| Title | : | The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0451526759 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780451526755 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 400 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1849 |
The work includes a new introduction by Stephen Marlowe, author of "The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus" and "The Lighthouse at the End of the World."
Besides the five stories already mentioned, it also contains: "The Balloon-Hoax", "Ms. Found in a Bottle", "A Descent into a Maelstrom", "The Black Cat", "The Pit and the Pendulum", The Assignation", "Diddling", "The Man That Was Used Up", and the novel, "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym". These may vary with different editions.
The Signet Classic Edition of "The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales" has over 250,000 copies in print!
Librarian's note: this is a collection by the author of short stories, and one novel, Entries for each of them on their own can be found elsewhere on Goodreads, including the specific entry for the story, "The Fall of the House of Usher".
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales Reviews
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The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories, Edgar Allan Poe
The 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 and falls into cataleptic, deathlike trances. Roderick and Madeline are the only remaining members of the Usher family.
The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings and attempts to cheer him by reading with him and listening to his improvised musical compositions on the guitar.
Roderick sings "The Haunted Palace", then tells the narrator that he believes the house he lives in to be alive, and that this sentience arises from the arrangement of the masonry and vegetation surrounding it. Further, Roderick believes that his fate is connected to the family mansion.
Roderick later informs the narrator that Madeline has died. Fearing that her body will be exhumed for medical study, Roderick insists that she be entombed for two weeks in the family tomb located in the house before being permanently buried.
The narrator helps Roderick put Madeline's body in the tomb, whereupon the narrator realizes that Madeline and Roderick are twins.
The narrator also notes that Madeline's body has rosy cheeks, which sometimes happens after death. Over the next week, both Roderick and the narrator find themselves increasingly agitated.
A storm begins, and Roderick comes to the narrator's bedroom (which is situated directly above the house's vault) in an almost hysterical state.
Throwing the windows open to the storm, Roderick points out that the lake surrounding the house seems to glow in the dark, just as Roderick depicted in his paintings, but there is no lightning or other explainable source for the glow. ...
تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز چهاردهم ماه سپتامبر سال 2019میلادی
عنوان: خزان خاندان آشر؛ عنوان روی جلد: خزان خاندان آشر و چند داستان دیگر؛ نویسنده ادگار آلن‌پو؛ مترجم لیلا دوستانی؛ تصویرگر نسیم شجاعی؛ تهران: فرهوش، 1397؛ در 185ص؛ شابک9786004954518؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
فهرست: خزان خاندان آشر؛ چاه و پاندول؛ میعاد؛ نقاب مرگ سرخ؛ گربه سیاه؛ سقوط در گرداب مالستروم؛ ادگار آلن پو؛
عنوان: فروپاشی خانمان آشر؛ نویسنده: ادگار‌آلن پو؛ مترجم فاطمه کاملان؛ تهران: نشر لگا، 1399؛ در 54ص؛ شابک 9786008987840؛
