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The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories, Edgar Allan PoeThe Fall of the House of Usher begins with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a distant part of the country complaining of an illness and asking for his help. As he arrives, the narrator notices a thin crack extending from the roof, down the front of the house and into the adjacent tarn, or lake.It is revealed that Roderick's sister, Madeline, is also ill a...
A nameless narrator arrives to meet his childhood friend Roderick Usher in the hopes of cheering him up from his state of declining mental health. It's been many years since the narrator has seen his friend, and he begins to realize he doesn't know as much about him as he once thought other than Roderick is the descendant of a mysterious noble family. The landscape surrounding his home is a dreary wasteland that has been drained of life. The giant manor that Roderick inhabits appears to be a liv...
I am not sure what rating to give to this collection of stories. On one hand, it has a bunch of well known stories by Poe such as The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Tell-Tale Heart - all of them sit on top for me as the greatest stories by Poe. On the other hand, this book also contained the only full novel by Poe, Narrative of A. Gordon Pym which clocks in at about 178 pages. This would not be bad if it did not contain...
This selection of short stories reveals Edgar Allan Poe in all his moods. All the stories have been reviewed, but some have their own separate reviews and star rating. These are indicated with links at the end. This review and star rating is for the remainder of this selection. The Fall of the House of Usher (published in 1839) is the title story of the collection. It may well be one of the stories which started the current interest in the gothic genre, although Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries o...
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 - Me...
I've been slowly working my way through this over the past six months, reading a story here and there. Initially I was quite daunted by the idea of Edgar Allan Poe, but as I progressed through the collection I found myself relaxing into it and just enjoying the writing. There were many standout stories in this collection, but I did especially enjoy The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial, The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-tale Heart and T...
Hearing your name given to literary characters is a weird experience. I guess I should be thankful I don't have a more common name, like Sarah or Kate or whatever. Sharing a name with a fictional character doesn't happen to me often - the last one I can remember is The Departed, where the single female character was named Madeline but it didn't really matter because she got called by name a whopping one time - but when it does it's weird. Especially when you're reading this story by Poe, and the...
Introduction by Stephen Marlowe:Poe walked so a lot of other writers could run. It’s a shame that he was never fully able to get the praise that he deserved. I’m not surprised he was better received in Europe. As for Rufus Griswold, imagine being known mostly as the man who spread slander about Poe’s work out of jealousy, posthumously no less, for 8 years.The Balloon Hoax: 3/5 – A group of men claim to have travelled to America by hot-air balloon. Poe wrote this as a hoax bit of news (fake news)...
4 Stars. My first look at a collection of stories by Edgar Allan Poe. A true revelation. I've come to him later than many and regret I didn't experience his tales earlier. Not all of them mind you - Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" contains an equal amount of racism, if not more, than Poe's "The Man That Was Used Up" as well as its ridicule of those with disabilities and Indigenous Americans. But "Mockingbird" with a story for the ages and superb writing is deserving of a re-read despite its signif...
This is my favorite of all Poe's stories. (Which considering my love for him, was not an easy choice to make.) I have read it several times over, numerous times out-loud and in scary voices to entertain my little brother :). It's incredible how Poe can write in this helter skelter fashion so that you really don't know exactly what's going on-- and then in one final paragraph, or even the final sentence, he brings it all together and has you so thoroughly creeped out and simultaneously blown your...
