The Fall of the House of Usher

by P. Craig Russell, Jay Geldhof, Edgar Allan Poe

This all-new adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's masterpiece of horror takes readers into the dark depths of the subconscious, unearthing hidden terrors of the human soul.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Gothic, Fiction

30 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Philip Craig Russell was the first mainstream comic book creator to come out as openly gay. Since 1972 his work has won multiple Kirby, Harvey, and Eisner Awards, and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus presented him the Master Cartoonist Award in 2019.

Reviews

[هدى يحيى · Rating 5 out of 5]

كيف يمكن لحيطان بيت أن تندمج مع ساكنيها لهذه الدرجة
كيف يمكن أن تصير أنت بيتك
وأن يصير بيتك أنت

أن يحمل كل ما بداخل نفسك من أوجاع نفسية‏
وهذيانات دماغية
فتصير أعمدة البيت تهتز لآهاتك ‏
وأرضه تتشقق مع أناتك

أوشر ومنزله كانا كتلة واحدة مصبوبة لحم ودم وأحجار وخشب ‏وآهات
عكس بو بقدرته الهائلة على الوصف هذه العلاقة الاستثنائية
فراحت كوابيس أوشر تتجسد أمامك بينما تتصاعد شهقات رعبك وتتزايد

والبيت يتصدع أمامك بينما يشهق أوشر شهقاته الأخيرة

::::::::::::::::



القصة سببت لي جرعات لا تنتهي من المتعة الممزوجة بشديد الرعب
كل ما فيها يحبس شهقتك في حلقك ويتركك مرتعدًا من الهلع‎

جو شديد الكآبة ‏
الأشخاص أشباح آدمية لا تسمع منها سوى همس متجمد
‏ أو صرخات حزينة تشق السكون‏
‎
ونهاية مروّعة وباعثة على الذهول

صحيح أن الوقت الذي عشته مع أوشر وأخته خلال القراءة كان ‏قصيرا

ولكن هذا الوقت امتد على فترة لا نهاية لها يجبرني فيها كل مرة ‏أذكرها على الدخول في حالة غرائبية من النشوة المعجونة بالخوف ‏الشديد

هذه قصة سرمدية
الوقت فيها ساعة منزوعة العقارب
ممتد إلى ما لا نهاية

-----------------
عن عوالم بو كنت أتحدث

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this story... I read this years (and years) ago, but when I found the audio online, I decided to listened to it. I'm not sure who the reader is, but wow... whoever he was did a fantastic job.

It was so easy just to fall right into this story. The language is so beautiful and eerie, and the tone is just one of perfect paranoia and fear...

Good stuff! Reeeeeead it.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Poe!
A great little piece of Gothic literature. This is an early accurate and grisly depiction of hypochondria. Usher struggles against the power of his mental illness as it begins manipulating him into fulfilling a fate he predicts and fears.
A chilling short story about madness and the mind...

[Sandralala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not smart enough for this writing, had to reread each paragraph at least 3 times. But in general, enjoyed the story 👍(weird plottwist at the end?🤨who tf would ever do that---)

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why only two stars? I could say it's Poe's wordy, verbose writing. But then I need to observe how Wikipedia's review finds "every element and detail relevant and related" .... hhmmmm .... I could say it's Poe's eagerness to entertain false assumptions (see for instance, at the very beginning, how he decides that every mind usually finds even the most desolate or terrible/sternest images with half pleasurable, poetic feeling - I never liked these morbid representations myself, this is not poetry in my mind). But then again, Wikipedia finds this work "... the best example of Poe's totality ...". No wonder the average rating for this book is close to 4 stars (as opposed to my brittle 2).

