diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 932-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 26066 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 932-h/932-h.htm | 1312 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 932.txt | 1193 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 932.zip | bin | 0 -> 24928 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/usher10.txt | 1105 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/usher10.zip | bin | 0 -> 22578 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/usher10h.htm | 1286 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/usher10h.zip | bin | 0 -> 25611 bytes |
11 files changed, 4912 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/932-h.zip b/932-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a329d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/932-h.zip diff --git a/932-h/932-h.htm b/932-h/932-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6c9fa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/932-h/932-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1312 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook The Fall of the House of +Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +DIV.book { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; } +P { text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; } +P.noindent { text-indent: 0em; } +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fall of the House of Usher + +Author: Edgar Allan Poe + +Posting Date: December 15, 2010 [EBook #932] +Release Date: June, 1997 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + + + + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz and Jose Menendez + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="book"> +<center> +<hr size="3" noshade> +<br> +<h1>THE FALL OF<br> +THE HOUSE OF USHER</h1> + +<br> +<h3>BY</h3> + +<br> +<h2>EDGAR ALLAN POE</h2> + +<hr size="3" noshade> +<br> + + +<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="quote"> +<tr> +<td><i>Son cœur est un luth suspendu;<br> +Sitôt qu’on le touche il résonne.</i></td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +<br> +<p class="noindent" align="right"><i>De Béranger.</i></p> + +<p><br> +<font size="+1">D</font>URING the whole of a dull, dark, and +soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung +oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on +horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at +length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within +view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it +was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of +insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for +the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, +because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives +even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I +looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and +the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak +walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few +rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed +trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare +to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of +the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into every-day +life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an +iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed +dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could +torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to +think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation +of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could +I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I +pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory +conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there <i>are</i> +combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power +of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among +considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, +that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the +scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to +modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful +impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the +precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled +lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with a shudder +even more thrilling than before—upon the remodelled and +inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, +and the vacant and eye-like windows.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to +myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, +had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had +elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately +reached me in a distant part of the country—a letter from +him—which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted +of no other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence of +nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily +illness—of a mental disorder which oppressed him—and +of an earnest desire to see me, as his best and indeed his only +personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness +of my society, some alleviation of his malady. It was the manner +in which all this, and much more, was said—it was the +apparent <i>heart</i> that went with his request—which +allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed +forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons.</p> + +<p>Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I +really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always +excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his very +ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar +sensibility of temperament, displaying itself, through long ages, +in many works of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in +repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as +in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more +than to the orthodox and easily recognizable beauties, of musical +science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the +stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put +forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that +the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had +always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. +It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in +thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with +the accredited character of the people, and while speculating +upon the possible influence which the one, in the long lapse of +centuries, might have exercised upon the other—it was this +deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent +undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with +the name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge +the original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal +appellation of the “House of Usher”—an +appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the +peasantry who used it, both the family and the family +mansion.</p> + +<p>I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish +experiment—that of looking down within the tarn—had +been to deepen the first singular impression. There can be no +doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my +superstition—for why should I not so term it?—served +mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long +known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as +a basis. And it might have been for this reason only, that, when +I again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in +the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy—a fancy so +ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force +of the sensations which oppressed me. I had so worked upon my +imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and +domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their +immediate vicinity—an atmosphere which had no affinity with +the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed +trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn—a pestilent +and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and +leaden-hued.</p> + +<p>Shaking off from my spirit what <i>must</i> have been a dream, +I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its +principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. +The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi overspread +the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the +eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary +dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there +appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect +adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the +individual stones. In this there was much that reminded me of the +specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long +years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the +breath of the external air. Beyond this indication of extensive +decay, however, the fabric gave little token of instability. +Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered +a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of +the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag +direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the +tarn.</p> + +<p>Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the +house. A servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the +Gothic archway of the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence +conducted me, in silence, through many dark and intricate +passages in my progress to the <i>studio</i> of his master. Much +that I encountered on the way contributed, I know not how, to +heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already spoken. +While the objects around me—while the carvings of the +ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebony blackness +of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which +rattled as I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as +which, I had been accustomed from my infancy—while I +hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all this—I +still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which +ordinary images were stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met +the physician of the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a +mingled expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me +with trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door +and ushered me into the presence of his master.</p> + +<p>The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The +windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance +from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from +within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through +the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct +the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in +vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses +of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the +walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, +and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered +about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I felt that +I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and +irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.</p> + +<p>Upon my entrance, Usher rose from a sofa on which he had been +lying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth +which had much in it, I at first thought, of an overdone +cordiality—of the constrained effort of the +<i>ennuyé</i> man of the world. A glance, however, at his +countenance convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; +and for some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a +feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before +so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! +It was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the +identity of the man being before me with the companion of my +early boyhood. Yet the character of his face had been at all +times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, +liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and +very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a +delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in +similar formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want +of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than +web-like softness and tenuity;—these features, with an +inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up +altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten. And now in +the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character of these +features, and of the expression they were wont to convey, lay so +much of change that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly +pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, +above all things startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, +had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild +gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I +could not, even with effort, connect its Arabesque expression +with any idea of simple humanity.</p> + +<p>In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an +incoherence—an inconsistency; and I soon found this to +arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an +habitual trepidancy—an excessive nervous agitation. For +something of this nature I had indeed been prepared, no less by +his letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish traits, and +by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical conformation +and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. +His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the +animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of +energetic concision—that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and +hollow-sounding enunciation—that leaden, self-balanced and +perfectly modulated guttural utterance, which may be observed in +the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium, during +the periods of his most intense excitement.</p> + +<p>It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his +earnest desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to +afford him. He entered, at some length, into what he conceived to +be the nature of his malady. It was, he said, a constitutional +and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a +remedy—a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, +which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself in a +host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed them, +interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms and +the general manner of the narration had their weight. He suffered +much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food +was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain +texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were +tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar +sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not +inspire him with horror.</p> + +<p>To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. +“I shall perish,” said he, “I <i>must</i> +perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, +shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in +themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of +any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this +intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of +danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror. In this +unnerved, in this pitiable, condition I feel that the period will +sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason +together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, <font size= +"+1">F</font>EAR.”</p> + +<p>I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and +equivocal hints, another singular feature of his mental +condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions +in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many +years, he had never ventured forth—in regard to an +influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too +shadowy here to be re-stated—an influence which some +peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family +mansion had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over +his spirit—an effect which the <i>physique</i> of the gray +walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked +down, had, at length, brought about upon the <i>morale</i> of his +existence.</p> + +<p>He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of +the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a +more natural and far more palpable origin—to the severe and +long-continued illness—indeed to the evidently approaching +dissolution—of a tenderly beloved sister, his sole +companion for long years, his last and only relative on earth. +“Her decease,” he said, with a bitterness which I can +never forget, “would leave him (him the hopeless and the +frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.” While +he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed slowly +through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having +noticed my presence, disappeared. I regarded her with an utter +astonishment not unmingled with dread; and yet I found it +impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor +oppressed me as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a +door, at length, closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively +and eagerly the countenance of the brother; but he had buried his +face in his hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than +ordinary wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through +which trickled many passionate tears.</p> + +<p>The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of +her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the +person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially +cataleptical character were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she +had steadily borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had +not betaken herself finally to bed; but on the closing in of the +evening of my arrival at the house, she succumbed (as her brother +told me at night with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating +power of the destroyer; and I learned that the glimpse I had +obtained of her person would thus probably be the last I should +obtain—that the lady, at least while living, would be seen +by me no more.