زوال خاندان آشر، نام داستان کوتاهی در سبک وحشت از نویسنده ی «آمریکا��ی» روانشاد «ادگار آلن پو» است، که نخستین بار در مجله ی «آقایان برتون» در ماه سپتامبر سال 1839میلادی، و در «ایالات متحده آمریکا» به چاپ رسید، پس از آن در سال 1840میلادی و با کمی تغییر در مجموعه داستانهای «گروتسک و آرابسک» منتشر شد؛ در این داستان از شعر «قصر جن‌زده» که پیشتر در شماره ی ماه آوریل سال 1839میلادی مجله ی «موزهٔ بالتیمور» چاپ شده بود نیز استفاده شده است
راوی داستان «زوال خاندان آشر» فرد بی‌نامی است، که پس از دریافت نامه ای از «رودریک آشر»، دوست دوران کودکیش، که در آن از نگرانی خود درباره ی سلامتیش سخن گفته، و اینکه فکر می‌کند بیمار است، چون دچار علایمی همچون اضطراب، و حساسیت به نور، صدا، و بو شده است؛ به دیدن او می‌رود؛ در آنجا درمی‌یابد، که «مادلین»، خواهر دوقلوی «رودریک» نیز، بیمار است؛ و به دلیل ابتلا به جمود عضلانی، در حالتی همچون مرده به سر می‌برد؛ «رودریک» فرد هنرمندی است، و راوی که تحت تأثیر نقاشی‌های او قرار گرفته، سعی می‌کند تا با همراهی دوست قدیمیش در خواندن کتاب، و گوش سپاردن به آهنگ‌هایی که «رودریک» خود ساخته، و آنها را برای راوی با گیتار می‌نوازد، به او روحیه بدهد؛ «رودریک» ترانه ی «قصر جن‌زده» را می‌خواند، و سپس به دوستش می‌گوید، که اطمینان دارد خانه ای که در آن زندگی می‌کنند نیز، دارای ادراک است، و این درک برخاسته از ترکیب عمارت، با پوشش گیاهی اطراف آن است؛ چند روز بعد «رودریک» به دوستش اطلاع می‌دهد، که خواهرش مرده، و بر این موضوع پافشاری می‌کند، که پیش از دفن کامل او، جسدش را به مدت دو هفته درون تابوتی، در آرامگاه خانوادگیشان نگه دارد؛ راوی به «رودریک» یاری می‌کند، تا جسد را درون تابوت بگذارند، و همان لحظه، گونه‌های گلگون «مادلین» می‌بیند، که چنین حالتی گاه در مورد بسیاری از افراد، پس از مرگ روی می‌دهد؛ آنها تابوت را درون آرامگاه خانوادگی قرار می‌دهند، و به داخل ساختمان بازمی‌گردند، اما هر دوی آنها در طول یک هفته ی پس از آن بدون هیچ دلیل روشنی، احساس آشفتگی می‌کنند؛ در شبی طوفانی، «رودریک» به اتاق دوستش، که در بالای آرامگاه قرار دارد می‌آید، و پنجره را با وجود طوفانی بودن هوا باز می‌کند، راوی می‌بیند، با وجود اینکه هیچ نوری در اطراف نیست، اما دریاچه ای که ساختمان را احاطه کرده، دقیقاً همانند نقاشی ای که «رودریک آشر» از آن کشیده بود، می‌درخشد؛ راوی کوشش می‌کند تا «رودریک» را با خواندن رمان «تریست دیوانه» آرام کند؛ کتاب «تریست دیوانه» روایتگر داستان شوالیه ای به نام «اتلرد» است، که برای فرار از طوفان، به زور وارد خانه ی زاهدی عزلت نشین می‌شود، و در برابر خود کاخی طلایی را می‌بیند، که اژدهایی از آن نگهبانی می‌کند، بر روی دیوار کاخ، سپری درخشان قرار دارد، که روی آن بر اساس افسانه ای، نوشته شده، که هر آنکس که اژدها را بکشد، آن سپر را به دست خواهد آورد؛ «اتلرد» با یک ضربه ی گرز خود، اژدها را می‌کشد، و اژدها با فریادی دلخراش بر زمین می‌افتد، سپس برای برداشتن سپر پیش می‌رود، که آن نیز فرو افتاده و صدایی هولناک از برخوردش با زمین برمی‌خیزد؛ زمانی که راوی مشغول خواندن چگونگی ورود شوالیه به خانه است، صداهایی همچون ترق و تروق، و شکافتن چیزی از جایی از ساختمان به گوش می‌رسد؛ وقتی می‌خواند که اژدها با فریادی دلخراش بر زمین افتاد، صدای جیغی دلخراش، از درون خانه شنیده می‌شود؛ وقتی به افتادن سپر از روی دیوار می‌رسد، درون خانه نیز، طنینی فلزی و توخالی شنیده می‌شود؛ وحشت «رودریک» به اوج خود رسیده است، و سرانجام فریاد می‌کشد که خواهرش دارد این صداها را تولید می‌کند، زیرا وقتی او را درون تابوت می‌گذاشتند، هنوز زنده بوده، و «رودریک» می‌دانسته که او زنده است؛ ناگهان در اتاق، با شدت باز شده و «مادلین» در آستانه ی در، ظاهر می‌شود؛ او خود را بر روی برادرش می‌اندازد، و هر دو چونان جنازه ای بر کف اتاق می‌افتند، راوی با دیدن این صحنه، از آن خانه فرار می‌کند، ولی به هنگام دویدن، نوری توجهش را جلب می‌کند، به عقب بر می‌گردد، و خانه ی «آشر» را می‌بیند، که به دو نیم شده، و تکه‌هایش در دریاچه ی اطراف آن در حال فرورفتن است
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 23/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی -
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Before reading this book, I had a misconception that Edger Allen Poe was a horror writer.
