Edgar Allan Poe — “The Fall of the House of Usher”


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Commentary:

Characters:

  • Narrator (unnamed) - The narrator in this story is chiefly an observer.
  • Roderick Usher - The main protagonist, the twin brother of Madeline Usher. Although the implication is that Roderick and Madeline are identical twins, having come from a single egg, modern science clearly establishes that such twins are necessarily of the same gender. Thus, they must be fraternal twins, which would tend to diminish Poe's idea of a single shared soul. As Poe gives it, however, the mix of genders allows for the introduction of the idea of a male and female division in the soul.
  • Madeline Usher - The cataleptic twin sister of Roderick Usher. Along with Roderick, she is the last of the long line of Ushers.
  • The family physician (unnamed) - Mentioned. A comment is made later that suggests Madeline Usher has been examined by more than one physician.
  • A servant (unnamed) - Mentioned.
  • A valet (unnamed) - Mentioned.

Setting:

Location - Under development.

Date - Under development.

Summary:

Under development.


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Reading and Reference Texts:

Reading copy:

  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — reading copy

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Historical Texts:

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

  • Text-01 — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1839 (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
  • Text-02 — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1839
    • Text-02a — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1839 (Speculated faircopy manuscript prepared for publication in Burton's. Poe was an editor of the magazine at this point, and may have taken somewhat less care about presentation of such a manuscript, although he would still have been concerned about clarity for the sake of typesetting.)
    • Text-02b — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — September 1839— Burton's — (Mabbott text A) (Poe sent copies of this issue of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine to James E. Heath and to Washington Irving. The copy sent to Heath was apparently accompanied by a note requesting a review in the Southern Literary Messenger and a reprint of “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Heath promised a review, but declined the reprint as it would have required too much space and because he did not feel that the readers of the SLM particularly appreciated “tales of the German School.” Irving appears to have replied favorably about “The Fall of the House of Usher.” In a letter to P. P. Cooke, Poe mentions that he is sending copies of the July, August, and September 1839 issues of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, but in Cooke's reply it is clear that he is responding only to the story as it was printed in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, of which Poe had sent Cooke an inscribed copy. There is no reason to suspect that any of these magazine copies contained manuscript revisions by Poe.)
  • Text-03 — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1839-1840
    • Text-03a — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1839 — speculated revised copy of Burton's (Text-02b), in anticipation of the publication of Text-03b. (These revisions are presumably recorded in Text-03b. The changes between Text-02b and Text-03b are slight enough that a new manuscript is unlikely, but not so minor that they would reasonably have been made during typesetting or in correcting proofs for Text-03b.)
    • Text-03b — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1840 — TGA — (Mabbott text B)
  • Text-04 — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1842-1845
    • Text-04a — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1842 — TGAPP — (Mabbott text C)  (This version is a modified form of Text-03b)
    • Text-04b — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1842-1845 — speculated revised copy of TGA (Text-04), TGAPPB, perhaps in anticipation of the new edition of Poe's tales. (These revisions are presumably recorded in Text-04c. The changes are slight enough that a new manuscript is highly unlikely, but not so minor that they would reasonably have been made during typesetting or in correcting proofs for Text-04c. At least some of these changes are significant enough that they suggest the hand of the author rather than of Duyckinck as editor.)
    • Text-04c — “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1845 — TALES — (Mabbott text D — This is Mabbott's copy-text)  (No changes were marked for this tale in TALES-JLG. For Griswold's 1847 and 1850 reprintings of this text, see those entries below, under reprints.)

 

Reprints:

