts nature as harmful. All that is natural in the story—the trees, fungi, tarn, and even atmosphere—is infectious and corruptive to the mind. Roderick’s connections to the material world mirror his connection to sanity. When he grows more insane, he stops his hobbies of painting, reading, and writing music. In the story, a link to the material world is a good thing, and it is not something one would want to transcend.

The Romantics celebrated beauty, often in nature, and sometimes idealized life. Poe’s stories often turn beautiful scenes into something grotesque. Autumn twilight is ominous instead of colorful and bountiful. An old house and the trappings of a rich family are in disrepair, left tattered and crumbling. Even the old romance story that the narrator reads to Roderick in order to calm him down portents Madeline’s dreadful reemergence from the vault. Decay and darkness complicate or destroy any conventional beauty, such as Roderick’s paintings or the grounds of the estate. Readers searching for beauty can only find a macabre beauty in the gothic descriptions and vividly intricate scenes Poe describes.

Poe’s story also reflects the fears of the time. Fear of premature burial was common in the 19th century for legitimate reasons: people were sometimes declared dead while still alive and then buried. The story of Madeline Usher dramatizes this fear. Despite the doctors around her all throughout her illness, she is prematurely buried. Roderick buries Madeline within the house and can hear her attempts to get out but does nothing, because he doesn’t understand that she is alive and trying to escape the vault. When she does manage to escape the vault, she only lives long enough to collapse, dead, on Roderick and thereby kill him as well.

In an 1842 review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales (1837), Poe discusses the importance of “effect” in stories, and he suggests that a “wise” writer will not fashion “his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique and single effect to be wrought out, he then . . . combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect.” He also asserts that the first sentence of a given story must contribute to the “outbringing of this effect.” Essentially, then, according to Poe a good story need not be believable to be successful, so long as the integrity of its effect is not disturbed. Applying Poe’s credo to “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the reader must admit that, yes, this story is a success for its effect.

The first sentence sets the mood, begins to create the overall effect, as the narrator describes the day as “dull, dark, and soundless,” the clouds hanging “oppressively low.” When he arrives at the house, he is struck by its “melancholy” appearance, and his spirit is overwhelmed by a sense of “insufferable gloom.” Not only is Poe working to create the story’s mood in the first paragraph (as he does throughout the story), but he is also intent on personifying the house when he has his narrator describe its windows as “eye-like” and the fungi implicitly as hair-like, “hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves.” Symbolically, the web of fungi, the house itself, and the “black and lurid tarn,” which lies near the house, are all extensions of the Usher family’s heritage and psychology; the atmosphere around this family reeks “a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, sluggish . . . and leaden-hued.”

However, while Poe’s story is a success for its overall effect, the problem that exists in his credo extends into the story—that is, reason and probability are treated as unimportant. How, a reader must ask, does Madeline escape her coffin, the lid of which was screwed on, survive in the airless vault for seven or eight days without nourishment, and then escape the vault by forcing open the immensely heavy iron door? What causes the House of Usher to break in half and crumble into the tarn? No doubt Poe would have dispensed with such questions by pointing to the source of his story’s lasting success, its gothic and gloomy effect.

House of Usher

House of Usher. Home of the madman Roderick Usher and his twin sister Madeline. Located in an unspecified place, the house and its bleak surroundings are primarily described in terms of the impressions they create in the narrator’s mind. He is unnerved by the building itself, with its “vacant eye-like windows,” but he takes worse fright from its image reflected in the “black and lurid tarn” which lurks around and beneath it. The house is connected to the surrounding land by a narrow causeway, but the link is tenuous and precarious. The atmosphere above and around the house has been poisoned by the exudations of the tarn, becoming eerie and pestilential.

The house is ancient, its whole exterior being infested by fungal growths. Although it retains its form when the narrator first sees it, he is aware that every individual stone comprising its walls is on the point of crumbling. He also observes an almost imperceptible crack extending in a zigzag fashion from the roof to the foundations.

The storm which precipitates the final destruction of the edifice is manifestly unnatural, originating within rather than without. The vaporous clouds which gather about the turrets of the house are lit from below by luminous exhalations of the tarn. These clouds part just once, as the narrator flees from the house, to display a blood-red moon. It is by the ominous light of that celestial lantern that he sees the narrow crack widen, tearing the house apart from top to bottom so that its debris might collapse entirely into the tarn.