Oh, how wrong I was!
Yes, Poe might be known for his stories of macabre and gothic horror. But it was his versatility that I found attractive in his writings. Without much further ado, let's see what this collection holds
Macabre/HorrorTRUE! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I AM MAD?
Most of the stories in this collection are Gothic horror. I found his work on this genre not scary, but thoroughly enjoyable. Poe presents some of his signature stories in a unique way: Through the eyes of the killer/ mad man. The most famous one being Tell-Tale Heart which features an unreliable madman as the narrator. Likewise, Poe's The Cask of Amontillado is narrated by a reliable killer. Another tale, The black cat borrows its plot elements from Tell-tale heart and delivers a wicked little tale.
The Pit and the Pendulum is about a prisoner of Spanish Inquisition and presents a unique imagery in the minds of the reader.
*Gasps*
While I was reading Fall of House Usher, I understood that Poe had a thing for the burial of bodies. Seriously, he was in love with that plot element.
Even though all of the above were excellent stories, my favourite in this genre, no, scratch that, in this book is The Masque of Red death which oddly had something Shakespearian about it. I loved the allusion and the imagery it invoked.
Adventure
The very memorable The Descent into Maelstrom is a ride like no other. It tells a tale of a man who survived a terrible maelstrom at sea with the help of reasoning skills.
Manuscript found in a bottleis yet another nautical adventure which tells a tale of a man who got stuck in a ghost ship. I was a bit confused with the story and apparently, so is the good people of Internet. The story is even analysed as a satire by certain pundits!
Sci-Fi
The Balloon Hoax: Even though this story could give Jules Verne run for his money, the science is too outdated to enjoy this one. Yet this story is unique because of its publication history. This was written by Poe as an actual news report which was published in the newspaper in the year of 1844. People got so excited about the whole thing.... until it turned out to be a hoax. Hence the name.
Detective fiction
C. Auguste Dupin. Anyone know who that is? Because I had no idea!
From Wikipedia
Seriously, if Poe were not to write these stories, we might have ended up not having a Sherlock Holmes! Holmes character resembles Poe's Dupin in terms of method and style. The first story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue introduces us to this character and his methods. Even though this was the pioneer detective story, it is bogged down by lengthy narrative and a... well... weird reveal. Everything associated with this story is weird. Have you listened to the song,
Murders in Rue Morgue by Iron Maiden? Weird!
The second story, The Purloined Letter featuring Dupin clearly shows that he is Sherlock Holmes. The story features incriminating documents being used for blackmailing and police's struggle to retrieve it. I remember reading an exact replica of this story featuring Holmes written by Doyle. (I can't remember the name)
Satire
The man who was used up is a pretty funny satire. Yes, SATIRE. He even writes satire.
There were also two other stories. Diddling and Assignation which were quite boring and forgettable.
Ahoy, A Novel
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is the only novel written by Poe and it is a mixed bag in terms of storytelling. Opening with a sea voyage that went wrong, the narrative presents some excellent chapters. But it falls flat in the second half as the story changes its direction.
For a detailed review of the novel----->
Here!
Overall, Poe is a legend. He is a pioneer and a brilliant writer. Don't believe me? Read these stories! -
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 of Udolpho", for instance, had been published much earlier in 1794. Apart from its parody in Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey", Radcliffe's work has now largely been forgotten along with other great gothic works from the time. Yet The Fall of the House of Usher remains perennially popular and influential. Poe regarded it as his most successful example of "totality" , in that every detail and event in the story is relevant to the plot.
The viewpoint character has been invited to the house of a childhood friend, Roderick Usher, in order to cheer him as he is weak, ill and depressed.
Very early on in this story we are encouraged to empathise with the narrator, as his surroundings become increasingly grotesque, sinister and threatening. The "House of Usher", we are told, describes both the family and the mansion itself, and on learning this snippet of information the ending to this story is neatly telegraphed, albeit on an almost subconscious level.
Poe is at the height of his powers of description in this tale. Here is the man's first sight of the house:
"about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity 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 discernable, and leaden-hued."
And here's another atmospheric depiction, of his room this time:
"the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of the room - of the dark and tattered draperies which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the decorations about my bed."
Or what about this evocative description of (super)natural phenomena:
"the under surfaces of the huge masses of agitated vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects immediately around us, were glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation which hung about and enshrouded the mansion."