  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — August 1840 — Bentley's Miscellany  (reprinted from Text-02, but unacknowledged) (Poe mentions this reprint, as unauthorized, in the Broadway Journal for September 8, 1845)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — September 5, 1840 — Boston Notion (reprinted from Bentley's Miscellany (Poe mentions this reprint, as unauthorized, in the Broadway Journal for September 8, 1845)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1840 (?) — Boston Daily Times  (This reprint was noted by P. K. Foley, but has not been verified)
  • The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1847 — Prose Writers of America — Griswold reprints Text-07, with some minor editorial changes (Mabbott text E) (first issued March 3, 1847, and reprinted in subsequent years. 4th edition issued May-June 1851, reprinted as late as 1856) (Reprinted in 1847 in London, UK, by Richard Bentley, with the same contents and presumably from stereotype plates.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — August 23-30, 1848 — Oquawka Spectator  (acknowledged from Text-02)
    • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — Part I — August 23, 1848, vol. I, no. 29, p. 1, cols. 1-5
    • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — Part II — August 30, 1848, vol. I, no. 29, p. 1, cols. 1-4
  • The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold reprints from the stereotype plates of Text-07 — (Mabbott text F)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1852 — Tales and Sketches: to which is added The Raven: A Poem, London, George Routledge & Co., pp. 127-143
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1852 — Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Humour; and Poems, London: Henry Vizetelly (An undated edition appears about the same time, published by Charles H. Clark and Samuel Orchart Beeton, and their name appears as publisher for the second series), second series pp. 106-126. (with a woodcut illustration)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — September 16-30, 1858 — Leisure Hour (Oxford, NC)
    • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — September 16, 1858 — Leisure Hour (Oxford, NC), vol. I, no. 32, p. 1, cols. 2-5
    • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — September 23, 1858 — Leisure Hour (Oxford, NC), vol. I, no. 33, p. 1, cols. 1-3
    • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — September 23, 1858 — Leisure Hour (Oxford, NC), vol. I, no. 34, p. 1, cols. 1-3
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, first series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 291-309 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
  • The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 179-199 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
  • ”The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1875 — Little Classics, vol. II: Intellect, Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. (This 18 volume series, edited by Rossiter Johnson, contains selections from many authors, including Poe, Dickens, and Hawthorne. Each volume is theoretically comprised around a different theme.)
  • ”The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1888 — Weird Tales: American, London: William Patterson. (This book is from a five-volume series, all called Weird Tales and each focusing on a single cultural tradition — American, Irish, English, Scottish and German. Among the selections in this volume are Washington Irving's “The Headless Horseman” and William Gilmore Simm’ “Murder Will Out” and Poe”s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” The same series appeared as Weird Tit-Bits, published in New York and London: White & Allen. It was reprinted several times, with a seventh edition appearing in 1889, as advertised in Publisher’'s Weekly for September 21, 1889 and the Dial for October 1889.)
  • ”The Fall of the House of Usher” — July 12, 1891 — New York Press (printed in a section of the newspaper called “Short Stories Which Made Their Authors Famous.”), p. 18.
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — May 16 and 18, 1905 — Belleville News-Democrat (p. 6) (this item is noted by George Monteiro, “Fugitive Reprints,” E. A. Poe Review, Fall 2010, p. 162.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — May 28, 1905 — The Tennessean (Nashville, TN), vol. XXVIII, whole no. 10,267, p. 35, full width of the page.
