The Fall of the House of Usher and other stories

Written by Edgar Allan Poe

Narrated by Basil Rathbone

Short story collection by Edgar Allan Poe, featuring TELL TALE HEART, FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, THE BLACK CAT, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH and THE CASQUE OF THE AMONTILLADO

The classic horrifying tale from Edgar Allan Poe, read by Basil Rathbone

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9780008137052

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) reigned unrivaled in his mastery of mystery during his lifetime and is now widely held to be a central figure of Romanticism and gothic horror in American literature. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was orphaned at age three, was expelled from West Point for gambling, and later became a well-regarded literary critic and editor. "The Raven," published in 1845, made Poe famous. He died in 1849 under what remain mysterious circumstances and is buried in Baltimore, Maryland.

Reviews for The Fall of the House of Usher and other stories

[wnk1029_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This horror/suspense short story had a lot of buildup and mood-setting descriptions, but was a much shorter tale than I had anticipated or remembered. I think I used the dictionary function on my Nook more times in this story than I have in the last ten books I've read combined. This one didn't live up to my expectations for Poe, the master of suspense.

[herebedragons · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dark and creepy; a great short story.

[michael8xolotl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There’s overly exuberant Poe who tries to capture horror in an abundance of exclamations and a rush of words and then there’s the Poe who captures horror in a neurotic and melancholy creep of dread. I like the latter.

[marsap_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"The Fall of the House of Usher" recounts the terrible events that befall the last remaining members of the once-illustrious Usher clan—narrated by the boyhood friend of Roderick Usher. It is a gothic horror story and a great example of how an author such as Poe gets straight to the point. It is a quick read—but the fear and the horror grow with sentence. A 4 out of 5 stars.

[altheaann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of course; I'd read this before (somewhere or other, I have an old set of the complete works of Poe, which I bought at the estate sale of a recently-deceased woman - I felt it was appropriate, somehow.) However, it's been a long time. A re-read was welcome, since I'd recently read "Madeline's Version" by F. Brett Cox, which gives another viewpoint on this tale.
Still, for language and vivid imagery, the original Poe cannot be surpassed. Just the opening paragraphs bring the titular house to chilling 'life' as no other description of a cursed abode may even have done. A classic for a reason.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Read for coursera Fantasy and Science Fiction course. Good, lots of color--especially in varieties of gray/black--mentioned. Good mood setting. The story itself? Meh.

[steadfastreader · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A classic gothic Poe novella. Good. Worth the read.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm a big EAP fan, but realized I hadn't read the title story yet! So that's why I picked this up! And what better time of the year to read Poe? This collection is dang good, but I didn't give it 5 stars because two of the stories were kind of lame, and very un-Poe like. Neither "The Balloon Hoax" nor "Diddling" seemed to belong in this book, as neither were creepy or thrilling. They should either not have been included, or two different stories that matched the theme of the rest of the collection should have been substituted. But apart from that, I was very satisfied with the read!

[booklover3258 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I've read two stories from this collection for the 1001 books to read before you die list. The first one "The Purloined Letter" sucked. I DNF because it was so boring and really too much information to get through just to find out how he got his hands on the letter. However, the second story "The Fall of the House of Usher" was more of the Poe writing that I enjoy. It's about a haunted house with a poor man who is going crazy inside it. Ending was strange and left it to the reader's imagination what happened to Usher.

[dorotheabaker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'd never read Poe before when I bought this book. I usually hate florid writing (basically, anything before the late 19th century) and a quick glance at the prose made me a little worried about whether I would even be able to make sense of it. However, I persevered and now I've finished all the stories and am sad cause I know there's no more to read.

Poe understands horror and suspense to perfection. He also understands a lot of other things which nobody seems to appreciate anymore, IMO.

Some of the more surreal stories in this collection reminded me strongly of Gogol. I'm not really a fan of surreal writing, but many of the other stories - especially the 'futuristic technology' ones - reminded me of some of Conan Doyle's stories, which is some of the highest praise I could give an author.
In particular, I'm indebted to Poe for inspiring Conan Doyles's Sherlock Holmes, one of my favorite literary protagonists of all time. I actually think the Sherlock Holmes stories are better developed than Poe's detective tales, but one can forgive him since he pioneered the detective genre.

My favorite story, by far, was 'Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'. I love a good adventure story, and this was an epic that just went on and on and oooon....in a very good way. It also showed how incredibly educated the author was on everything from the breedings habits of sea-birds to handling a ship. I learnt so much about random subjects from this story.

I was going to try to list some of my other favorites, but there are just too many so I'm leaving it at this.

[orix_bluewave · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is very thrilling story.
I was interested in his book because Japanese famous writer Ranpo Edogawa is made by changing Edgar Allan Poe.
The story is nice.
But a little dreadful

[melydia_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[gazzy_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My first collection of the maestro's work. Inexorably moody.

[miss_scarlet_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Edgar Allan Poe was the inventor of the thriller and made an very chilling work of his story "The Fall of the House of Usher". Being my favorite work of his besides "The Raven", I would recommend it to anyone. However, his stories all together are a bit too grim and gruesome for my taste.