The whole tale is superbly imbued with a sense of forboding and impending doom. Conversation is virtually absent; the only occasions being for dramatic effect, for example
The culmination of this story is a masterpiece of gothic description. Our credulity is stretched as the characters reach a point of hysteria, or was something more supernatural at work?
In all Poe wrote 69 short stories, but this book contains just 14, including the title story just reviewed, plus a novella - The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym - a nautical adventure. The first 3 are also nautical stories:
The Balloon Hoax (1844), interestingly, was exactly that - a hoax. Apparently Poe wrote it as fiction pretending to be a newspaper article about a European balloonist called Edward Monck Mason crossing the Atlantic in a gas balloon in three days. There are many detailed technical specifications, which means that the story itself is not very interesting, although perhaps any hoax is going to have to seem rather dry and technical to be convincing. He is building up a fiction to seem true, which is almost the reverse of the ratiocination stories such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" , where the reader has to take things apart to solve a problem. Hot air balloons were still in their infancy, so it can be regarded as an early form of SF, and some think it may have been the inspiration for Jules Verne's later work, "Around the World in Eighty days."
Manuscript Found in a Bottle (1833) The narrator here is a traveller who has been shipwrecked along with one other old man, after a violent sandstorm and hurricane has killed the captain and crew of his ship.
The reader can appreciate the beautiful powerful but haunting descriptions of Nature in this story, and marvel at the narrator's isolation and the increasingly spectral quality of the crew. It has been suggested that this is a satire of typical sea stories. One critic described it as, "a sustained crescendo of ever-building dread in the face of ever-stranger and ever-more-imminent catastrophe."
A Descent into Maelstrom (1841) is a very similar tale, with Poe's extraordinary take on the nautical story with his extravagant and atmospheric use of language. There is a tale within a tale. The narrator is told the story of a fishermen versus the elements off the Norwegian coast a few years earlier, and is told that A Descent into Maelstrom has been credited as an example of an early SF story. Both these two stories remind the reader of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798), and are tales of sensation which emphasise the narrator's thoughts and feelings, and his terror of being killed in the whirlpool. Again, they have evocative powerful descriptions of storms at sea, but unless you are a fan of nautical literature, you may find that you admire them, but that leave you cold. They may not evoke the chill and dread of the true horror story we associate with Poe.
Here follow some links to my reviews of the other stories in this collection:
The Assignation is reviewed
link here
The Black Cat is reviewed
link here
The Cask of Amontillado is reviewed
link here
Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences is reviewed
link here
The Man that Was Used Up: A Tale of the Late Bugaboo and Kickapoo Campaign is reviewed
link here
The Masque of the Red Death is reviewed
link here
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) and The Purloined Letter (1844) are both reviewed in the collection which contains 5 short stories about the detective Auguste Dupin.
Link here to my review of that collection.
The Pit and the Pendulum is reviewed
link here
The Tell-Tale Heart is reviewed
link here
In most of these stories are the elements we associate with Poe as a so-called "Dark Romantic" - the human fallibility and proneness to sin, personal torment and self-destruction. (Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville also write in this Gothic sub-genre.) The delusions, spectres and phantasms he conjures up are all anthropomorphised evil. Two or three of the stories here are tongue-in-cheek or humorous, but most display Poe's sinister recurring themes and motifs, thus providing a good introduction to his work. -
This collection includes many of Poe's most well-known and memorable stories, including the following (along with ratings for each and some song lyrics that might be insightful or amusing, or not):
The Balloon Hoax - 1/5 - my friends say I should act my age
MS. Found in a Bottle - 2/5 - just a dream and the wind to carry me, and soon I will be free
A Descent into the Maelstrom - 3/5 - rock you like a hurricane
The Murders in the Rue Morgue - 3/5 - now I am the proudest monkey you've ever seen
The Purloined Letter - 3/5 - there probably was a problem at the post office or somethin'
The Black Cat - 4/5 - I got cat class and I got cat style
The Fall of the House of Usher - 3/5 - hold tight, we're in for nasty weather
The Pit and the Pendulum - 3/5 - jury found him guilty, gave him sixteen years in hell
The Masque of the Red Death - 3/5 - I've got a fever of a hundred and three
The Cask of Amontillado - 3/5 - red red wine, it's up to you
The Assignation - 3/5 - the statue got me high
The Tell-Tale Heart - 4/5 - kickstart my heart
Diddling - 3/5 - if you've got the inclination I have the crime
The Man that was Used Up - 2/5 - come on tell me who are you
In addition, Poe's only full-length novel is also included in this collection:
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - 3/5 - Poe would later refer to his only full-length novel as "a very silly book." Modeled after popular sea-voyage exploits - fictional and non - of the time, Poe spins a wild adventure tale that encompasses several unlikely episodes in the young life of his fictional narrator, Pym. From a literary standpoint, Narrative is most notable for having influenced Verne, Melville, Doyle and Lovecraft, whose own
At the Mountains of Madness could almost be a sequel to this novel. Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! -
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 The Spectacles which was a rather funny story.
