Of course, Madeline dies of a cataleptic fit. The narrator discovers that Madeline is cataleptic, and Roderick is desperate to save her life. What’s more, Roderick lives in seclusion with the only other living Usher, his extremely ill twin sister, Madeline. The narrator notices that Roderick keeps himself completely secluded in this dark and dank house, occupying himself with occult books and with his painting and music. As the story opens, the narrator arrives at the manor house of his school friend, Roderick Usher, who has invited him to come help alleviate his “nervous agitation,” his “mental disorder,” his mysterious “malady.” The House of Usher is precisely what one expects from a gothic horror story: imposing walls and turrets, a bog-like tarn surrounding the ancient building, murky fog and clouds consuming the barren landscape. This week the COS Great Books group discussed Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a work embodying many of Poe’s favorite motifs-insanity, moral darkness, mystery, and pervasive death. Indeed, Poe was the nineteenth century American master of the mysterious and the macabre, perhaps our first great horror writer, and certainly one of the finest short story tellers in the American tradition. Many of us associate Edgar Allan Poe with works like “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “The Raven” (“Nevermore!”).
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