The Fall of the House of Usher - Softcover

Poe, Edgar Allan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1605975346 ISBN 13: 9781605975344

Publisher: Book Jungle, 2008

Synopsis

Edgar Allen Poe was born in 1809. Poe was a poet, author, and literary critic. He is one of the leading authors of the Romantic period. His tales of the macabre have delighted and scared readers. He is considered the founder of the detective/fiction genre and contributed to the popularity of science fiction. In The Fall of the House of Usher a visitor realizes that there is a terrible malady within the house. When the narrator arrives at his friend's house he realizes that Usher is ill. His symptoms include hyperesthsia (hyper sensitivity to light, sound, and smells), and acute anxiety. Usher believes that the house can feel and sense things. The story progresses and the plot winds and twists until the reader is caught up in this malevolent house. This is a story not to be read on a stormy night while sitting alone in an old squeaky house with shadows!

About this title

Book Description:

'The most original genius that America has produced' Alfred, Lord Tennyson

About the Author:

Edgar Allan Poe (/po?/; born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Poe was born in Boston, the second child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. Thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood. Tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at this time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous collection of poems Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian". With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement. However, Poe later failed as an officer's cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways with John Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. Poe died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, at age 40; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.

About this edition

• Publisher: Book Jungle
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1605975346
• ISBN 13: 9781605975344
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 48