"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by Poe, first published in 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. The story follows the unnerving experience of a nameless narrator who is summoned to care for a reclusive friend and his sister in an old, haunted mansion. Both are mentally and physically unwell, their paranoia and agitation being exacerbated by strange happenings in and around the property. Soon, the narrator himself begins to experience the eerie old house and it's ghostly inclinations. Poe ties themes of madness, mystery, suspense, death, and the ethereal together into one of the most gripping short stories ever published.