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — October 9, 1905 — Evening Journal and Daily Republican (Wilmington, DE), vol. 66, no. 12, p. 5, full width of the page.
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — January 17, 1909 — New York Times (New York, NY), vol. LVIII, whole no. 18,621, p. 42, full width of the page, and p. 43.
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — June 4, 1914 — Winfield Courier (Winfield, KS), vol. XLII, no. 13, p. 9, cols. 1-66 (under the heading of the “Worls's Greatest Short Stories,” and acknowledged as “by Edgar Allan Poe.”)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — June 6, 1914 — Winfield Daily Courier (Winfield, KS), vol. LXI, no. 46, p. 7, cols. 1-6 (under the heading of the “Worls's Greatest Short Stories,” and acknowledged as “by Edgar Allan Poe.” The distinction between the Winfield Courier and the Winfield Daily Courier is unclear.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — June 9, 1914 — Marysville Evening Democrat (Marysville, CA), vol. 55, no. 131, p. 6, cols. 1-6 (under the heading of the “Worls's Greatest Short Stories,” and acknowledged as “by Edgar Allan Poe.” The layout is the same as for that in the Winfield Courier)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — June 18, 1914 — Leon Reporter (Leon, Iowa), vol. LX, no. 44, p. 10, full width of the page (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — July 25, 1914 — Janesville Daily Gazette (Janesville, WI), vol. LVIII, no. 120, p. 12, full width of the page (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — July 31, 1914 — Bernardsville News (Bernardsville, NJ), vol. 15, no. 24, pp. 2 and 3 (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — July 31 - August 1, 1914 — Huntington Herald (Huntington, IN) (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
    • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — July 31, 1914 — Huntington Herald (Huntington, IN), vol. 13, no. 181, p. 2 (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
    • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — August 1, 1914 — Huntington Herald (Huntington, IN), vol. 13, no. 182, p. 2 (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — August 6, 1914 — Princeton Union (Princeton, Minnesota), vol. XXXVIII, no. 33, pp. 6, full width of the page (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — September 9, 1914 — Pittston Gazette (Pittston, PA), vol. 65 (no issue number), p. 9, cols. 1-6 (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — November 1, 1914 — Hartford Daily Courant (Hartford, CT), vol. LXXVIII (no issue number), p. 28, full width of the page (with a large woodcut illustration). Printed with the rather silly and over-wrought introductory comment: “That ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ was a masterpiece of Poe there can be no doubt, nor any doubt that it is a gruesome tale into which he threw so much of his own personality that we can read in it some of those mental struggles, those unbalanced, half-crazed fantasies, which ever possessed the haunted palace of Poe's brain and against which life was for him a constant struggle. We feel when we read of the fancies and hallucinations of Roderick Usher that Poe drew for them upon his own mental organization. It is a wonderful piece of work, especially that poem of ‘The Haunted Palace’ which appears in it — and appears there in such a fitting setting. But one does not care to read it many times, or, at least, if he is a sane and normal man, he ought not to. The effect is too unsettling, too depressing; great figures, vast conceptions half uttered by the writer. It is a haunted land where dimly seen, specters stalk about. Two wonderful pieces of descriptive writing appear in this story — the account of the storm on the night of the reappearance of Lady Madeline and the descriptions of the final fall of the House of Usher.”
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — April 3, 1915 — Topeka State Journal (Topeka, KS), (no volume or issue number), p. 8, cols. 1-6 (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — July 28, 1915 — Steuben Republican (Angola, IN), vol. LVIII, no. 30, p. 6, cols. 1-6 (selected by Gouverneur Morris).
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — November 1, 1914 — Hartford Courant (p. X8) (excerpt) (this item is noted by George Monteiro, “Fugitive Reprints,” E. A. Poe Review, Fall 2010, p. 162.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1981 — Black Cat Mystery Magazine vol. I, no. 1, (Toronto, Canada) (pp. 57-77)