The Domain of Arnheim and Landor's Cottage, were the only two stories that I found myself having to make an effort to maintain my focus- they were beautifully written though, and not too long.
I'm glad I read this and intend to read more Poe soon. -
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 - Meh. Weird for no reason and kind of boring.
The Cask of Amontillado - I think makes Poe so memorable is his vivid first-person accounts from the point of view of a killer.
The Assignation - I couldn't follow this one. What did the drowning child and the art aficionado have to do with one another?
The Tell-Tale Heart - Funnier than I'd remembered. One of my all-time favorites.
Diddling - A random essay on swindling.
The Man That was Used Up - Silly, amusing, but ends a bit too abruptly.
Narrative of A. Gordon Pym - Some good bits, but I think I just don't like maritime fiction. -
I was just going to read ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ to remind myself of it before reading T. Kingfisher's ‘What Moves the Dead’ which is presented as an extended retelling of the story. I found myself, however, reminded of how good a writer Poe was, and had to go on and reread many of the stories in this collection. It's a great collection with ‘The Tell-Tale heart ‘ and ‘The Black Cat’ among my favorites.
-
This was my first ever collection i have read of mr. Poe and I enjoyed most of the stories in this collection. The collection was my pick for all hallow's read to read for Halloween this year. I also hosted a readalong of this collection online on facebook andat the all about books book club on goodreads. This month from october 20th through tonight we read and discussed the stories by poe that was in this collection along with the novel A narrative of A. Gordon Pym. It also included my favorite poe story The Masque of the Red Death which I first read in middle school. It is still a favorite to this day. The only stories I did not enjoy were diddling and the man that was used up. I would definitely reccomend this colle ction to others. Go to the all about books book club on goodreads to see my comments on these stories at this link
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... and enjoy! -
3.5 stars. I did not read (or listen to) all of the books in this collection so this review is for the books listed below (I will periodically update as I listen to more of the stories):
"The Pit and the Pendulum" (2.5 to 3.0 stars): The best way I can think of to describe Poe's writing is "atmospheric" and he certainly does a good job creating atmosphere in this short story. A good, solid story but not the "classic" I was hoping for.
"The Tell-Tale Heart" (4.0 stars): My favorite Poe story Of the ones listed here. A short, well-written and powerful story about guilt.
"The Masque of the Red Death" (3.0 stars): Another good, solid short story by Poe and one that I think I liked better for not having overly high expectatons for it going in. -
Inspired Madness
A Book Review of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales
There’s no denying that much of modern horror fiction — as we know it anyway — grew out of the gloomy, chaotic depth of the 19th century when a few demented souls were churning out tales of things that go bump in the night. These were writers who were dubbed freaks during their time and, as if the patina of age hasn’t wore off, are still considered as such today. They broke taboos, infringed established rules, attacked the sensibilities of their era, and twisted genres to the breaking point. Sure thing, they died broke, scorned or both, yet in the process gave birth to some of the great works of literature, became a pioneer and initiated many of the conventions that are now considered commonplace in much of today’s horror fiction.
Thus, in my exploration (and bid to become the most annoying know-it-all) in matters concerning the horror genre, I looked back and was lead on this dark alleyway, in the hall of one of the most venerable Old Masters of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe.
Looking at Poe’s life, one gets a fair idea that the man led a tragic, if not a horrific life. He was a poet at heart, aching for personal losses and hopping from job to job in the publishing world while he tried to find something fulfilling amid alcoholism and depression. To help pay the bills, like so many writers before and after him, he turned to sensationalism.