Hallway

Hallway. Entered through a Gothic archway, the hallway has black floors. Its walls are covered with somber tapestries and its corridors decked with creaky relics of ancient arms and armor.

Roderick’s studio

Roderick’s studio. Large but the narrow windows, set high above the floor, let in so little light that it is exceedingly gloomy; it is abundantly, if rather shabbily, furnished and chaotically cluttered with books, musical instruments and Roderick’s phantasmagorical paintings.

Vaults

Vaults. Numerous chambers contained within the walls of the building, in which Roderick’s ancestors are entombed. It is in one of the deepest of these—a cramped, damp and lightless covert used in olden times as a dungeon—that Roderick and the narrator place the body of the seemingly dead Madeline Usher. Following her interment the house becomes noisier than before, even from the viewpoint of the narrator. The hypersensitive Roderick hears the miscellaneous knocks, creaks, and rumbles even more keenly, and the transformations imposed upon them by his vivid imagination are fed back into the fabric of the house.

The frequent use of the castles and mansions that are the centerpieces of most gothic novels to model the troubled minds of their owners was not always as deliberate, but Edgar Allan Poe understood exactly what was going on when such edifices were afflicted by supernatural visitations and battered by storms. No one else had drawn such parallels so minutely, nor mapped the course of a symbolic tempest so accurately.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" was first published in 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. At a time when most popular literature was overtly moralistic, Poe's stories focused solely on creating emotional impacts. Poe criticized his contemporaries for being "didactic," meaning they were more interested in making religious or political statements through their writing, often at the expense of the fiction itself. His own tales of terror, which frequently portrayed the psychological breakdown of unstable or emotionally intense characters, starkly contrasted with the works of the more acclaimed writers of his era. Due to his aversion to didactic writing, Poe received little recognition from the literary establishment of his time.

Despite being dismissed by literary critics, Poe's stories played a crucial role in legitimizing the short story as a significant literary form. Before his influence, short works were not considered serious literature. Poe's examples of what short stories could achieve, along with his own nonfiction writings on the subject, were key in establishing the short story as a legitimate form of serious literature. Moreover, Poe had a profound impact on popular fiction. His tales of terror are regarded as some of the finest in the horror genre. Additionally, he pioneered—some argue invented—the genre of detective fiction with his story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

During Poe's era, a distinct and mature American literature was beginning to take shape with contributions from authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Greenleaf Whittier, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Fenimore Cooper. Prior to this period, American readers considered British literature the only serious literary work available, and American writers often imitated British models. However, with the emergence of a new group of American writers who focused on uniquely American themes, settings, and characters, a distinctly American literature began to form. Poe was among the American writers who contributed significantly to the development of this national literature.

Aside from "The Gold Bug" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue," Poe's settings are typically distant in both time and place, which adds to the story's sense of mystery and other-worldliness. "The Fall of the House of Usher" lacks a specific setting, except for the "singularly dreary tract of country" that the narrator traverses to reach the Usher residence. The presence of suits of armor and subterranean dungeons suggests a European rather than an American setting, though these features are traditional elements of the gothic genre.

Common gothic features in the story include the Usher house, referred to as "this mansion of gloom," with its dark hallways and draperies, ebony black floors, "feeble gleams of encrimsoned light," and its spooky burial vault. Enhancing these elements are Madeline Usher's mysterious illness, her death and burial, and her dramatic return from the grave. This climax is intensified by the thunder and lightning of a fierce storm, a gothic technique frequently used in modern films and stories that explore the supernatural.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" revolves around Roderick Usher and his twin sister, Madeline, who are the last remaining members of the Usher lineage.

Setting
The setting of "The Fall of the House of Usher" is crucial as it creates an atmosphere of gloom, melancholy, and decay. The story unfolds in the Usher family mansion, which is secluded and situated in a "singularly dreary tract of country." The house immediately evokes in the narrator "a sense of insufferable gloom," and it is depicted with "bleak walls," "vacant eye-like windows," and "minute fungi overspread [on] the whole exterior." The interior is equally dismal, featuring "vaulted and fretted" ceilings, "dark draperies hung upon the walls," and furniture that is "comfortless, antique, and tattered." Roderick is also affected by the setting, believing it contributes to his nervous agitation. The narrator observes that Roderick "was enchained by certain superstitious impressions regarding the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth."