 

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

  • The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (1:131-156)
  • The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1897 — The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Poems and Tales, ed. William P. Trent (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company), pp. 62-90
  • The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales II, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (3:273-297, and 3:339-342)
  • The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:392-422)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 317-336
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 2015 — The Annotated Poe, ed. Kevin J. Hayes (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press), pp. 95-116

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Comparative and Study Texts:

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:


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Associated Material and Special Versions:

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

  • “La chute de la Maison Usher” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
    • “La chute de la Maison Usher” — February 7-13, 1855 — Le Pays
      • “La chute de la Maison Usher” — Part I  — February 7, 1855
      • “La chute de la Maison Usher” — Part II — February 9, 1855
      • “La chute de la Maison Usher” — Part III — February 13, 1855
    • “La chute de la Maison Usher” — 1857 — Nouvelles histoires par Edgar Poe, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
  • “[The Fall of the House of Usher]” — 1881 — Underliga historier  (Stockholm)  (Swedish translation, noted by Anderson, p. 54)
  • “La chute de la maison d‘Usher” — 1885 — Oeuvres Choisies d‘Edgar Pöe, Paris: A. Hennuyer  (French translation by William L. Hughes)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — July 10, 1910 — Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, OH), vol. LXVII, no. 191, p. 89, full width of the page. (a strange sort of paraphrasing of the story, apparently done by Irving King, with a large woodcut illustration.)
  • “La chute de maison Usher” — 1928 — silent movie directed by Jean Epstein (French avante-garde interpretation, approximately 63 minutes)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1928 — silent movie directed by James Sibley Watson (American production using techniques of German impressionism, approximately 13 minutes)
  • “De Val van het Huis Usher” — about 1930 — Fantastische Vertellingen van Edgar Allan Poe, Haarlem: H. D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon (Dutch translation by Machiel Elias Barentz, with elaborate illustrations by Albert Hahn, somewhat reminiscent of those by Harry Clarke)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — June 1, 1941 — a radio show broadcast on The Inner Sanctum show, with Boris Karloff (As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe's works, the story has been modified.) (The same show was apparently rebroadcast on April 5, 1942.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — August 29, 1943 — a radio show broadcast on The Weird Circle show. (As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe's works, the story has been modified.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — August 1947 — Classics Illustrated (number 40)  (a comic-book)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — October 22, 1947 — a radio show broadcast on the Escape show, starring Paul Frees as the unnamed narrator. (Frees is perhaps best know today as the featured voice of Disney's Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean attractions. He was also the voice of Boris Badenov in the Rocky & Bulwinkle Show. This radio episode is available on CD as part of a 6-CD set of “Smithsonian Legendary Performers,” issued in 2004. As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe's works, the story has been modified.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1949 — movie directed by Ivan Barnett (British production, Black and White, approximately 70 minutes) (As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe's works, the story has been modified. In this case, a background story for the family curse is invented, involving an affair, a torture chamber and a disembodied head. Overall, a rather cheap production, with virtually no resemblance to Poe's tale.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1951 (or 1958) — a radio show broadcast on NBC Short Story show. (As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe's works, the story has been modified.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1956 — a reading by Nelson Olmsted on Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Terror, issued on the Vanguard label (VRS-9007)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1962 — a reading by Richard Taylor on The House of Fright: Edgar Allan Poe, issued on the Random Records label (M-39) (running time, around 19:18 and 23:25) (This is a very cheaply produced 33 1/3 LP, with a single narrator speaking in a loud whisper over the atmospheric sounds of an electric organ, flute, oboe, and other instruements. The jacket features simple black and white graphics. The narrator, who has a surprisingly high voice and a detectable Brooklyn accent, is noted as being 21 at the time of the recording. This album was initially advertised for $2.98, and 25¢ for shipping and handling. This was part of a series of 4 albums.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1969 — a reading by Martin Donegan as volume II of Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe, issued on the CMS Records label (CMS-557)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 1986 — Audio book, read by Fritz Weaver. (issued on cassette by Random House, with four other tales)