So what was it then, that I did not like? Was it the fact that I had to read this piece with the dictionary permanently on hand? Maybe (i.e. I usually dislike going through the dictionary so often as I did when reading this one - it interrupts my literary course, the lecture is not smooth any more, it becomes more academic research than literary pleasure). Was it that the author, Poe, himself struggles with his message (i.e. why is he writing this book, to what end)? Yes, maybe. Or was it the message itself? Yes, this is more like it. After searching my most inner resources, I decided this is what it is that I was bothered with. I do not particularly appreciate the form of Poe's writing, but it is his dark vision, the essence, that bothers me plenty. To me, King and the likes, all horror books, are nonsense. Apocalyptic scenarios, bloody revelations a.s.o. - I can do without them (got plenty of them in real life).

I wondered about all these, and a name came to mind: Ben Okri. What a difference, what a difference!!! It's not Poe's lacking of finding simple formulas (one of his phrases has no less than 118 words, and there are plenty of 50+ words within barely 40 pages). Ben Okri is not keen on simplicity either. It's not Poe's lack of a clean style, but his dark mind. In Eureka, I remember him saying: "I don't care that my work will be read now or by future generations. I can afford to wait a century in order to be read, when God himself waited 6,000 years (in order) to be observed". I do not contest or question Poe's intelligence (I do see keen insights, a deep understanding of the human emotions), yet I could do without reading his works. Give me the rapture, the World that Okri proposes - I'll take that anytime.

As for Poe, he reminds me of Bertrand Russell (his borderline quality in several different areas), of Vladimir Nabokov (when it comes to playing with words) .... I can appreciate little bits of his work, I can see value here and there, and for this - 2 *s, not 1 from moi.

[Jace · Rating 2 out of 5]

——— JOKER ——— JOKER ——— JOKER


👑KING (PROTAGONISTA) 10%
🌺 DAMA (ANTAGONISTA) 9%
🪙 VALETE (FIGURANTES) 13%
♥️ COPAS (CENÁRIO) 10%
♠️ ESPADAS ( TRAJETÓRIA PROT.) 16% = 58% "DISAPPROVED"

* ESSA PARTE É ONDE EU VOU COLOCAR DE 0 a 20 % em cada categoria. *
* O livro pode ganhar até 3 pts a mais se a leitura fluir bem durante toda a história
* O OURO A ESCOLHA É MINHA, O PERSONAGEM QUE ( EU ) MAIS GOSTEI *

CRITÉRIO DE ESTRELAS
⭐️ - até 39%
⭐️⭐️- 40 a 61%
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 62 a 88%
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 89 a 99%
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 100%

** TABELA VÁLIDA A PARTIR JULHO DE 2022*
* Opinião própria, se você gostar é por que é o seu gosto, cada um tem seu gosto então respeite a minha opinião. *

Ass. Ás ♠️

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gosto do ambiente negro e triste desta história, do desespero e da loucura. Achei graça às ilustrações, mas o texto é suficientemente rico para permitir a criação de imagens na minha mente.

[Quinell Hajari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine adaptation with excellent art provided by P. Craig Russell.

[Mathea Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely LOVED the illustrations!! I feel like they really captured the heart of the story.

[James Crawford · Rating 1 out of 5]

Again, as seems to happen fairly often in the Berkley editions, the text is not easy to read. In addition, putting the text on a yellow background makes it even harder to read. I also don't care for the artwork. There are a couple of pages dealing with Poe and his writings.


Now, as to the story itself, I don't care much for that, either. What would have been more logical for the visitor to do was convince Usher to go to the hospital for an examination, or live in some kind of rest home or something. It was obvious that Usher was severely mentally unstable, yet the visitor read to him the types of material that would just feed his instability.


The story just doesn't make any sense. There's also not any actual background on just why conditions are the way they are when the visitor gets there.

[Maudie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this book in the late 1950's and this was a re-read to my grandson, Nick, who was into R. L. Stine's "Goosebumps" at the time. I'm happy to report that Poe still had the power to make us shudder.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark and gloomy tale from Poe. It seems pretty standard when you first read it but the more you think about it the stranger it gets. It's a story about a man's madness, a bizarre family, isolation, overwhelming fear (quite literally) and identity.

[Tiny Mendoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it again, and this time, I really appreciated the story.