Lucky for us, he was good at it, and the results were among the most vivid and chilling horror tales ever written. You’ve got your buried alive tale (The Premature Burial), your revenge tale (The Cask of Amontillado), your torture tale (The Pit and the Pendulum), your plague tale (The Masque of the Red Death), your haunted house tale (The Fall of the House of Usher) and perhaps the most vivid of all, the internalized ghost story (The Tell-Tale Heart). It is the last of these that always struck me as the most effective, at least among Poe’s work. All of these stories are important to the genre. Many of them are flat out revolutionary, and have been imitated ever since.
But there’s something about The Tell-Tale Heart, on the relentless psychological hell it seems to hurl into the reader’s head, that makes it stand out as a masterwork among masterworks. It speaks to the fear that we might lose control of the one thing we always thought we could manage: ourselves. We all have our own little bodies under the floorboards, and even if we’re not murderers, it’s a story that suggests we could be — which, in my opinion, might be among the scariest feelings of all. Poe was a master at conveying this kind of internal torture, and for all the unapologetic sensationalism of his work, it’s that internalized agony that makes it all too real for us.
The reader of an Edgar Allan Poe story — we could also throw in his splendid poems, I presume — may expect to encounter characters in the grip of extreme experience. Murder is common, as is madness, and life at times can seem a horror. Reading his stories is a retreat from humanity into a ghastly realm where as much as possible of the human is left out, where our weaknesses became wobbling strengths and our trembling gasping cries. But what we forever owe to Poe is he dared to look, when others have no guts even to take peek, at the door where horror lurks opening a worm of possibilities that slithered in and out of the genre to which he may have the (bloody?) hand of creating. More than anything else, it is Poe who sculpted, with such fine craftsmanship, a form out of our very own fears and nightmares.
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Book Details:
Published by Signet Classics
(Mass Market Paperback, 1980 Edition)
383 pages
Started: October 6, 2010
Finished: October 23, 2010
My Rating: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ -
The opening sequence right away sets-up the mood of the story – “the soundlessness of the autumn day, low-hanging clouds, dreariness of the countryside, waning of the day, the melancholy house itself.” The descriptions are so amazing of the inside of the Usher House which intensifies the impression of gloom and decay given by the outside. Such symbolism too! The way that Roderick’s studio is reached “through many dark and intricate passages” suggest that access to his mind is hidden and convoluted as well. The crafting of the tone is brilliant.
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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 girl in the coffin is named Madeline. It made the story even creepier than it already was. -
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 mind, you need to go back and re-read it immediately. He was an opium induced genius and no one can ever compare to his rhythmic, sing-song, and deliriously fluid writing.
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edgar allan poe:
me: nice ghost quartet reference -
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
Intriguing storyline, beautiful writing style and a great plot twist! I have nothing else to add- I love Poe’s stories! -
http://youtu.be/dee3RSgUWiM
Un giorno, se io non andrò sempre fuggendo di gente in gente, mi vedrete seduto a meditare il mio film sul crollo della casa Usher di Poe. Ho già in mente la colonna sonora, “Blackout” dei Muse, la mia preferita, con quegli archi maestosi in minore e quel lamento funebre che è la voce di Bellamy… peccato si siano venduti a Twilight, e questo, forse, rovinerà un po’ la mia ambizione e reputazione. Quando la chitarra partirà all’impazzata con la distorsione in crescendo (“avvertii con precisione un rumore metallico, profondo, sonoro, come soffocato”) farò sorgere dalla tomba morta ma ancora in vita lady Madeleine, così si apriranno i battenti d’antico ebano, conseguenza d’una furibonda ventata, e lei alta figura verrà avanti, avvolta nel suo sudario impregnato del sangue del suo atroce combattimento, una luce livida riempirà la cornice dello schermo, qualcuno si alzerà all'improvviso per non sprofondare definitivamente, ricordandosi di Baudelaire, nelle poltrone come fossero tombe. -
This story will absolutely freak you out. Of course, you should expect that from the greatest suspense writer of all time.
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"Y las tinieblas, y la corrupción, y la Muerte Roja lo dominaron todo."
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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 living creature that has sucked the spirit out of everything around it, including its accursed inhabitants.
Upon entering the house, the narrator steps into a vividly nightmarish setting with wonderful descriptions of gloomy horror. The house has absorbed the negative energy of the Usher family's dark and lonesome history. Not much is known about the story, characters or setting other than the house acts like a vampiric force of nature that has transformed its descendants into a state of ghoulish nonexistence.