</p> + +<p>For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either +Usher or myself; and during this period I was busied in earnest +endeavors to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted +and read together, or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild +improvisations of his speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and +still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the +recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive the +futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which darkness, +as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects +of the moral and physical universe in one unceasing radiation of +gloom.</p> + +<p>I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I +thus spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I +should fail in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact +character of the studies, or of the occupations, in which he +involved me, or led me the way. An excited and highly distempered +ideality threw a sulphureous lustre over all. His long improvised +dirges will ring forever in my ears. Among other things, I hold +painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and amplification +of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber. From the +paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded, and which grew, +touch by touch, into vagueness at which I shuddered the more +thrillingly, because I shuddered knowing not why—from these +paintings (vivid as their images now are before me) I would in +vain endeavor to educe more than a small portion which should lie +within the compass of merely written words. By the utter +simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs, he arrested and +overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that mortal +was Roderick Usher. For me at least, in the circumstances then +surrounding me, there arose out of the pure abstractions which +the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an +intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I ever yet +in the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet too concrete +reveries of Fuseli.</p> + +<p>One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking +not so rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed +forth, although feebly, in words. A small picture presented the +interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, +with low walls, smooth, white, and without interruption or +device. Certain accessory points of the design served well to +convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding depth +below the surface of the earth. No outlet was observed in any +portion of its vast extent, and no torch or other artificial +source of light was discernible; yet a flood of intense rays +rolled throughout, and bathed the whole in a ghastly and +inappropriate splendor.</p> + +<p>I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory +nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with +the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, +perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself upon +the guitar which gave birth, in great measure, to the fantastic +character of the performances. But the fervid <i>facility</i> of +his <i>impromptus</i> could not be so accounted for. They must +have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the words of his +wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself with +rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental +collectedness and concentration to which I have previously +alluded as observable only in particular moments of the highest +artificial excitement. The words of one of these rhapsodies I +have easily remembered. I was, perhaps, the more forcibly +impressed with it as he gave it, because, in the under or mystic +current of its meaning, I fancied that I perceived, and for the +first time, a full consciousness on the part of Usher of the +tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne. The verses, which +were entitled “The Haunted Palace,” ran very nearly, +if not accurately, thus:—<br> +</p> + +<center> +<table cellpadding="6" cellspacing="4" summary= +"The Haunted Palace"> +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> +I.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>In the greenest of our valleys,<br> + By good angels tenanted,<br> + Once a fair and stately palace—<br> + Radiant palace—reared its head.<br> + In the monarch Thought’s dominion—<br> + It stood there!<br> + Never seraph spread a pinion<br> + Over fabric half so fair.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + II.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>Banners yellow, glorious, golden,<br> + On its roof did float and flow;<br> + (This—all this—was in the olden<br> + Time long ago);<br> + And every gentle air that dallied,<br> + In that sweet day,<br> + Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,<br> + A winged odor went away.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + III.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>Wanderers in that happy valley<br> + Through two luminous windows saw<br> + Spirits moving musically<br> + To a lute’s well-tunèd law;<br> + Round about a throne, where sitting<br> + (Porphyrogene!)<br> + In state his glory well befitting,<br> + The ruler of the realm was seen.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + IV.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>And all with pearl and ruby glowing<br> + Was the fair palace door,<br> + Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing<br> + And sparkling evermore,<br> + A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty<br> + Was but to sing,<br> + In voices of surpassing beauty,<br> + The wit and wisdom of their king.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + V.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>But evil things, in robes of sorrow,<br> + Assailed the monarch’s high estate;<br> + (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow<br> + Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)<br> + And, round about his home, the glory<br> + That blushed and bloomed<br> + Is but a dim-remembered story<br> + Of the old time entombed.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + VI.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>And travellers now within that valley,<br> + Through the red-litten windows see<br> + Vast forms that move fantastically<br> + To a discordant melody;<br> + While, like a rapid ghastly river,<br> + Through the pale door,<br> + A hideous throng rush out forever,<br> + And laugh—but smile no more.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +<br> +<p>I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad, led +us into a train of thought wherein there became manifest an +opinion of Usher’s which I mention not so much on account +of its novelty (for other men<a href="#1">*</a> have thought +thus), as on account of the pertinacity with which he maintained +it. This opinion, in its general form, was that of the sentience +of all vegetable things. But, in his disordered fancy, the idea +had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under +certain conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganization. I lack +words to express the full extent, or the earnest <i>abandon</i> +of his persuasion. The belief, however, was connected (as I have +previously hinted) with the gray stones of the home of his +forefathers. The conditions of the sentience had been here, he +imagined, fulfilled in the method of collocation of these +stones—in the order of their arrangement, as well as in +that of the many <i>fungi</i> which overspread them, and of the +decayed trees which stood around—above all, in the long +undisturbed endurance of this arrangement, and in its +reduplication in the still waters of the tarn. Its +evidence—the evidence of the sentience—was to be +seen, he said, (and I here started as he spoke), in the gradual +yet certain condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the +waters and the walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in +that silent yet importunate and terrible influence which for +centuries had moulded the destinies of his family, and which made +<i>him</i> what I now saw him—what he was. Such opinions +need no comment, and I will make none.</p> + +<p>Our books—the books which, for years, had formed no +small portion of the mental existence of the invalid—were, +as might be supposed, in strict keeping with this character of +phantasm. We pored together over such works as the “Ververt +et Chartreuse” of Gresset; the “Belphegor” of +Machiavelli; the “Heaven and Hell” of Swedenborg; the +“Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm” by Holberg; +the “Chiromancy” of Robert Flud, of Jean +D’Indaginé, and of De la Chambre; the “Journey +into the Blue Distance” of Tieck; and the “City of +the Sun” of Campanella. One favorite volume was a small +octavo edition of the “Directorium Inquisitorium,” by +the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were passages in +Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs and Œgipans, +over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight, +however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and +curious book in quarto Gothic—the manual of a forgotten +church—the <i>Vigiliæ Mortuorum Secundum Chorum +Ecclesiæ Maguntinæ</i>.</p> + +<p>I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and +of its probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one +evening, having informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was +no more, he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a +fortnight (previously to its final interment), in one of the +numerous vaults within the main walls of the building. The +worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular proceeding, +was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. The brother +had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by consideration +of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of +certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical +men, and of the remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground +of the family. I will not deny that when I called to mind the +sinister countenance of the person whom I met upon the staircase, +on the day of my arrival at the house, I had no desire to oppose +what I regarded as at best but a harmless, and by no means an +unnatural, precaution.</p> + +<p>At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the +arrangements for the temporary entombment. The body having been +encoffined, we two alone bore it to its rest. The vault in which +we placed it (and which had been so long unopened that our +torches, half smothered in its oppressive atmosphere, gave us +little opportunity for investigation) was small, damp, and +entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great +depth, immediately beneath that portion of the building in which +was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used, apparently, in +remote feudal times, for the worst purposes of a donjon-keep, +and, in later days, as a place of deposit for powder, or some +other highly combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, +and the whole interior of a long archway through which we reached +it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The door, of massive +iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense weight +caused an unusually sharp, grating sound, as it moved upon its +hinges.</p> + +<p>Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this +region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid +of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking +similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my +attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured +out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and +himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely +intelligible nature had always existed between them. Our glances, +however, rested not long upon the dead—for we could not +regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the lady +in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a +strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush +upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering +smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced and +screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made +our way, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of +the upper portion of the house.</p> + +<p>And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an +observable change came over the features of the mental disorder +of my friend. His ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary +occupations were neglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber +to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. The pallor +of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly +hue—but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone out. +The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more; and +a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually +characterized his utterance. There were times, indeed, when I +thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some +oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the +necessary courage. At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all +into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld him +gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the +profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound. +It was no wonder that his condition terrified—that it +infected me. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain +degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive +superstitions.</p> + +<p>It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of +the seventh or eighth day after the placing of the lady Madeline +within the donjon, that I experienced the full power of such +feelings. Sleep came not near my couch—while the hours +waned and waned away. I struggled to reason off the nervousness +which had dominion over me. I endeavored to believe that much, if +not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence of +the gloomy furniture of the room—of the dark and tattered +draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising +tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled +uneasily about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were +fruitless. An irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; +and, at length, there sat upon my very heart an incubus of +utterly causeless alarm. Shaking this off with a gasp and a +struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows, and, peering +earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber, +hearkened—I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit +prompted me—to certain low and indefinite sounds which +came, through the pauses of the storm, at long intervals, I knew +not whence. Overpowered by an intense sentiment of horror, +unaccountable yet unendurable, I threw on my clothes with haste +(for I felt that I should sleep no more during the night), and +endeavored to arouse myself from the pitiable condition into +which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly to and fro through the +apartment.</p> + +<p>I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a light step on +an adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently +recognized it as that of Usher. In an instant afterward he +rapped, with a gentle touch, at my door, and entered, bearing a +lamp. His countenance was, as usual, cadaverously wan—but, +moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in his +eyes—an evidently restrained <i>hysteria</i> in his whole +demeanor. His air appalled me—but anything was preferable +to the solitude which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed +his presence as a relief.</p> + +<p>“And you have not seen it?” he said abruptly, +after having stared about him for some moments in +silence—“you have not then seen it?—but, stay! +you shall.” Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded his +lamp, he hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely +open to the storm.</p> + +<p>The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from +our feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful +night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A +whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our vicinity; for +there were frequent and violent alterations in the direction of +the wind; and the exceeding density of the clouds (which hung so +low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did not prevent +our perceiving the life-like velocity with which they flew +careering from all points against each other, without passing +away into the distance. I say that even their exceeding density +did not prevent our perceiving this—yet we had no glimpse +of the moon or stars, nor was there any flashing forth of the +lightning. But the under surfaces of the huge masses of agitated +vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects immediately around us, +were glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly luminous and +distinctly visible gaseous exhalation which hung about and +enshrouded the mansion.</p> + +<p>“You must not—you shall not behold this!” +said I, shuddering, to Usher, as I led him, with a gentle +violence, from the window to a seat. “These appearances, +which bewilder you, are merely electrical phenomena not +uncommon—or it may be that they have their ghastly origin +in the rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this +casement;—the air is chilling and dangerous to your frame. +Here is one of your favorite romances. I will read, and you shall +listen:—and so we will pass away this terrible night +together.”