Point of View
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is narrated from the perspective of an unnamed character who, being skeptical and rational, is reluctant to accept supernatural explanations for the events around him. While he attempts to explain Roderick's anxiety and nervousness as mere symptoms of mental distress, both the narrator and the reader become increasingly unsettled as the story advances. By presenting the story through the eyes of a skeptic rather than a believer, Poe heightens the suspense and emotional impact of the story's conclusion.

Symbolism
Poe employs symbolism—a literary technique where an object, person, or concept stands for something else—throughout "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Usher mansion serves as the story's most significant symbol; isolated, decayed, and steeped in death, it mirrors the declining Usher family. The narrator highlights this when he remarks 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 grey wall, and the silent tarn." The fissure in the house is another crucial symbol. Initially barely noticeable to the narrator, it suggests a deep-seated split or flaw in the twin personalities of the last surviving Ushers and foreshadows the ultimate collapse of the house and family. Other notable symbols of death and madness include Roderick's poem, "The Haunted Palace"; his abstract painting, described as a "phantasmagoric" creation by the narrator; and the "fantastic character" of his guitar playing.

Imagery
Poe employs vivid imagery to craft a foreboding atmosphere and to reinforce the themes within his story. Imagery involves creating a concrete depiction of an object or sensory experience, which helps to evoke the emotions tied to the object or experience. For instance, when the narrator catches a glimpse of Madeline, he describes: "The lady Madeline passed slowly through the remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, and my eyes followed her retreating steps." Such imagery enhances the depiction of Madeline as ghostly and enigmatic. Additionally, when the narrator encounters the physician on the staircase at the story's outset, he observes: "His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with trepidation and passed on." This portrayal of the doctor is far more impactful than a straightforward description; it accentuates the pervasive fear and anxiety within the Usher household.

Gothicism
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is widely regarded as a quintessential example of Gothic short fiction, with its exploration of themes such as incest, terminal illness, mental collapse, and death. Gothic fiction typically incorporates elements of horror, the supernatural, gloom, and violence, aiming to evoke feelings of terror and dread in the reader. These stories often unfold in medieval-like settings; the desolate, ancient, and decaying Usher mansion is perfectly fitting for this narrative. Beyond creating an atmosphere of dread, some critics believe Poe infused his story with elements of the vampire myth. For instance, J. O. Bailey argued in American Literature that Madeline is a vampire and that Roderick is struggling against her powers "with all he has."

Poe's literary prowess is unmistakable in "The Fall of the House of Usher," particularly through the story's tone. He selects details that underscore the terror of impending madness, premature burial, and inevitable death and destruction. Central to this is his depiction of the dismal Usher house, featuring a crack that appears to stretch from the roof down to the "sullen waters of the tarn." Equally crucial to the tone is the depiction of a violent storm on a night described as "singular in its terror and beauty." Thunder roars, lightning flashes, and the wind howls as Madeline makes her way from the tomb to Roderick's study door. The deaths of Roderick and Madeline are further accentuated by the narrator's observation that the "blood-red moon . . . now shone vividly through the once barely discernible fissure."

Another technique Poe employs with great skill is foreshadowing. Roderick's dreadful fate is hinted at through the portrayal of the house, which teeters on the edge of collapse. The bleak exterior details set the stage for the description of the house's interior and the characters of Roderick and Madeline Usher. Additional foreshadowing elements include Roderick's painting of a vault that later becomes Madeline's tomb and the narrator's reading of Sir Lancelot Canning's "Mad Twist," whose plot mirrors Madeline's return from the tomb.

Poe also strengthens the story's plot and theme using symbolism. The most evident symbol is the Usher house itself, which now starkly contrasts with its once lively past, as referenced in "The Haunted Palace." The house's windows, fungi, and fissure reflect Roderick's swiftly deteriorating physical and mental states. By extension, Madeline's barren womb symbolizes the Usher lineage, the house, and Roderick. Upon her death, Roderick is the last of the Ushers; with his demise, the House of Usher truly falls.

1830s: It was a common belief that odors from sources like the tarn near the Usher house could lead to mental illnesses similar to what Roderick Usher experienced. Effective treatments for mental illness were scarce or nonexistent.

Today: With a better understanding of mental illness's physiological causes and a range of medical treatments, the care for mentally ill individuals has greatly improved.

1830s: The deceased were typically kept at home for several days before burial. Funeral homes were uncommon, so families handled the preparation and burial of their loved ones.

Today: Most people pass away in hospitals, and wakes are usually held in churches or funeral homes.