"It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of blank and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down -- but with a shudder even more thrilling than before -- upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows."
The prose and descriptions of the house are chilling, but there's not much else to the story than that. I also feel like it didn't leave as much up to interpretation or analyses as many of Poe's other works. This collections includes several other gothic tales such as The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Masque of the Red Death which I think are all better and more thought-provoking than this one.
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If you're looking for some dark ambient music for reading horror, dark fantasy and other books like this one, then be sure to check out my YouTube Channel called Nightmarish Compositions:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs... -
It is always hard for me to review collections because inevitably there are some I like and some I like less or outright dislike. With this collection it is a bit easier in some ways because Poe has very consistent writing . As I was reading it, basically to reacquaint with Edgar Allan Poe and his classic stories and style then I spent a lot more time paying attention to those qualities than to the stories on their own.
There are some 'Poes' that I really love and have done since reading them in my teens. The Raven, of course, a few others. While listening to this audiobook though, the reason I was not mad keen about Poe as a kid came back to me; his storylines are often inconsistent and the frames of logic wobbly. This can bother me.
For a Poe audiobook, this narrator was perfect, the dread he could infuse into the lovely baroque language was impressive and with his narration I enjoyed a couple of the stories more than ever before. The Pit and the Pendulum & The Cask of Amontillado were made more creepy and vivid with his expert reading, though other stories I had always liked better, like The Black Cat, (which used to be a favourite of mine) dragged and I found myself liking them less.
So at the end of the day, Poe is incredibly influential and memorable as a leading author of the horror and macabre genera. He was central to Romanticism in American literature, he is also credited with being the inventor of the detective fiction genre (which I would say is highly debatable) and contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. At the end of the day though, I can't adore his work. Some of his writing I like, I respect his achievements and think he should have worked harder at not contradicting himself as much within the scope of a single short story -
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 the big theme of the time - men get stranded on a an island and fight to stay alive. This went on an on and I almost wanted to give up since my book had very small letters, which made it bearable for me to read only few pages per day. I stuck with it and my review of this story is "meh".
Overall a good collection but it took me a while to finish it. I remember int he past picking up this book and putting it down after reading one short story. -
4.5 stars (5 were 5 star and 5 were at least 4 star, so I rounded up)
I both read the stories in here and listened to the stories, partly for greater understanding, but also to compare the reading and the listening. The narrator was particularly talented and I think his narration added suspense and terror to the stories. I can definitely recommend this collection.
The short stories were:
The Pit and the Pendulum, ****
The Tell-Tale Heart, *****
The Masque of the Red Death, *****
Ligeia, *****
The Raven (okay this is a poem), ****
The Cask of Amontillado, ****
The Fall of the House of Usher, *****
The Black Cat, *****
The Premature Burial, ****
The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar, **** -
A couple of short-storys in which all care a dark side to the human nature muder, madness and evil are all covered in these stories. I have a feeling of uneasy and dispare that we can be so cold and mean toward each other
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I find with this collection, my opinion on Poe is evolving; becoming more refined. First, this may be better named The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym and Other Tales as Poe’s only full-length novel closing out this compendium is the lion's share of the pages. Also, purported as a response to a Poe hoax is completes the bookends with the initial newspaper piece "Balloon-Hoax".
In this realm of writing, I find there is science fiction - tales tethered to scientific facts - and science fantasy - fiction with more magical, mystical premises. Popularily, Poe may be thought more in the fantasy with this "macabre" musings, but really he is more like
Jules Verne in that he is tightly bound to a scientific reality, if even he relies on unproven assumptions. Much of that here is of a nautical flavor: "Ms. Found in a bottle" and "Descent into the maelstrom", etc. I find Poe loses effectiveness when he tries to bring in byzantine details and the ornate imaginings crowd out of the exposition anything that would allow a reader to solve the case or even put it together from any missed clues on a re-read as in "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined letter" where the delight in details becomes a breathless exercise in
ratiocination thus being some of world's first detective stories but with deux ex machina reveations. More to the fantasy side we have "Black cat" (I recoil at the animal cruelty) and maybe even the eponymous "Fall of the house of Usher". Some of his famous stories here for me are exemplars of how he should just keep it simple. "Pit and the pendulum" gives to us the relentless, nearing death but does anyone really reflect back with joy on the multiple awakenings, pit-within-a-pit, compacting walls, and
Lord of the Flies ending? Similarly, in "Masque of the red death" like in
The Village (2004 film) (even with the 'bad color') we have the seeds of destruction brought into the man-made Eden, but do we really need the various monochromatic rooms and intricacies of spreading light? I feel Poe is best at simple, direct tale of base and basic human motivations with little adornment, as in "Cask of Amontillado" and "Tell-tale heart", which Stephen King called “the best tale of inside evil ever written”. -
I’m going to get into trouble, so let me just say this up front: Edgar Allan Poe is without a doubt one of the most influential figures in the history of literature, American or otherwise, and his contributions can’t be overstated. He was also, however, overly long-winded, had a difficult time creating relatable characters, and had a tendency to lose sight of the reader as he rambled.
