The Fall of the House of Usher

American author Edgar Allan Poe wrote the Gothic short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” in 1839. It first appeared in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and later in Poe’s collection of short stories Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840.

Poe is considered a founding figure of US Gothic and Romantic literature. He is best known for his poetry, including "The Raven" (1845) and "Annabel Lee" (1849), and short stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) and "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842), all of which treat themes of mystery, ill-fated love, mental illness, the macabre, and the supernatural. As a work very much in this vein, “The Fall of the House of Usher” helped to cement Poe's Gothic aesthetic.

This guide uses the Elegant Ebooks version of the text, which is freely available through the University of Pennsylvania Library’s Online Books Page. This guide also retains Poe’s use of the term “madness” to refer to physical and mental torment, the dark and delicate balance between reality and wild figments of the imagination.