The Fall of the House of Usher

A narrator answers a letter from an old school friend, Roderick Usher, and travels to the gloomy family mansion where he lives with his sister Madeline. Roderick is ill in body and mind, painfully sensitive to light, sound and food. The house itself seems oppressive, with a crack running through its walls and a dark pool beside it. The visitor tries to cheer his friend with books, music and painting, but a sense of doom deepens. This is a classic of Gothic fiction, famous for its mood and for the link it draws between a family and its home. Note that the first publication date given in the catalogue appears to be wrong, as the story dates from 1839.