  • Return to the House of Usher — 1996 (issued in October) — a neo-Gothic novel by Robert Poe, borrowing elements from Poe, and dragging in direct references to Poe, but mostly wandering off on its own path. (284 pp. Originally published by Forge. Reissued in paperback in 1997)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — November 10, 1998 — a radio show broadcast on NPR Playhouse, as part of the Radio Tales series. (As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe's works, the story has been modified.) The show was produced by Winnie Waldron and Winifred Phillips. It debuted on XM Satellite Radio on June 14, 2003.
  • ”The House of Usher” — 2006 — a film by Haley Cloake, starring Austin Nichols, Izabella Miko and Beth Grant. [This generally rather low-key film is a modernized and heavily adapted version of Poe's tale. It may be more accurately described as a combination of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Rebecca” and “Rosemary's Baby.” Some changes are modest, for example Roderick and Madeline Usher become Rick and Maddy, but others are much more dramatic. The narrator has been defined as a female, with romantic complications completely foreign to the original story, and her role has been expanded to something much more central than that of a mere observer. It does manage to capture some of the sense of claustraphoic dread of some awful fate embodied in Poe's tale, but in changing fundamental aspects of the plot (especially in adding an overt reference to incest) entirely loses Poe's theme of the bi-part soul.]
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — 2007 — Audio book (unabridged), read by Chris Aruffo
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — about 2010 (undated) — Mickey's Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Milan: Disney (part I, Literary Classics, no. 23) (A comic-strip adaptation of Poe's tale, with Mickey Mouse in what is described as a parody. The other story in this volume is “The Crimes of Morgue Street,” an adaptation of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Translations were also published in Italian, Spanish, German, Finnish, and Danish.)
  • “The Bloodhound” — 2020 — movie, written and directed by Patrick Picard (a film that is very, very loosely based on Poe' “The Fall of the House of Usher.” For the most part, the similarlity is only in the overall mood and the intertwined lives and ultimate doom of a brother and sister. The action takes place in essentially a time contemporary with 2020, and the setting is a very modern house. The full plot is very obscure and the point of much of what occurs is close to impenetrable.)
  • “The Fall of the House of Usher” — October 12, 2023 — a special miniseries, of 8 episodes, bearing this title aired on Netflix. It was created by Mike Flanigan, who also directed four of the episodes. Although it uses some basic ideas from Poe's story, and some of that extraction and adaptation serves as a framing device for the episodes, it bears very little resemblance to Poe's tale. Indeed, the whole series is a kind of mash-up homage to Poe's horror stories and some of his gloomier poetry, with characters reading portions of the poems throughout the story. The intentionally heavy-handed sprinkling of Poe references and names of his characters, lifted from various works, makes the show something of a quiz for Poe devotees. (Particularly clever is the reference to the unfortunate friend of the narrator of “Never Bet the Devil Your Head,” another tale which might also be considered a key contribuor to the storyline.) In this telling, which is set in a modern day, Roderick Usher is the head of a very wealthy family that owns and runs a company that manufactures medical drugs and equipment, one that carries a dark secret as it does not much consider the consequences of what it does beyond the money it makes for them. In this telling, there are three generations of Ushers, with Roderick as the head of the family, although the unmarried Madeline, his sister, is perhaps the brains, and equally ruthless. Their pursuit of power and wealth is aided by a mysterious woman who ultimately is revealed to be a supernatural being, and perhaps the devil, which is appropriate since the devil does appear in various of Poe's stories. Poe might object to, while also appreciating, the mixture of plagiarism and creative adaptation.