1830s: Travel was challenging, slow, and often perilous. Railroads were just beginning, and most long-distance journeys were by horse-drawn wagons. It was common for guests to stay for several weeks or even an entire season when visiting relatives or friends.

Today: Enhanced transportation options, including railroads, airplanes, and automobiles, have made long-distance travel more accessible. Additionally, advanced communication technologies like telephones and e-mail have made extended visits with family and friends less common.

For a deeper understanding of Edgar Allan Poe's literary philosophy, one should read his "Philosophy of Composition." In this work, Poe explains how he crafted "The Raven" by focusing on its setting, theme, and the creation of a single emotional effect. Complementing this is his insightful review of Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales, where he not only praises Hawthorne but also elaborates on his own short story philosophy.

To appreciate Poe's detective fiction and tales of logical reasoning, one should delve into "Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Purloined Letter," and "The Gold Bug." Two stories that revolve around the theme of meticulous revenge are "The Cask of Amontillado" and "Hop Frog, or the Eight Chained Orangoutangs." The latter, though often overlooked by scholars and critics, exemplifies Poe's gothic style with its eerie setting, grotesque characters, and detailed planning of Hop Frog's revenge. Equally fascinating is "William Wilson," known for its doppelganger effect. For Poe's sea narratives, one should explore "A Descent into the Maelstrom," which has echoes of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "MS Found in a Bottle," and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, which Vincent Buranelli suggests might have influenced Moby Dick.

Among Poe's horror and terror tales are "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart," both of which explore themes of madness and murder. "Ligeia," dealing with reincarnation, was Poe's personal favorite. "The Masque of the Red Death" is notable for its use of color symbolism and allegorical elements. Lastly, "Berenice" showcases Poe's talent for blending the ludicrous with the grotesque, the fearful with the horrible, the witty with the burlesque, and the singular with the strange and mystical, as he himself commented on its effect.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" was adapted into a film in 1952. Directed and produced by Ivan Barnett, this black-and-white, 70-minute movie featured Kay Tendeter as Roderick Usher and Gwen Watford as Madeline Usher. It is available from Vigilant distributors and is generally regarded as a poor adaptation of Poe's story.

One of the most acclaimed film adaptations of "The Fall of the House of Usher" was released in 1960. This version starred Vincent Price, Myrna Fahey, and Mark Damon, and was directed by Mark Corman. It is a 65-minute color film.

In 1980, another adaptation of the story was produced. Martin Landau played Roderick Usher, and Dimitra Arliss portrayed Madeline Usher. Directed by James L. Conway and produced by Charles E. Sellier, Jr., this 101-minute color film is available from Sunn Classic.

A dramatization of "The Fall of the House of Usher" was recorded in 1965 as part of the "American Story Classics" series. This black-and-white adaptation runs for 29 minutes and is available from Film Video Library.

In 1976, Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation taped another dramatization of the story. Also in 1976, Britannica produced The Fall of the House of Usher: A Discussion, featuring science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. He discusses the Gothic elements of "The Fall of the House of Usher" and Poe's influence on modern science fiction.

Further Reading
Abel, Darrel. "A Key to the House of Usher," in University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol XVII, No. 2, January 1949, pp. 176-85.

Abel discusses the setting of "The Fall of the House of Usher" and interprets the themes of isolation and self-destructive focus as embodied by the character Rodenck Usher.

Baym, Nina. "'The Fall of the House of Usher,' Character Analysis," The Norton Anthology of American Literature, W.W. Norton, 1995, p. 664.

Baym provides a concise analysis of the three characters and their mental conditions.

Bieganowski, Ronald. "The Self-consuming Narrator in Poe's 'Ligeia' and 'Usher'," in American Literature Volume 60, No 2, May 1988, pp. 175-87.

Bieganowski illustrates how the narrators in these stories become so infatuated with their own rhetoric that they fail to relay their tales as intended. Their attempt to tell the story in an ideal manner ultimately overwhelms the narrative itself.

Brennan, Matthew C. "Turnerian Topography: The Paintings of Roderick Usher," in Studies in Short Fiction, Volume 27, Fall 1990, pp. 605-8.

Brennan argues that Poe's descriptions of Roderick's paintings closely resemble the works of English artist Joseph Turner, suggesting that both Poe and Turner favored a vague, expressionist "sublime style" over realism.

Brooks, Cleanth, Jr. and Robert Penn Warren. "The Fall of the House of Usher," in their Understanding Fiction, New York, F.S. Crofts & Co., 1943, pp. 202-5.