</p> + +<p>The antique volume which I had taken up was the “Mad +Trist” of Sir Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a +favorite of Usher’s more in sad jest than in earnest; for, +in truth, there is little in its uncouth and unimaginative +prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty and +spiritual ideality of my friend. It was, however, the only book +immediately at hand; and I indulged a vague hope that the +excitement which now agitated the hypochondriac, might find +relief (for the history of mental disorder is full of similar +anomalies) even in the extremeness of the folly which I should +read. Could I have judged, indeed, by the wild overstrained air +of vivacity with which he hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to +the words of the tale, I might well have congratulated myself +upon the success of my design.</p> + +<p>I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where +Ethelred, the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for +peaceable admission into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to +make good an entrance by force. Here, it will be remembered, the +words of the narrative run thus:</p> + +<p>“And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and +who was now mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the +wine which he had drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with +the hermit, who, in sooth, was of an obstinate and maliceful +turn, but, feeling the rain upon his shoulders, and fearing the +rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace outright, and, with +blows, made quickly room in the plankings of the door for his +gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so +cracked, and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the +dry and hollow-sounding wood alarumed and reverberated throughout +the forest.”</p> + +<p>At the termination of this sentence I started and, for a +moment, paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once +concluded that my excited fancy had deceived me)—it +appeared to me that, from some very remote portion of the +mansion, there came, indistinctly to my ears, what might have +been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo (but a +stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping +sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It was, +beyond doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my +attention; for, amid the rattling of the sashes of the casements, +and the ordinary commingled noises of the still increasing storm, +the sound, in itself, had nothing, surely, which should have +interested or disturbed me. I continued the story:</p> + +<p>“But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the +door, was sore enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the +maliceful hermit; but, in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly +and prodigious demeanor, and of a fiery tongue, which sat in +guard before a palace of gold, with a floor of silver; and upon +the wall there hung a shield of shining brass with this legend +enwritten—</p> + +<center> +<table cellpadding="8" cellspacing="8" summary="verse"> +<tr> +<td>Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;<br> + Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +And Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the +dragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with +a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that +Ethelred had fain to close his ears with his hands against the +dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was never before +heard.” + +<p>Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild +amazement—for there could be no doubt whatever that, in +this instance, I did actually hear (although from what direction +it proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low and apparently +distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or +grating sound—the exact counterpart of what my fancy had +already conjured up for the dragon’s unnatural shriek as +described by the romancer.</p> + +<p>Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of this +second and most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand +conflicting sensations, in which wonder and extreme terror were +predominant, I still retained sufficient presence of mind to +avoid exciting, by any observation, the sensitive nervousness of +my companion. I was by no means certain that he had noticed the +sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange alteration +had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his demeanor. +From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought round +his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the chamber; +and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although I +saw that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. His +head had dropped upon his breast—yet I knew that he was not +asleep, from the wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a +glance of it in profile. The motion of his body, too, was at +variance with this idea—for he rocked from side to side +with a gentle yet constant and uniform sway. Having rapidly taken +notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of Sir Launcelot, +which thus proceeded:</p> + +<p>“And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible +fury of the dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and +of the breaking up of the enchantment which was upon it, removed +the carcass from out of the way before him, and approached +valorously over the silver pavement of the castle to where the +shield was upon the wall; which in sooth tarried not for his full +coming, but fell down at his feet upon the silver floor, with a +mighty great and terrible ringing sound.”</p> + +<p>No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than—as if +a shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon +a floor of silver—I became aware of a distinct, hollow, +metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled, reverberation. +Completely unnerved, I leaped to my feet; but the measured +rocking movement of Usher was undisturbed. I rushed to the chair +in which he sat. His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and +throughout his whole countenance there reigned a stony rigidity. +But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a strong +shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his +lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering +murmur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over +him, I at length drank in the hideous import of his words.</p> + +<p>“Not hear it?—yes, I hear it, and <i>have</i> +heard it. Long—long—long—many minutes, many +hours, many days, have I heard it—yet I dared not—oh, +pity me, miserable wretch that I am!—I dared not—I +<i>dared</i> not speak! <i>We have put her living in the +tomb!</i> Said I not that my senses were acute? I <i>now</i> tell +you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. +I heard them—many, many days ago—yet I dared +not—<i>I dared not speak!</i> And +now—to-night—Ethelred—ha! ha!—the +breaking of the hermit’s door, and the death-cry of the +dragon, and the clangor of the shield!—say, rather, the +rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her +prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the +vault! Oh! whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she +not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her +footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and +horrible beating of her heart? Madman!”—here he +sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as +if in the effort he were giving up his +soul—<i>“Madman! I tell you that she now stands +without the door!”</i></p> + +<p>As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been +found the potency of a spell, the huge antique panels to which +the speaker pointed threw slowly back, upon the instant, their +ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing +gust—but then without those doors there <i>did</i> stand +the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. +There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some +bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a +moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the +threshold—then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward +upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final +death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to +the terrors he had anticipated.</p> + +<p>From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The +storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself +crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a +wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could +have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind +me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red +moon which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible +fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof +of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I +gazed, this fissure rapidly widened—there came a fierce +breath of the whirlwind—the entire orb of the satellite +burst at once upon my sight—my brain reeled as I saw the +mighty walls rushing asunder—there was a long tumultuous +shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters—and the +deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over +the fragments of the “<i>House of Usher</i>.”<br> +</p> + +<hr> +<p class="noindent"><a name="1">*</a> Watson, Dr. Percival, +Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of Landaff.—See +“Chemical Essays,” vol. v.<br> +</p> + +<hr size="3" noshade> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + +***** This file should be named 932-h.htm or 932-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/3/932/ + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz and Jose Menendez + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + + @@ -0,0 +1,1193 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fall of the House of Usher + +Author: Edgar Allan Poe + +Posting Date: December 15, 2010 [EBook #932] +Release Date: June, 1997 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + + + + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz and Jose Menendez + + + + + + + + + +The Fall of the House of Usher + + + Son coeur est un luth suspendu; + Sitot qu'on le touche il resonne. + DE BERANGER. + + + +During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the +autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the +heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a +singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, +as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the +melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was--but, with the +first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom +pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was +unrelieved by any of that half-pleasureable, because poetic, +sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest +natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the +scene before me--upon the mere house, and the simple landscape +features of the domain--upon the bleak walls--upon the vacant +eye-like windows--upon a few rank sedges--and upon a few white +trunks of decayed trees--with an utter depression of soul which I +can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the +after-dream of the reveller upon opium--the bitter lapse into +everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was +an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart--an unredeemed +dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could +torture into aught of the sublime. What was it--I paused to +think--what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of +the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I +grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I +pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory +conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations +of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus +affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among +considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, +that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the +scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to +modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful +impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse +to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in +unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a +shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and +inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, +and the vacant and eye-like windows. + +Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to +myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, +had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had +elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately +reached me in a distant part of the country--a letter from +him--which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no +other than a personal reply. The MS gave evidence of nervous +agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness--of a mental +disorder which oppressed him--and of an earnest desire to see me, +as his best, and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of +attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation +of his malady. It was the manner in which all this, and much +more, was said--it was the apparent heart that went with his +request--which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I +accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very +singular summons. + +Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet +I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always +excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his very +ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar +sensibility of temperament, displaying itself, through long ages, +in many works of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in +repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as +in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more +than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties of musical +science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the +stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured as it was, had put +forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that +the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had +always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. +It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in +thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with +the accredited character of the people, and while speculating +upon the possible influence which the one, in the long +lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other--it was +this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent +undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with +the name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge +the original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal +appellation of the "House of Usher"--an appellation which seemed +to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the +family and the family mansion. + +I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish +experiment--that of looking down within the tarn--had been to +deepen the first singular impression. There can be no doubt that +the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition--for +why should I not so term it?--served mainly to accelerate the +increase itself. Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical law +of all sentiments having terror as a basis. And it might have +been for this reason only, that, when I again uplifted my eyes to +the house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew in my +mind a strange fancy--a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but +mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which +oppressed me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really to +believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an +atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity--an +atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but +which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the grey wall, +and the silent tarn--a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, +sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued. + +Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, +I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its +principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. +The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi +overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work +from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary +dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there +appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect +adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the +individual stones. In this there was much that reminded me of +the specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long +years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the +breath of the external air. Beyond this indication of +extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of +instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might +have discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending +from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the +wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen +waters of the tarn. + +Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the +house. A servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the +Gothic archway of the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence +conducted me, in silence, through many dark and intricate +passages in my progress to the studio of his master. Much +that I encountered on the way contributed, I know not how, to +heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already spoken. +While the objects around me--while the carvings of the ceilings, +the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebony blackness of the +floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as +I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had +been accustomed from my infancy--while I hesitated not to +acknowledge how familiar was all this--I still wondered to find +how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were +stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met the physician of +the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled +expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with +trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door and +ushered me into the presence of his master. + +The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. +The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a +distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible +from within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way +through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently +distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, +struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or +the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies +hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, +comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical +instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality +to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. +An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and +pervaded all. + +Upon my entrance, Usher rose from a sofa on which he had +been lying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth +which had much in it, I at first thought, of an overdone +cordiality--of the constrained effort of the ennuye man of +the world. A glance, however, at his countenance, convinced me +of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; and for some moments, +while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity, +half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, +in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It was with +difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the +man being before me with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet +the character of his face had been at all times remarkable. A +cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous +beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a +surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, +but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; a +finely-moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a +want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and +tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansion above the +regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not +easily to be forgotten. And now in the mere exaggeration of the +prevailing character of these features, and of the expression +they were wont to convey, lay so much of change that I doubted to +whom I spoke. The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now +miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things startled and even +awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all +unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather +than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect +its Arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity. + +In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an +incoherence--an inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise +from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an +habitual trepidancy--an excessive nervous agitation. For +something of this nature I had indeed been prepared, no less by +his letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish traits, and +by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical conformation +and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and +sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision +(when the animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to +that species of energetic concision--that abrupt, weighty, +unhurried, and hollow-sounding enunciation--that leaden, +self-balanced and perfectly modulated guttural utterance, which may +be observed in the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of +opium, during the periods of his most intense excitement. + +It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his +earnest desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to +afford him. He entered, at some length, into what he conceived +to be the nature of his malady. It was, he said, a +constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired +to find a remedy--a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, +which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself in a +host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed +them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms, +and the general manner of the narration had their weight. He +suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most +insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of +certain texture; the odours of all flowers were oppressive; his +eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were but +peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did +not inspire him with horror. + +To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden +slave. "I shall perish," said he, "I must perish in this +deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be +lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but +in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, even the most +trivial, incident, which may operate upon this intolerable +agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, +except in its absolute effect--in terror. In this unnerved--in +this pitiable condition--I feel that the period will sooner or +later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in +some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR." + +I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and +equivocal hints, another singular feature of his mental +condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions +in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many +years, he had never ventured forth--in regard to an influence +whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy here +to be re-stated--an influence which some peculiarities in the +mere form and substance of his family mansion, had, by +dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit--an +effect which the physique of the grey walls and turrets, and +of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, +brought about upon the morale of his existence. + +He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of +the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a +more natural and far more palpable origin--to the severe and +long-continued illness--indeed to the evidently approaching +dissolution--of a tenderly beloved sister--his sole companion for +long years--his last and only relative on earth. "Her decease," +he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, "would leave +him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race +of the Ushers." While he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was +she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the +apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. +I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with +dread--and yet I found it impossible to account for such +feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, as my eyes +followed her retreating steps. When a door, at length, closed +upon her, my glance sought instinctively and eagerly the +countenance of the brother--but he had buried his face in his +hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than ordinary +wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which +trickled many passionate tears. + +The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill +of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of +the person, and frequent although transient affections of a +partially cataleptical character, were the unusual diagnosis. +Hitherto she had steadily borne up against the pressure of her +malady, and had not betaken herself finally to bed; but, on the +closing in of the evening of my arrival at the house, she +succumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpressible +agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and I +learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus +probably be the last I should obtain--that the lady, at least +while living, would be seen by me no more. + +For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either +Usher or myself: and during this period I was busied in earnest +endeavours to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We +painted and read together; or I listened, as if in a dream, to +the wild improvisations of his speaking guitar. And thus, as a +closer and still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly +into the recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive +the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which +darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon +all objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing +radiation of gloom. + +I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours +I thus spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I +should fail in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact +character of the studies, or of the occupations, in which he +involved me, or led me the way. An excited and highly +distempered ideality threw a sulphureous lustre over all. His +long improvised dirges will ring for ever in my ears. Among +other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular +perversion and amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of +Von Weber. From the paintings over which his elaborate fancy +brooded, and which grew, touch by touch, into vagueness at which +I shuddered the more thrillingly, because I shuddered knowing not +why;--from these paintings (vivid as their images now are before +me) I would in vain endeavour to educe more than a small portion +which should lie within the compass of merely written words. By +the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs, he +arrested and overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, +that mortal was Roderick Usher. For me at least--in the +circumstances then surrounding me--there arose out of the pure +abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his +canvas, an intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt +I ever yet in the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet too +concrete reveries of Fuseli. + +One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, +partaking not so rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be +shadowed forth, although feebly, in words. A small picture +presented the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault +or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and without +interruption or device. Certain accessory points of the design +served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at an +exceeding depth below the surface of the earth. No outlet was +observed in any portion of its vast extent, and no torch, +or other artificial source of light was discernible; yet a flood +of intense rays rolled throughout, and bathed the whole in a +ghastly and inappropriate splendour. + +I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory +nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with +the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It +was, perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself +upon the guitar, which gave birth, in great measure, to the +fantastic character of the performances. But the fervid +facility of his impromptus could not be so accounted for. +They must have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the +words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied +himself with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that +intense mental collectedness and concentration to which I have +previously alluded as observable only in particular moments of +the highest artificial excitement. The words of one of these +rhapsodies I have easily remembered. I was, perhaps, the more +forcibly impressed with it, as he gave it, because, in the under +or mystic current of its meaning, I fancied that I perceived, and +for the first time, a full consciousness on the part of Usher, of +the tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne. The verses, +which were entitled "The Haunted Palace," ran very nearly, if not +accurately, thus: + + + I. + + In the greenest of our valleys, + By good angels tenanted, + Once a fair and stately palace-- + Radiant palace--reared its head. + In the monarch Thought's dominion-- + It stood there! + Never seraph spread a pinion + Over fabric half so fair. + + + II. + + Banners yellow, glorious, golden, + On its roof did float and flow; + (This--all this--was in the olden + Time long ago) + And every gentle air that dallied, + In that sweet day, + Along the ramparts plumed and pallid, + A winged odour went away. + + + III. + + Wanderers in that happy valley + Through two luminous windows saw + Spirits moving musically + To a lute's well tuned law, + Round about a throne, where sitting + (Porphyrogene!) + In state his glory well befitting, + The ruler of the realm was seen. + + + IV. + + And all with pearl and ruby glowing + Was the fair palace door, + Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing + And sparkling evermore, + A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty + Was but to sing, + In voices of surpassing beauty, + The wit and wisdom of their king. + + + V. + + But evil things, in robes of sorrow, + Assailed the monarch's high estate; + (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow + Shall dawn upon him, desolate!) + And, round about his home, the glory + That blushed and bloomed + Is but a dim-remembered story, + Of the old time entombed. + + + VI. + + And travellers now within that valley, + Through the red-litten windows, see + Vast forms that move fantastically + To a discordant melody; + While, like a rapid ghastly river, + Through the pale door, + A hideous throng rush out forever, + And laugh--but smile no more. + + +I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad, +led us into a train of thought wherein there became manifest an +opinion of Usher's which I mention not so much on account of its +novelty (for other men* have thought thus,) as on account of the +pertinacity with which he maintained it. This opinion, in its +general form, was that of the sentience of all vegetable things. +But, in his disordered fancy, the idea had assumed a more daring +character, and trespassed, under certain conditions, upon the +kingdom of inorganization. I lack words to express the full +extent, or the earnest abandon of his persuasion. The +belief, however, was connected (as I have previously hinted) with +the gray stones of the home of his forefathers. The conditions +of the sentience had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in the +method of collocation of these stones--in the order of their +arrangement, as well as in that of the many fungi which +overspread them, and of the decayed trees which stood around--above +all, in the long undisturbed endurance of this arrangement, +and in its reduplication in the still waters of the tarn. Its +evidence--the evidence of the sentience--was to be seen, he said, +(and I here started as he spoke,) in the gradual yet certain +condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and +the walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in that +silent, yet importunate and terrible influence which for +centuries had moulded the destinies of his family, and which made +him what I now saw him--what he was. Such opinions need no +comment, and I will make none. + +Our books--the books which, for years, had formed no small +portion of the mental existence of the invalid--were, as might be +supposed, in strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We +pored together over such works as the Ververt et Chartreuse +of Gresset; the Belphegor of Machiavelli; the Heaven and +Hell of Swedenborg; the Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm by +Holberg; the Chiromancy of Robert Flud, of Jean D'Indagine, +and of De la Chambre; the Journey into the Blue Distance of +Tieck; and the City of the Sun by Campanella. One favourite +volume was a small octavo edition of the Directorium +Inquisitorum, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there +were passages in Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs +and OEgipans, over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His +chief delight, however, was found in the perusal of an +exceedingly rare and curious book in quarto Gothic--the manual of +a forgotten church--the Vigiliae Mortuorum Secundum Chorum Ecclesiae +Maguntinae. + +I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, +and of its probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one +evening, having informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was +no more, he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a +fortnight, (previously to its final interment), in one of the +numerous vaults within the main walls of the building. The +worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular proceeding, +was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. The brother +had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by consideration +of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of +certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical +men, and of the remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground +of the family. I will not deny that when I called to mind the +sinister countenance of the person whom I met upon the staircase, +on the day of my arrival at the house, I had no desire to oppose +what I regarded as at best but a harmless, and by no means an +unnatural, precaution. + +At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the +arrangements for the temporary entombment. The body having been +encoffined, we two alone bore it to its rest. The vault in which +we placed it (and which had been so long unopened that our +torches, half smothered in its oppressive atmosphere, gave us +little opportunity for investigation) was small, damp, and +entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great +depth, immediately beneath that portion of the building in which +was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used, apparently, in +remote feudal times, for the worst purposes of a donjon-keep, and, +in later days, as a place of deposit for powder, or some other +highly combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, +and the whole interior of a long archway through which we reached +it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The door, of massive +iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense weight +caused an unusually sharp grating sound, as it moved upon its hinges. + +Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within +this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet +unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the +tenant. A striking similitude between the brother and sister now +first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my +thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that +the deceased and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a +scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them. +Our glances, however, rested not long upon the dead--for we could +not regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the +lady in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies +of a strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint +blush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously +lingering smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We +replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door +of iron, made our way, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy +apartments of the upper portion of the house. + +And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an +observable change came over the features of the mental disorder +of my friend. His ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary +occupations were neglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber +to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. The +pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more +ghastly hue--but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone +out. The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no +more; and a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually +characterized his utterance. There were times, indeed, when I +thought his unceasingly agitated mind was labouring with some +oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the +necessary courage. At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all +into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld him +gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the +profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary +sound. It was no wonder that his condition terrified--that it +infected me. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain +degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive +superstitions. + +It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night +of the seventh or eighth day after the placing of the lady +Madeline within the donjon, that I experienced the full power of +such feelings. Sleep came not near my couch--while the hours +waned and waned away. I struggled to reason off the nervousness +which had dominion over me. I endeavoured to believe that much, +if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence +of the gloomy furniture of the room--of the dark and tattered +draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising +tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled +uneasily about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were +fruitless. An irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; +and, at length, there sat upon my very heart an incubus of +utterly causeless alarm. Shaking this off with a gasp and a +struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows, and, peering +earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber, hearkened--I +know not why, except that an instinctive spirit prompted me--to +certain low and indefinite sounds which came, through the pauses +of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence. Overpowered +by an intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable yet unendurable, +I threw on my clothes with haste (for I felt that I should sleep +no more during the night,) and endeavoured to arouse myself from +the pitiable condition into which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly +to and fro through the apartment. + +I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a light step +on an adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently +recognized it as that of Usher. In an instant afterwards he +rapped, with a gentle touch, at my door, and entered, bearing a +lamp. His countenance was, as usual, cadaverously wan--but, +moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in his eyes--an +evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanour. His +air appalled me--but anything was preferable to the solitude +which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence as +a relief. + +"And you have not seen it?" he said abruptly, after having +stared about him for some moments in silence--"you have +not then seen it?--but, stay! you shall." Thus speaking, and +having carefully shaded his lamp, he hurried to one of the +casements, and threw it freely open to the storm. + +The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us +from our feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly +beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its +beauty. A whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our +vicinity; for there were frequent and violent alterations in the +direction of the wind; and the exceeding density of the clouds +(which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did +not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity with which they +flew careering from all points against each other, without +passing away into the distance. I say that even their exceeding +density did not prevent our perceiving this--yet we had no +glimpse of the moon or stars--nor was there any flashing forth of +the lightning. But the under surfaces of the huge masses of +agitated vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects immediately +around us, were glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly +luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation which hung +about and enshrouded the mansion. + +"You must not--you shall not behold this!" said I, +shudderingly, to Usher, as I led him, with a gentle violence, +from the window to a seat. "These appearances, which bewilder +you, are merely electrical phenomena not uncommon--or it may be +that they have their ghastly origin in the rank miasma of the +tarn. Let us close this casement;--the air is chilling and +dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favourite romances. +I will read, and you shall listen;--and so we will pass away this +terrible night together." + +The antique volume which I had taken up was the "Mad +Trist" of Sir Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a favourite +of Usher's more in sad jest than in earnest; for, in truth, there +is little in its uncouth and unimaginative prolixity which could +have had interest for the lofty and spiritual ideality of my +friend. It was, however, the only book immediately at hand; and +I indulged a vague hope that the excitement which now agitated +the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the history of mental +disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in the extremeness of +the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, indeed, by +the wild overstrained air of vivacity with which he +hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to the words of the tale, I +might well have congratulated myself upon the success of my +design. + +I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where +Ethelred, the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for +peaceable admission into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to +make good an entrance by force. Here, it will be remembered, the +words of the narrative run thus: + +"And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who +was now mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the wine +which he had drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the +hermit, who, in sooth, was of an obstinate and maliceful turn, +but, feeling the rain upon his shoulders, and fearing the rising +of the tempest, uplifted his mace outright, and, with blows, made +quickly room in the plankings of the door for his gauntleted +hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so cracked, and +ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dry and +hollow-sounding wood alarmed and reverberated throughout the +forest." + +At the termination of this sentence I started, and for a +moment, paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once +concluded that my excited fancy had deceived me)--it appeared to +me that, from some very remote portion of the mansion, there +came, indistinctly, to my ears, what might have been, in its +exact similarity of character, the echo (but a stifled and dull +one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping sound which Sir +Launcelot had so particularly described. It was, beyond doubt, +the coincidence alone which had arrested my attention; for, amid +the rattling of the sashes of the casements, and the ordinary +commingled noises of the still increasing storm, the sound, in +itself, had nothing, surely, which should have interested or +disturbed me. I continued the story: + +"But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the +door, was sore enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the +maliceful hermit; but, in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly +and prodigious demeanour, and of a fiery tongue, which sat in +guard before a palace of gold, with a floor of silver; and upon +the wall there hung a shield of shining brass with this legend +enwritten-- + + Who entereth herein, a conquerer hath bin; + Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win; + +and Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the +dragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with +a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that +Ethelred had fain to close his ears with his hands against the +dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was never before heard." + +Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild +amazement--for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this +instance, I did actually hear (although from what direction it +proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low and apparently +distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or +grating sound--the exact counterpart of what my fancy had already +conjured up for the dragon's unnatural shriek as described by the +romancer. + +Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of the +second and most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand +conflicting sensations, in which wonder and extreme terror were +predominant, I still retained sufficient presence of mind to +avoid exciting, by any observation, the sensitive nervousness of +my companion. I was by no means certain that he had noticed the +sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange alteration +had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his demeanour. +From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought round +his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the chamber; +and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although I +saw that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. +His head had dropped upon his breast--yet I knew that he was not +asleep, from the wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a +glance of it in profile. The motion of his body, too, was at +variance with this idea--for he rocked from side to side with a +gentle yet constant and uniform sway. Having rapidly taken +notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of Sir Launcelot, +which thus proceeded: + +"And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible +fury of the dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and +of the breaking up of the enchantment which was upon it, removed +the carcass from out of the way before him, and approached +valorously over the silver pavement of the castle to where +the shield was upon the wall; which in sooth tarried not for his +full coming, but fell down at his feet upon the silver floor, +with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound." + +No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than--as if a +shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a +floor of silver--I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, +and clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely +unnerved, I leaped to my feet; but the measured rocking movement +of Usher was undisturbed. I rushed to the chair in which he sat. +His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and throughout his whole +countenance there reigned a stony rigidity. But, as I placed my +hand upon his shoulder, there came a strong shudder over his +whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his lips; and I saw +that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur, as if +unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over him, I at +length drank in the hideous import of his words. + +"Not hear it?--yes, I hear it, and have heard it. +Long--long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard +it--yet I dared not--oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!--I +dared not--I dared not speak! We have put her living in +the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell +you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. +I heard them--many, many days ago--yet I dared not--I dared +not speak! And now--to-night--Ethelred--ha! ha!--the breaking +of the hermit's door, and the death-cry of the dragon, and the +clangour of the shield!--say, rather, the rending of her coffin, +and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her +struggles within the coppered archway of the vault! Oh whither +shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying to +upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footsteps on the +stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of +her heart? Madman!" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and +shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up +his soul--"Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the +door!" + +As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had +been found the potency of a spell--the huge antique panels to +which the speaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, +their ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the +rushing gust--but then without those doors there DID stand the +lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. There +was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter +struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment +she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold,--then, +with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person +of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, +bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he +had anticipated. + +From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. +The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself +crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a +wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could +have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind +me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red +moon which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible +fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof +of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I +gazed, this fissure rapidly widened--there came a fierce breath +of the whirlwind--the entire orb of the satellite burst at once +upon my sight--my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing +asunder--there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the +voice of a thousand waters--and the deep and dank tarn at my feet +closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the "House of +Usher". + + +* Watson, Dr Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of Landaff. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + +***** This file should be named 932.txt or 932.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/3/932/ + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz and Jose Menendez + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. Binary files differdiff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6149b9a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #932 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/932) diff --git a/old/usher10.txt b/old/usher10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ceef75 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/usher10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1105 @@ +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Fall of the House of Usher* +by Edgar Allan Poe +#1 in our series by Edgar Allan Poe + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +The Fall of the House of Usher + +by Edgar Allan Poe + +June, 1997 [Etext #932] + + +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Fall of the House of Usher* +*****This file should be named usher10.txt or usher10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, usher11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, usher10a.txt. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month: or 400 more Etexts in 1996 for a total of 800. +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach 80 billion Etexts. