What is the fall of the house of usher about?

"The Fall of the House of Usher" is considered the best example of Poe's "totality", wherein every element and detail is related and relevant. The theme of the crumbling, haunted castle is a key feature of Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (1764), which largely contributed in defining the Gothic genre. read more

"The Fall of the House of Usher" was first published in September 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. It contains within it Poe's poem "The Haunted Palace", which had earlier been published separately in the April 1839 issue of the Baltimore Museum magazine. read more

“The Fall of the House of Usher” possesses the quintessential -features of the Gothic tale: a haunted house, dreary landscape, mysterious sickness, and doubled personality. For all its easily identifiable Gothic elements, however, part of the terror of this story is its vagueness. read more

An unnamed narrator arrives at the House of Usher, a very creepy mansion owned by his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. Roderick has been sick lately, afflicted by a disease of the mind, and wrote to his friend, our narrator, asking for help. read more

Free summary and analysis of the events in Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher that won't make you snore. We promise. read more