The Fall of the House of Usher
Ratings131
Average rating3.9
Kevin Sorbo is doing audio books now? ? yes! I hope he does more because it was good. It's a project by Macabre mansion to bring back old radio readings of audiobooks. loved it!
This was a perfect short re-read for Halloween this year! Fall of the House of Usher was my first Poe story and one of my very first few brushes with horror as a child, and certainly one of the most vivid. I remember it so well that I've only wanted to re-read it just a couple of times since to refresh my memory on it.
The prose in here was more challenging than I recall. I'm no stranger to 19th century works, but Poe's writing, in this story in particular, is more purple-prosey than I expected. I'm glad that I had read an abridged, simplified version as a child (with illustrations too), otherwise I'd never have understood a thing about it. Even now, I found myself having to re-read sentences and whole paragraphs to really get what was going on. In that sense, it reminded me quite a bit of the writing style of Jane Eyre, which checks out given that both are such mainstays of Gothic literature.
There's also a lot more symbolism and imagery here that I never fully appreciated, but I won't delve into it here for fear of sounding pretentious.
This is deservedly a classic in horror and gothic lit, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in those genres.
40 some pages to tell me a story I could have summed up in 3-4 pages.
Maybe this was horrifying 200 year ago, but now it was just tedious
Poe is one of America's most prolific and most known gothic/horror writers and with this book it's easy to see why. The details are not spared and the characters are well written. Have a read.
This is my favorite of Poe's stories. The gothic setting of decay and despair really pulls me into the story. No matter how many times I read or listen to it, I am always read to read again.
Rating: 3.63 leaves out of 5-Characters: 3/5 -Cover: 4.5/5-Story: 3/5-Writing: 4/5Genre: Horror, Mystery, Gothic, Classic-Horror: 1/5-Mystery: 3.5/5-Gothic: 5/5-Classic: 5/5Type: AudiobookWorth?: YesHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked LovedA reread for me! This is a great little gothic story but it isn't my favorite of Poe's.
Summary: The narrator of this short story goes to stay at a foreboding mansion because his friend, the owner, has fallen ill and asked him to come. The longer the narrator stays, however, the more he witnesses strange and creepy happenings.