A lot of the stories in this book, you’ve probably read before. “The Pit and the Pendulum” is one of the great American horror stories. “The Black Cat” is a classic, but such a staple of horror literature that people overlook the fact that the main character is undone simply through his own hubris. At least in “The Tell-tale Heart”, the killer has a breakdown to blame for his fall (although, again, he is an utterly unlikeable character who essentially went mad and killed a man for having glaucoma). “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” very much gave birth to the modern detective story, but are overly long and tedious.
This collection does have some lesser known works, though, which is why I picked this one up. “A Descent into the Maelstrom” remains probably Poe’s most sadly underappreciated works. But also here are “The Man That Was Used Up”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “Diddling” which serve only to show that opium is a heck of a drug – because as stories, they’re just awful. The real prize here is “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym”, one of Poe’s only true novels and credited as inspiring the likes of Jules Verne H.P. Lovecraft. Frankly, it’s disappointing. The story is an overly long tale of adventure at sea which is really two, if not three, distinct short stories rolled into a vague novel. Poe gets bogged down in overly descriptive passages about seamanship and ship design along the way, turning it into a disjointed, bloated, and awkward story that limps along before glossing over the truly interesting parts of the tale en route to a vague and somewhat unsatisfying conclusion.
As Poe collections go, this one gets points for some lesser known inclusions. Ultimately, though, the satisfying stories have already been covered hundreds of times before, so this one sort of falls by the wayside. -
Look, I know he's very famous and I know he's written some good stuff but hear me out: this is not the Poe collection that you want. Yes, it contains "The Fall of the House of Usher" which is a five star horror story if ever there was one. Yes, it also contains a selection of his other short stories, which admittedly I do not find as excellent as many do, but which I would still give a solid three stars in general. HOWEVER. Fully one half of this particular edition is not a short story at all. It is the entire 200 pages of Poe's only novel, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" - and I have no hesitation in saying that it is a strong contender for the worst novel ever written. Seriously, the thing is dire. It's patched together and badly edited. My favourite example of how disastrous this is comes in the death of a man aboard ship. His arm has been injured. It turns gangrenous and nasty, starts to putrefy in a number of disgusting ways. Yet when this poor victim dies and is in the process of being tossed overboard, it's not his disintegrating arm, black to the shoulder, that falls off, no. It's his leg. Poe did not notice. Clearly neither did his editor. I imagine they'd both given up by then.
I'll not give anything that contains "House of Usher" a single star. But neither will I ever give any book that prints "Arthur Gordon Pym" any rating that approaches likeability. Save yourselves, and find another edition of his stories to read... -
Am rămas profund impresionată de stilul de scriere al lui Poe, mai ales datorită complexității acestuia. Evenimentele în sine nu erau plăsmuiri spectaculoase ale imaginarului, dar felul în care naratorul a prezentat chiar și cele mai mici detalii ale întâmplărilor au făcut ca poveștile să capete o importanță aparte.
„Voi pieri, zise el, trebuie să pier de această jalnică sminteală. Așa, așa, și nu altfel, mă voi sfârși. Mi-e groază de întâmplările care vor veni, nu de ele în sine, ci de urmările lor. Mă cutremur la gândul că vreuna dintre ele, chiar și cea mai banală, ar putea acționa asupra acestei insuportabile tulburări sufletești. La drept vorbind, nu mi-e silă atât de primejdie, cât de efectul ei absolut: terioarea. În starea asta jalnică de slăbiciune simt că mai curând sau mai târziu va sosi clipa când va trebui să renunț la viață și la rațiune în lupta cu sinistra fantasmă: FRICA.„ (Prăbușirea Casei Usher)
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