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + +Scanned and proofread by Levent Kurnaz + + + + + +The Fall of the House of Usher + + +Son coeur est un luth suspendu; +Sitot qu'on le touche il resonne. +DE BERANGER. + + + + +During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the +autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the +heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a +singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, +as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the +melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was--but, with the +first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom +pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was +unrelieved by any of that half-pleasureable, because poetic, +sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest +natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the +scene before me--upon the mere house, and the simple landscape +features of the domain--upon the bleak walls--upon the vacant +eye-like windows--upon a few rank sedges--and upon a few white +trunks of decayed trees--with an utter depression of soul which I +can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the +after-dream of the reveller upon opium--the bitter lapse into +everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was +an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart--an unredeemed +dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could +torture into aught of the sublime. What was it--I paused to +think--what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of +the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I +grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I +pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory +conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations +of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus +affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among +considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, +that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the +scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to +modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful +impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse +to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in +unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a +shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and +inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, +and the vacant and eye-like windows. + +Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to +myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, +had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had +elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately +reached me in a distant part of the country--a letter from him-- +which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no other +than a personal reply. The MS gave evidence of nervous +agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness--of a mental +disorder which oppressed him--and of an earnest desire to see me, +as his best, and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of +attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation +of his malady. It was the manner in which all this, and much +more, was said--it was the apparent heart that went with his +request--which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I +accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very +singular summons. + +Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet +I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always +excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his very +ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar +sensibility of temperament, displaying itself, through long ages, +in many works of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in +repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as +in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more +than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties of musical +science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the +stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured as it was, had put +forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that +the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had +always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. +It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in +thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with +the accredited character of the people, and while speculating +upon the possible influence which the one, in the long +lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other--it was +this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent +undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with +the name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge +the original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal +appellation of the "House of Usher"--an appellation which seemed +to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the +family and the family mansion. + +I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish +experiment--that of looking down within the tarn--had been to +deepen the first singular impression. There can be no doubt that +the consciousness of the rapid increase of my supersition--for +why should I not so term it?--served mainly to accelerate the +increase itself. Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical law +of all sentiments having terror as a basis. And it might have +been for this reason only, that, when I again uplifted my eyes to +the house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew in my +mind a strange fancy--a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but +mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which +oppressed me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really to +believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an +atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity-- +an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but +which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the grey wall, +and the silent tarn--a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, +sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued. + +Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, +I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its +principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. +The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi +overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work +from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary +dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there +appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect +adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the +individual stones. In this there was much that reminded me of +the specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long +years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the +breath of the external air. Beyond this indication of +extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of +instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might +have discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending +from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the +wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen +waters of the tarn. + +Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the +house. A servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the +Gothic archway of the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence +conducted me, in silence, through many dark and intricate +passages in my progress to the studio of his master. Much +that I encountered on the way contributed, I know not how, to +heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already spoken. +While the objects around me--while the carvings of the ceilings, +the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the +floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as +I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had +been accustomed from my infancy--while I hesitated not to +acknowledge how familiar was all this--I still wondered to find +how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were +stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met the physician of +the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled +expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with +trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door and +ushered me into the presence of his master. + +The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. +The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a dis- +tance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible +from within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way +through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently +distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, +struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or +the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies +hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, +comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical +instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality +to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. +An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and +pervaded all. + +Upon my entrance, Usher rose from a sofa on which he had +been lying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth +which had much in it, I at first thought, of an overdone +cordiality--of the constrained effort of the ennuye man of +the world. A glance, however, at his countenance, convinced me +of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; and for some moments, +while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity, +half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, +in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It was with +difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the +wan being before me with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet +the character of his face had been at all times remarkable. A +cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous +beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a +surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, +but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; a +finely-moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a +want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and +tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansion above the +regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not +easily to be forgotten. And now in the mere exaggeration of the +prevailing character of these features, and of the expression +they were wont to convey, lay so much of change that I doubted to +whom I spoke. The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now +miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things startled and even +awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all +unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather +than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect +its Arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity. + +In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an +incoherence--an inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise +from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an +habitual trepidancy--an excessive nervous agitation. For +something of this nature I had indeed been prepared, no less by +his letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish traits, and +by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical conformation +and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and +sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision +(when the animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to +that species of energetic concision--that abrupt, weighty, +unhurried, and hollow-sounding enunciation--that leaden, self- +balanced and perfectly modulated guttural utterance, which may be +observed in the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of +opium, during the periods of his most intense excitement. + +It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his +earnest desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to +afford him. He entered, at some length, into what he conceived +to be the nature of his malady. It was, he said, a +constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired +to find a remedy--a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, +which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself in a +host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed +them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms, +and the general manner of the narration had their weight. He +suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most +insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of +certain texture; the odours of all flowers were oppressive; his +eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were but +peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did +not inspire him with horror. + +To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden +slave. "I shall perish," said he, "I must perish in this +deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be +lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but +in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, even the most +trivial, incident, which may operate upon this intolerable +agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, +except in its absolute effect--in terror. In this unnerved--in +this pitiable condition--I feel that the period will sooner or +later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in +some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR." + +I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and +equivocal hints, another singular feature of his mental +condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions +in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many +years, he had never ventured forth--in regard to an influence +whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy here +to be re-stated--an influence which some peculiarities in the +mere form and substance of his family mansion, had, by +dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit--an +effect which the physique of the grey walls and turrets, and +of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, +brought about upon the morale of his existence. + +He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of +the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a +more natural and far more palpable origin--to the severe and +long-continued illness--indeed to the evidently approaching dis- +solution--of a tenderly beloved sister--his sole companion for +long years--his last and only relative on earth. "Her decease," +he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, "would leave +him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race +of the Ushers." While he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was +she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the +apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. +I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with +dread--and yet I found it impossible to account for such +feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, as my eyes +followed her retreating steps. When a door, at length, closed +upon her, my glance sought instinctively and eagerly the +countenance of the brother--but he had buried his face in his +hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than ordinary +wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which +trickled many passionate tears. + +The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill +of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of +the person, and frequent although transient affections of a +partially cataleptical character, were the unusual diagnosis. +Hitherto she had steadily borne up against the pressure of her +malady, and had not betaken herself finally to bed; but, on the +closing in of the evening of my arrival at the house, she +succumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpressible +agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and I +learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus +probably be the last I should obtain--that the lady, at least +while living, would be seen by me no more. + +For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either +Usher or myself: and during this period I was busied in earnest +endeavours to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We +painted and read together; or I listened, as if in a dream, to +the wild improvisations of his speaking guitar. And thus, as a +closer and still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly +into the recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive +the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which +darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon +all objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing +radiation of gloom. + +I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours +I thus spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I +should fail in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact +character of the studies, or of the occupations, in which he +involved me, or led me the way. An excited and highly +distempered ideality threw a sulphureous lustre over all. His +long improvised dirges will ring for ever in my ears. Among +other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular +perversion and amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of +Von Weber. From the paintings over which his elaborate fancy +brooded, and which grew, touch by touch, into vagueness at which +I shuddered the more thrillingly, because I shuddered knowing not +why;--from these paintings (vivid as their images now are before +me) I would in vain endeavour to educe more than a small portion +which should lie within the compass of merely written words. By +the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs, he +arrested and overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, +that mortal was Roderick Usher. For me at least--in the +circumstances then surrounding me--there arose out of the pure +abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his +canvas, an intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt +I ever yet in the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet too +concrete reveries of Fuseli. + +One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, +partaking not so rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be +shadowed forth, although feebly, in words. A small