 

Forgeries:

  • ”The Fall of the House of Usher” — (a forgery by Joseph Cosey, now in the Gimble Collection, Philadelphia Free Public Library)  (This is a fragment, bearing Poe's name in a byline, and ending at “vacant eye-like windows — upon a few [[...]]” A large piece is missing from just above the middle of the left side.)

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Bibliography:

  • Anderson, Carl L., Poe in Northlight: The Scandanavian Response to His Life and Work, Durham, NC: Duke Unversity Press, 1973.
  • Abel, Darrel, “A Key to the House of Usher,” University of Toronto Quarterly (January 1949), 18:176-185. (Reprinted by Carlson and by Woodson.)
  • Bailey, James Osler, “What Happens in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher‘?,” American Literature (January 1964), 35:445-466 (Reprinted by Carlson).
  • Beebe, Maurice, “The Fall of the House of Pyncheon,” Nineteen-Century Fiction (June 1956), 11:1-17.
  • Beebe, Maurice, “The Universe of Roderick Usher,” Person (Spring 1956), 37:147-160. (Reprinted in Ivory Towers and Sacred Founts, New York: New York University Press, 1964 and again in Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Robert Regan, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967.)
  • Benoit, Raymond, “Poe's ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,” Explicator, 1997, 55:79-81
  • Bonazza, Blaze and Emil Roy, “ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Instructor's Manual to AccompanyStudies in Short Fiction’,” New York: Harper Row, 1965.
  • Booth, Wayne C., The Rhetoric of Fiction, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961, pp. 200-204.
  • Brooks, Cleanth and R. P. Warren, “ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher‘: Edgar Allan Poe,” Understanding Fiction, New York: Appleton-Century Croft, 1942, pp. 184-205.
  • Brown, Gillian, “The Poetics of Extinction,” in The American Face of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Shawn Rosenheim and Stephen Rachman, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1995, pp.330-344
  • Burduck, Michael L., Usher's “Forgotten Church”?: Edgar Allan Poe and Nineteeth-Century American Catholicism, Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, 2000.
  • Butler, David W., “Usher's Hypochondriasis: Mental Alienation and Romantic Idealism in Poe's Gothic Tales,” American Literature (1976), 48:1-12.
  • Carlson, Eric W., ed., Casebook on “The Fall of the House of Usher, Columbus OH: Charles E. Merrill Casebook Series, 1971.
  • Cohen, Hennig, “Roderick Usher's Tragic Struggle,” Nineteenth-Century Fiction (December 1959), 14:270-272.
  • Cronin, James, “Poe's Vaults,” Notes & Queries (September 1953), 198:395-396.
  • Davis, Jeff, “The Lady Madeline as a Symbol,” Annotator (Purdue University) (April 1954), pp. 8-11.
  • Davis, Richard Beale, “Haunted Palace and Haunted Place,” Notes & Queries (September 1959), 204:336-337.
  • Dumoulié, Camille, “Des signes d‘inquiétante étrangeté,” Nouvelle revue francaise, 1994, 493:71-79 and 494:102-110
  • Fenlon, Katherine Feeney, “John Gardner's ‘The Ravages of Spring’ as Re-Creation of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,” Studies in Short Fiction, 1994, 3:481-487
  • Frank, Frederick S., “Poe's House of the Seven Gothics: The Fall of the Narrator in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Orbis Litterarum (1979), 34:331-351.
  • Frey, Matthew, “Poe's ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Explicator, Summer 1996, 54:215-216
  • Gargano, James W., “ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher‘: An Apocalyse of Vision,” University of Mississippi Studies in English (1982), 3:52-63.
  • Garmon, Gerald, “Roderick Usher: Portrait of the Madman as an Artist,” Poe Studies (June 1972), 5:11-14.
  • Gold, Joseph, “Reconstructing the ‘House of Usher’,” ESQ (Quarter IV 1964), 37:74-76.
  • Godwin, K. L., “Roderick Usher's Overrated Knowledge,” Nineteenth-Century Fiction (1961), 16:173-175.
  • Gordon, Caroline and Allen Tate, The House of Fiction, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1960. (Reprinted by Woodson.)
  • Guilds, John C., Jr., “Poe's Vaults Again,” Notes & Queries (May 1957), 202:220-221.
  • Hartley, Lodwick, “From Crazy Castle to the House of Usher: A Note Toward a Source,” Studies in Short Fiction (Spring 1965), 2:256.
  • Hayes, Kevin, “Another Source for ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Notes & Queries (London), June 2010, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 214-216
  • Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
  • Hill, Archibald A., “Principles Governing Semantic Parallels,” Texas Studies in Literature and Language (Autumn 1959), 1:356-365.
  • Hill, John, “Dual Hallucination in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Southwest Review (Autumn 1963), 48:396-402.
  • Hill John, “Poe's ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and Frank Norris’ Early Short Stories,” Huntington Library Quarterly (1962), 26:111-112.
  • Hoffman, Michael J., “The House of Usher and Negative Romanticisim,” Studies in Romanticism (1965), 4:158-168.
  • Hoeveler, Dianne, “The Hidden God and the Abjected Woman in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Studies in Short Fiction (1992), 29:385-395.
  • Kaplan, Louise J., “The Perverse Strategy in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” in New Essays on Poe's Major Tales, ed. Kenneth Silverman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 45-64.
  • Kendall, Lyle, “The Vampire Motif in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” College English (March 1963), 24:450-453. (Reprinted by Woodson.)
  • Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, “Poe's ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Explicator (November 1956), 15:7.
  • Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, “The Books in the House of Usher,” Books at Iowa (no. 19, November 1973), 3-7. (This item was printed after Mabbott's death, adapted from notes in the collection of his papers, now at the University of Iowa, special collections. The same information appears in the notes for the tale in Mabbott's edition of Poe's Tales and Sketches, 1978)
  • Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, “Poe's Vaults,” Notes & Queries (December 1953), 198:542-543.
  • Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vols 2-3 Tales and Sketches), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978.
  • Marrs, Robert L., “‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ A Checklist of Criticism Since 1960,” Poe Studies (June 1972), 5:23-24.
  • Marsh, John L., “‘The Pseudo-Sexual Reading of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher‘,” Poe Studies (June 1972), 5:8-9.
  • Martindale, Colin, “Archetype and Reality in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher‘,” Poe Studies (June 1972), 5:9-11.
  • May, Leila S., “ 'sympathies of a Scarcely Intelligible Nature‘: The Brother-Sister Bond in Poe's ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Studies in Short Fiction (1993), 30:387-396.
  • Moffett, H. Y., “Applied Tactics in Teaching Literature, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” English Journal (September 1928), 17:556-559.
  • Morley, Christopher, “The Allegery of Roderick Usher,” Times Literary Supplement (April 9, 1949), p. 233.
  • Norman, H. L., “Possible Source of E. A. Butti's ‘Castello del Sogno,” Modern Language Notes (April 1937), 52:256-258.
  • Olson, Bruce, “Poe's Strategy in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Modern Language Notes (November 1960), 75:556-559. (Reprinted by Carlson.)
  • Phillips, H. Wells, “Poe's Usher: Precursor of Abstract Art,” Poe Studies (June 1972), 5:14-16.
  • Phillips, William, “Poe's ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Explicator (February 1951), vol. 9, item 29.
  • Pittman, Diana,  ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Southern Literary Messenger (November 1941), 3:502-509.
  • Pochmann, Henry A., German Culture in America, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957.
  • Pollin, Burton R., “Poe's Pen of Iron,” American Transcendental Quarterly (Quarter II 1969), 2:16-18.
  • Porte, Joel, The Romance in America: Studies in Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville and James, Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1969, pp. 53-94.
  • Ramsey, Paul J., “Poe and Modern Art,” College Art Journal (Spring 1959), 18:210-215.
  • Robinson, E. Arthur, “Order and Sentience in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Publications of the Modern Language Association (March 1961), 76:68-81.
  • Rose, Marilyn Gaddis, “Usher as Myth in Green's Minuit,” Romance Notes (1964), 5:110-114.
  • Samuels, Charles T., “Usher's Fall: Poe's Rise,” Georgia Review (Summer 1964), 18:208-216.
  • Savoye, Jeffrey A., “Sinking Under Iniquity,” Edgar Allan Poe Review (Spring 2007), 8:70-74 (proposes the setting for the story as Scotland, and suggests a possible source in the ruins and history of Hermitage Castle)
  • Seronsy, Cecil C., “Poe and ‘Kubla Kahn’,” Notes & Queries (May 1957), 202:219-220.
  • Smith, Herbert F., “Usher's Madness and Poe's Organicism: A Source,” American Literature (November 1968), 39:379-389.
  • Spaulding, K. A., “ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Explicator (June 1952), 10, item 52. (Reprinted by Carlson.)
  • Spitzer, Leo, “A Reinterpretation of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Comparative Literature (Autumn 1952), 4:351-363.
  • St. Armand, Barton Levi, “Usher Unveiled: Poe and the Metaphysic of Gnosticism,” Poe Studies (June 1972), 5:1-8.
  • Stein, William Bysshe, “Twin Motif in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Modern Language Notes (February 1960), 75:109-111.
  • Stone, Edward, “Usher Poquelin and Miss Emily: Progress of the Southern Gothic,” Georgia Review (Winter 1960), 14:433-443.
  • Thompson, G. Richard, “The Face in the Pool: Reflections on the Dopplegänger Motif in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher‘,” Poe Studies (June 1972), 5:16-21.
  • Thompson, G. Richard, “Poe and the Paradox of Terror: Structures of Heightened Consciousness in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” in Ruined Eden of the Present: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1981.
  • Tytell, John, “Anais Nin and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Under the Sign of Pisces: Anais Nin and Her Circle (1970), 1:5-11.
  • Walker, I. M., “The ‘Legitimate Sources’ of Terror in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Modern Language Review (October 1966), 61:585-592.
  • Warfel, H. R., “Poe's Dr. Percival: A Note on ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,” Modern Language Notes (February 1939), 54:129-131.
  • Weber, Jean-Paul, “Edgar Poe on the Theme of the Clock,” La Nouvelle Revue Francais (August-September 1958), 68:301-311 and 69:498-508.
  • Wilcox, Earl J., “ Poe's Usher and Ussher's Chronology,” Poe Newsletter (October 1968), 1:31.
  • Woodson, Thomas, ed., Twentieth Century Interpretations of “The Fall of the House of Usher, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969.
  • Wyllie, John Cooke, “A List of the Texts of Poe's Tales,” Humanistic Studies in Honor of John Calvin Metcalf, Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1941, pp. 322-338.

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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Tales - The Fall of the House of Usher