the fall of the house of usher by edgar allan poe

I looked at her with a complete and wondering surprise and with some fear - and yet I found I could not explain to myself such feelings. While he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so she was called) passed slowly through a distant part of the room, and without seeing that I was there, went on. “When she dies,” he said, with a sadness which I can never forget, “when she dies, I will be the last of the old, old family - the House of Usher.” Except for himself, she was the last member of his family on earth.

He said, however, that much of the gloom which lay so heavily on him was probably caused by something more plainly to be seen - by the long-continued illness - indeed, the coming death - of a dearly loved sister - his only company for many years. He felt that the house, with its gray walls and the quiet lake around it, had somehow through the long years gotten a strong hold on his spirit. He had certain sick fears about the house in which he lived, and he had not stepped out of it for many years. I learned also, but slowly, and through broken words with doubtful meaning, another strange fact about the condition of Usher’s mind. I feel that the time will soon arrive when I must lose my life, and my mind, and my soul, together, in some last battle with that horrible enemy: fear!” “I have,” he said, “no fear of pain, but only the fear of its result - of terror. It was an illness, he said, from which he would surely die. He appeared not like a human being, but like a spirit that had come back from beyond the grave. When I arrived I felt something strange and fearful about the great old stone house, about the lake in front of it, and about Usher himself. Roderick Usher, whom I had known as a boy, was now ill and had asked me to come to help him. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. We present the second of three parts of the short story 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' by Edgar Allan Poe.

The fall of the house of usher by edgar allan poe