Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der Untergang des Hauses Usher
Go deeper: the whole of Der Untergang des Hauses Usher
About 30 min to read.Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love Gothic atmosphere, gloomy mansions and minds under strain, and for anyone new to Poe who wants a first taste of his craft.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
A house can look at you. In Edgar Allan Poe's short Gothic tale of 1839, a man rides to a lonely mansion at the call of an old friend. He plans to stay for several weeks. Instead he finds a sick man, a silent sister, and walls that seem to press on the mind.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A letter calls the narrator to UsherFree
- 2The house seems alive and cracked
- 3Roderick Usher is a man of raw nerves
- 4Art and music fail to calm the host
- 5Madeline's death and a stormy night
Punkt 1 von 5
A letter calls the narrator to Usher
On a dark autumn day, the narrator rides alone toward the House of Usher. His boyhood friend Roderick has written in distress, begging for company. The narrator goes because the plea sounds sincere.
When the house comes into view, a gloom falls on him that he cannot explain. He looks down at its image in a black lake called a tarn and shivers more deeply. The family line has passed straight from father to son, so the name Usher means both the people and the house. Poe wants you to feel something is wrong before anything has gone wrong.
That’s 1 of 5 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Der Untergang des Hauses Usher
About 30 min to read.Who’s who
- The narrator
- An unnamed visitor and Roderick's boyhood friend, he comes to the secluded mansion hoping to comfort his troubled host.
- Roderick Usher
- The mansion's intensely sensitive owner is the narrator's boyhood friend and Madeline's devoted, fearful twin brother.
- Madeline Usher
- Roderick's twin sister suffers from a mysterious illness and moves silently through the mansion where her brother receives his friend.
- The House of Usher
- The Usher family's decaying mansion stands beside a dark tarn, seeming to share the distress of its inhabitants.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 7,200 words
- Reading timeAbout 30 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Der Untergang des Hauses Usher
What is The Fall of the House of Usher about?
A man visits his sick boyhood friend Roderick Usher in a gloomy old mansion. There he meets Roderick's ailing sister and feels the house weigh on his mind, while dread slowly grows around the family.
When was The Fall of the House of Usher written?
Edgar Allan Poe first published it in 1839. It is a work of fiction, not a true story, though it uses real Gothic fashions of its time, such as ruined houses and nervous, doomed families.
What does the crack in the house mean?
The thin crack running down the front wall can be read as a sign of the house's weakness and of the family's decay. Many readers see it as a symbol for the breaking of Roderick's mind.
Is The Fall of the House of Usher hard to read?
The language is rich and the plot is simple. Hearing it aloud makes the mood easy to follow.
What is the main message of The Fall of the House of Usher?
Poe offers no plain moral. The tale shows how fear, isolation and a decaying family can break a mind, and how place and person may become one. Readers often find themes of doubling and decay.
Cite this edition
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher.
Poe, E. A. (2026). The fall of the house of Usher. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher (Original work published 1839)
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher.
@book{poe2026fall,
author = {Poe, Edgar Allan},
title = {The Fall of the House of Usher},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher},
note = {First published 1839}
}