Brooks and Warren reduce "The Fall of the House of Usher" to a "relatively meaningless" horror story, primarily serving as a study in morbid psychology without any elements of pathos or tragedy.

Evans, Walter. "'The Fall of the House of Usher' and Poe's Theory of the Tale," in Studies in Short Fiction, Volume 14, No 2, Spring 1977, pp. 137-44.

Evans asserts that there are notable inconsistencies between Poe's theoretical approach to storytelling and his practical execution in "The Fall of the House of Usher."

May, Leila S. "Sympathies of Scarcely Intelligible Nature: The Brother-Sister Bond in Poe's 'Fall of the House of Usher'," in Studies in Short Fiction, Volume 30, Summer 1993, pp. 387-96.

May interprets the relationship between the Ushers and their downfall as a symbolic representation of the decline of the family in the 19th century.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Philosophy of Composition," in Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Edward H. Davidson, Houghton, 1956, pp. 452-61.

Poe elaborates on his philosophy of literary composition, focusing on the appropriate length and substance of literary works.

Rout, Kay Kinsella. "The Unreliable and Unbalanced Narrator," in Studies in Short Fiction, Volume 19, Winter 1982, pp. 27-33.

Although this article primarily discusses John Gardner's "The Ravages of Spring," Rout draws a comparison between its narrator and the narrator of "Usher," deeming both unreliable and emotionally unstable.

Voloshin, Beverly R. "Explanation in 'The Fall of the House of Usher'," in Studies in Short Fiction, Volume 23, Fall 1986, pp. 419-28.

Voloshm contends that this narrative marks a pivotal moment in Poe's evolution of the Gothic tale. She asserts that it encompasses all essential elements: romance, mystery, darkness, the supernatural, decay, a corpse, and even vampirism.

Allen, Hervey. Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: George H. Doran, 1926. This is the first comprehensive biography of Poe and should be read alongside more recent biographies.

Bebee, Maurice. "The Fall of the House of Pyncheon." Nineteenth Century Fiction 11 (1956): 1-17. Bebee's analysis contrasts the unity in Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" with Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables, showcasing diverse Poe criticisms.

Benet, Laura. Young Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Dodd Mead, 1941. This engaging, fictionalized biography is tailored for young readers.

Bittner, William. Poe: A Biography. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1962. Critics favor this biography for its readability.

Buranelli, Vincent. Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Twayne, 1961. This is an excellent resource for both students and scholars.

Carlson, Eric W., ed. Casebook on The Fall of the House of Usher. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Casebook Series, 1971. Carlson's book includes essays by various critics.

Gale, Robert L. Barron's Simplified Approach to Edgar Allan Poe. Woodbury, NY: Barrons, 1969. As the title suggests, this is a simplified overview of Poe's life and works, perfect for general students.

Howarth, William L. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Poe's Tales. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971. This collection features individual essays on Poe's works.

Hyneman, Esther F. Edgar Allan Poe: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles in English, 1827-1973. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1974. Hyneman asserts that this bibliography includes "all major criticism written about Poe in English and a good deal of what is minor."

Kendall, Lyle H., Jr. "The Vampire Motif in The Fall of the House of Usher.'" College English 24 (March 1963): 450-453. Kendall argues that Madeline Usher is a vampire and Roderick is her final victim. This essay is reprinted in Woodson's book, listed below.

Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1941. According to Esther Hyneman, this volume "remains the definitive biography of Poe, although it should now be supplemented by recent biographical studies."

Stein, William Bysshe. "Twin Motif in The Fall of the House of Usher.'" Modern Language Notes (February 1960): 109-111. Stein explores Madeline as Roderick's alter ego who ultimately revolts and destroys him. This essay is reprinted in Eric W. Carlson's Casebook listed above.

Stone, Edward. "Usher, Poquelin, and Miss Emily: Progress of the Southern Gothic." Georgia Review 14 (Winter 1960): 433-443. Poe ("The Fall of the House of Usher"), George Washington Cable ("Jean-ah Poquelin"), and William Faulkner ("A Rose for Emily") each contributed to the evolution of Southern Gothic in their own ways.

Stovall, Floyd, ed. Edgar Poe: Essays New and Old on the Man and His Work. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969. Stovall's title aptly describes the content of this work.

Woodson, Thomas, ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of "The Fall of the House of Usher". Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969. This volume offers a superb collection of critical perspectives, including individual essays, a chronology, and a selected bibliography.