picture +presented the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault +or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and without +interruption or device. Certain accessory points of the design +served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at an +exceeding depth below the surface of the earth. No outlet was +observed in any portion of its vast extent, and no torch, +or other artificial source of light was discernible; yet a flood +of intense rays rolled throughout, and bathed the whole in a +ghastly and inappropriate splendour. + +I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory +nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with +the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It +was, perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself +upon the guitar, which gave birth, in great measure, to the +fantastic character of the performances. But the fervid +facility of his impromptus could not be so accounted for. +They must have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the +words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied +himself with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that +intense mental collectedness and concentration to which I have +previously alluded as observable only in particular moments of +the highest artificial excitement. The words of one of these +rhapsodies I have easily remembered. I was, perhaps, the more +forcibly impressed with it, as he gave it, because, in the under +or mystic current of its meaning, I fancied that I perceived, and +for the first time, a full consciousness on the part of Usher, of +the tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne. The verses, +which were entitled "The Haunted Palace," ran very nearly, if not +accurately, thus: + + + I. + + + In the greenest of our valleys, + + By good angels tenanted, + + Once a fair and stately palace-- + + Radiant palace--reared its head. + + In the monarch Thought's dominion-- + + It stood there! + + Never seraph spread a pinion + + Over fabric half so fair. + + + II. + + + Banners yellow, glorious, golden, + + On its roof did float and flow; + + (This--all this--was in the olden + + Time long ago) + + And every gentle air that dallied, + + In that sweet day, + + Along the ramparts plumed and pallid, + + A winged odour went away. + + + III. + + + Wanderers in that happy valley + + Through two luminous windows saw + + Spirits moving musically + + To a lute's well tuned law, + + Round about a throne, where sitting + + (Porphyrogene!) + + In state his glory well befitting, + + The ruler of the realm was seen. + + + IV. + + + And all with pearl and ruby glowing + + Was the fair palace door, + + Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing + + And sparkling evermore, + + A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty + + Was but to sing, + + In voices of surpassing beauty, + + The wit and wisdom of their king. + + + V. + + + But evil things, in robes of sorrow, + + Assailed the monarch's high estate; + + (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow + + Shall dawn upon him, desolate!) + + And, round about his home, the glory + + That blushed and bloomed + + Is but a dim-remembered story, + + Of the old time entombed. + + + VI. + + + And travellers now within that valley, + + Through the red-litten windows, see + + Vast forms that move fantastically + + To a discordant melody; + + While, like a rapid ghastly river, + + Through the pale door, + + A hideous throng rush out forever, + + And laugh--but smile no more. + + +I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad, +led us into a train of thought wherein there became manifest an +opinion of Usher's which I mention not so much on account of its +novelty (for other men* have thought thus,) as on account of the +pertinacity with which he maintained it. This opinion, in its +general form, was that of the sentience of all vegetable things. +But, in his disordered fancy, the idea had assumed a more daring +character, and trespassed, under certain conditions, upon the +kingdom of inorganization. I lack words to express the full +extent, or the earnest abandon of his persuasion. The +belief, however, was connected (as I have previously hinted) with +the gray stones of the home of his forefathers. The conditions +of the sentience had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in the +method of collocation of these stones--in the order of their +arrangement, as well as in that of the many fungi which +overspread them, and of the decayed trees which stood around-- +above all, in the long undisturbed endurance of this arrangement, +and in its reduplication in the still waters of the tarn. Its +evidence--the evidence of the sentience--was to be seen, he said, +(and I here started as he spoke,) in the gradual yet certain +condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and +the walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in that +silent, yet importunate and terrible influence which for +centuries had moulded the destinies of his family, and which made +him what I now saw him--what he was. Such opinions need no +comment, and I will make none. + +Our books--the books which, for years, had formed no small +portion of the mental existence of the invalid--were, as might be +supposed, in strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We +pored together over such works as the Ververt et Chartreuse +of Gresset; the Belphegor of Machiavelli; the Heaven and +Hell of Swedenborg; the Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm by +Holberg; the Chiromancy of Robert Flud, of Jean D'Indagine, +and of De la Chambre; the Journey into the Blue Distance of +Tieck; and the City of the Sun by Campanella. One favourite +volume was a small octavo edition of the Directorium +Inquisitorum, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there +were passages in Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs +and OEgipans, over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His +chief delight, however, was found in the perusal of an +exceedingly rare and curious book in quarto Gothic--the manual of +a forgotten church--the Vigiliae Mortuorum Secundum Chorum Ecclesiae +Maguntinae. + +I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, +and of its probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one +evening, having informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was +no more, he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a +fortnight, (previously to its final interment), in one of the +numerous vaults within the main walls of the building. The +worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular proceeding, +was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. The brother +had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by consideration +of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of +certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical +men, and of the remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground +of the family. I will not deny that when I called to mind the +sinister countenance of the person whom I met upon the staircase, +on the day of my arrival at the house, I had no desire to oppose +what I regarded as at best but a harmless, and by no means an +unnatural, precaution. + +At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the +arrangements for the temporary entombment. The body having been +encoffined, we two alone bore it to its rest. The vault in which +we placed it (and which had been so long unopened that our +torches, half smothered in its oppressive atmosphere, gave us +little opportunity for investigation) was small, damp, and +entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great +depth, immediately beneath that portion of the building in which +was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used, apparently, in +remote feudal times, for the worst purposes of a donjon-keep, and, +in later days, as a place of deposit for powder, or some other +highly combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, +and the whole interior of a long archway through which we reached +it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The door, of massive +iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense weight +caused an unusually sharp grating sound, as it moved upon its hinges. + +Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within +this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet +unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the +tenant. A striking similitude between the brother and sister now +first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my +thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that +the deceased and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a +scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them. +Our glances, however, rested not long upon the dead--for we could +not regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the +lady in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies +of a strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint +blush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously +lingering smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We +replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door +of iron, made our way, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy +apartments of the upper portion of the house. + +And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an +observable change came over the features of the mental disorder +of my friend. His ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary +occupations were neglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber +to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. The +pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more +ghastly hue--but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone +out. The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no +more; and a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually +characterized his utterance. There were times, indeed, when I +thought his unceasingly agitated mind was labouring with some +oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the +necessary courage. At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all +into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld him +gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the +profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary +sound. It was no wonder that his condition terrified--that it +infected me. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain +degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive +superstitions. + +It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night +of the seventh or eighth day after the placing of the lady +Madeline within the donjon, that I experienced the full power of +such feelings. Sleep came not near my couch--while the hours +waned and waned away. I struggled to reason off the nervousness +which had dominion over me. I endeavoured to believe that much, +if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence +of the gloomy furniture of the room--of the dark and tattered +draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising +tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled +uneasily about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were +fruitless. An irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; +and, at length, there sat upon my very heart an incubus of +utterly causeless alarm. Shaking this off with a gasp and a +struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows, and, peering +earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber, hearkened-- +I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit prompted me--to +certain low and indefinite sounds which came, through the pauses +of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence. Overpowered +by an intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable yet unendurable, +I threw on my clothes with haste (for I felt that I should sleep +no more during the night,) and endeavoured to arouse myself from +the pitiable condition into which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly +to and fro through the apartment. + +I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a light step +on an adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently +recognized it as that of Usher. In an instant afterwards he +rapped, with a gentle touch, at my door, and entered, bearing a +lamp. His countenance was, as usual, cadaverously wan--but, +moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in his eyes--an +evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanour. His +air appalled me--but anything was preferable to the solitude +which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence as +a relief. + +"And you have not seen it?" he said abruptly, after having +stared about him for some moments in silence--"you have +not then seen it?--but, stay! you shall." Thus speaking, and +having carefully shaded his lamp, he hurried to one of the +casements, and threw it freely open to the storm. + +The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us +from our feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly +beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its +beauty. A whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our +vicinity; for there were frequent and violent alterations in the +direction of the wind; and the exceeding density of the clouds +(which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did +not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity with which they +flew careering from all points against each other, without +passing away into the distance. I say that even their exceeding +density did not prevent our perceiving this--yet we had no +glimpse of the moon or stars--nor was there any flashing forth of +the lightning. But the under surfaces of the huge masses of +agitated vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects immediately +around us, were glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly +luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation which hung +about and enshrouded the mansion. + +"You must not--you shall not behold this!" said I, +shudderingly, to Usher, as I led him, with a gentle violence, +from the window to a seat. "These appearances, which bewilder +you, are merely electrical phenomena not uncommon--or it may be +that they have their ghastly origin in the rank miasma of the +tarn. Let us close this casement;--the air is chilling and +dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favourite romances. +I will read, and you shall listen;--and so we will pass away this +terrible night together." + +The antique volume which I had taken up was the "Mad +Trist" of Sir Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a favourite +of Usher's more in sad jest than in earnest; for, in truth, there +is little in its uncouth and unimaginative prolixity which could +have had interest for the lofty and spiritual ideality of my +friend. It was, however, the only book immediately at hand; and +I indulged a vague hope that the excitement which now agitated +the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the history of mental +disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in the extremeness of +the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, indeed, by +the wild overstrained air of vivacity with which he +hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to the words of the tale, I +might well have congratulated myself upon the success of my +design. + +I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where +Ethelred, the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for +peaceable admission into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to +make good an entrance by force. Here, it will be remembered, the +words of the narrative run thus: + +"And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who +was now mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the wine +which he had drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the +hermit, who, in sooth, was of an obstinate and maliceful turn, +but, feeling the rain upon his shoulders, and fearing the rising +of the tempest, uplifted his mace outright, and, with blows, made +quickly room in the plankings of the door for his gauntleted +hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so cracked, and +ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dry and +hollow-sounding wood alarmed and reverberated throughout the +forest." + +At the termination of this sentence I started, and for a +moment, paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once +concluded that my excited fancy had deceived me)--it appeared to +me that, from some very remote portion of the mansion, there +came, indistinctly, to my ears, what might have been, in its +exact similarity of character, the echo (but a stifled and dull +one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping sound which Sir +Launcelot had so particularly described. It was, beyond doubt, +the coincidence alone which had arrested my attention; for, amid +the rattling of the sashes of the casements, and the ordinary +commingled noises of the still increasing storm, the sound, in +itself, had nothing, surely, which should have interested or +disturbed me. I continued the story: + +"But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the +door, was sore enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the +maliceful hermit; but, in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly +and prodigious demeanour, and of a fiery tongue, which sate in +guard before a palace of gold, with a floor of silver; and upon +the wall there hung a shield of shining brass with this legend +enwritten-- + + Who entereth herein, a conquerer hath bin; + + Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win; + +and Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the +dragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with +a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that +Ethelred had fain to close his ears with his hands against the +dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was never before heard." + +Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild +amazement--for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this +instance, I did actually hear (although from what direction it +proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low and apparently +distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or +grating sound--the exact counterpart of what my fancy had already +conjured up for the dragon's unnatural shriek as described by the +romancer. + +Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of the +second and most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand +conflicting sensations, in which wonder and extreme terror were +predominant, I still retained sufficient presence of mind to +avoid exciting, by any observation, the sensitive nervousness of +my companion. I was by no means certain that he had noticed the +sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange alteration +had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his demeanour. +From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought round +his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the chamber; +and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although I +saw that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. +His head had dropped upon his breast--yet I knew that he was not +asleep, from the wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a +glance of it in profile. The motion of his body, too, was at +variance with this idea--for he rocked from side to side with a +gentle yet constant and uniform sway. Having rapidly taken +notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of Sir Launcelot, +which thus proceeded: + +"And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible +fury of the dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and +of the breaking up of the enchantment which was upon it, removed +the carcass from out of the way before him, and approached +valorously over the silver pavement of the castle to where +the shield was upon the wall; which in sooth tarried not for his +full coming, but fell down at his feet upon the silver floor, +with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound." + +No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than--as if a +shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a +floor of silver--I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, +and clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely +unnerved, I leaped to my feet; but the measured rocking movement +of Usher was undisturbed. I rushed to the chair in which he sat. +His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and throughout his whole +countenance there reigned a stony rigidity. But, as I placed my +hand upon his shoulder, there came a strong shudder over his +whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his lips; and I saw +that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur, as if +unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over him, I at +length drank in the hideous import of his words. + +"Not hear it?--yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long- +-long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard +it--yet I dared not--oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!--I +dared not--I dared not speak! We have put her living in +the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell +you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. +I heard them--many, many days ago--yet I dared not--I dared +not speak! And now--to-night--Ethelred--ha! ha!--the breaking +of the hermit's door, and the death-cry of the dragon, and the +clangour of the shield!--say, rather, the rending of her coffin, +and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her +struggles within the coppered archway of the vault! Oh whither +shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying to +upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footsteps on the +stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of +her heart? Madman!" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and +shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up +his soul--"Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the +door!" + +As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had +been found the potency of a spell--the huge antique panels to +which the speaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, +their ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the +rushing gust--but then without those doors there DID stand the +lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. There +was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter +struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment +she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold,-- +then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person +of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, +bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he +had anticipated. + +From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. +The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself +crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a +wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could +have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind +me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red +moon which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible +fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof +of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I +gazed, this fissure rapidly widened--there came a fierce breath +of the whirlwind--the entire orb of the satellite burst at once +upon my sight--my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing +asunder--there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the +voice of a thousand waters--and the deep and dank tarn at my feet +closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the "House of +Usher". + + +* Watson, Dr Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of Landaff. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Fall of the House of Usher + diff --git a/old/usher10.zip b/old/usher10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da92f09 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/usher10.zip diff --git a/old/usher10h.htm b/old/usher10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bf42b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/usher10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1286 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook The Fall of the House of +Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +DIV.book { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; } +P { text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; } +P.noindent { text-indent: 0em; } +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe +#1 in our series by Edgar Allan Poe + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Fall of the House of Usher + +Author: Edgar Allan Poe + +Release Date: June, 1997 [EBook #932] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on February 27, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + + + + +This eBook was converted to HTM, with some additional editing, +by Jose Menendez from the text edition produced by Levent Kurnaz + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="book"> +<center> +<hr size="3" noshade> +<br> +<h1>THE FALL OF<br> +THE HOUSE OF USHER</h1> + +<br> +<h3>BY</h3> + +<br> +<h2>EDGAR ALLAN POE</h2> + +<hr size="3" noshade> +<br> + + +<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="quote"> +<tr> +<td><i>Son cœur est un luth suspendu;<br> +Sitôt qu’on le touche il résonne.</i></td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +<br> +<p class="noindent" align="right"><i>De Béranger.</i></p> + +<p><br> +<font size="+1">D</font>URING the whole of a dull, dark, and +soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung +oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on +horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at +length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within +view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it +was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of +insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for +the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, +because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives +even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I +looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and +the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak +walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few +rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed +trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare +to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of +the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into every-day +life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an +iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed +dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could +torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to +think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation +of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could +I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I +pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory +conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there <i>are</i> +combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power +of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among +considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, +that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the +scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to +modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful +impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the +precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled +lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with a shudder +even more thrilling than before—upon the remodelled and +inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, +and the vacant and eye-like windows.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to +myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, +had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had +elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately +reached me in a distant part of the country—a letter from +him—which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted +of no other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence of +nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily +illness—of a mental disorder which oppressed him—and +of an earnest desire to see me, as his best and indeed his only +personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness +of my society, some alleviation of his malady. It was the manner +in which all this, and much more, was said—it was the +apparent <i>heart</i> that went with his request—which +allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed +forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons.</p> + +<p>Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I +really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always +excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his very +ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar +sensibility of temperament, displaying itself, through long ages, +in many works of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in +repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as +in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more +than to the orthodox and easily recognizable beauties, of musical +science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the +stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put +forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that +the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had +always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. +It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in +thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with +the accredited character of the people, and while speculating +upon the possible influence which the one, in the long lapse of +centuries, might have exercised upon the other—it was this +deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent +undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with +the name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge +the original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal +appellation of the “House of Usher”—an +appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the +peasantry who used it, both the family and the family +mansion.</p> + +<p>I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish +experiment—that of looking down within the tarn—had +been to deepen the first singular impression. There can be no +doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my +superstition—for why should I not so term it?—served +mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long +known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as +a basis. And it might have been for this reason only, that, when +I again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in +the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy—a fancy so +ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force +of the sensations which oppressed me. I had so worked upon my +imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and +domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their +immediate vicinity—an atmosphere which had no affinity with +the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed +trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn—a pestilent +and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and +leaden-hued.</p> + +<p>Shaking off from my spirit what <i>must</i> have been a dream, +I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its +principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. +The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi overspread +the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the +eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary +dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there +appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect +adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the +individual stones. In this there was much that reminded me of the +specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long +years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the +breath of the external air. Beyond this indication of extensive +decay, however, the fabric gave little token of instability. +Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered +a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of +the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag +direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the +tarn.</p> + +<p>Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the +house. A servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the +Gothic archway of the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence +conducted me, in silence, through many dark and intricate +passages in my progress to the <i>studio</i> of his master. Much +that I encountered on the way contributed, I know not how, to +heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already spoken. +While the objects around me—while the carvings of the +ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness +of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which +rattled as I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as +which, I had been accustomed from my infancy—while I +hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all this—I +still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which +ordinary images were stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met +the physician of the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a +mingled expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me +with trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door +and ushered me into the presence of his master.</p> + +<p>The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The +windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance +from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from +within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through +the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct +the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in +vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses +of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the +walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, +and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered +about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I felt that +I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and +irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.</p> + +<p>Upon my entrance, Usher rose from a sofa on which he had been +lying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth +which had much in it, I at first thought, of an overdone +cordiality—of the constrained effort of the +<i>ennuyé</i> man of the world. A glance, however, at his +countenance convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; +and for some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a +feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before +so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! +It was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the +identity of the wan being before me with the companion of my +early boyhood. Yet the character of his face had been at all +times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, +liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and +very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a +delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in +similar formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want +of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than +web-like softness and tenuity;—these features, with an +inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up +altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten. And now in +the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character of these +features, and of the expression they were wont to convey, lay so +much of change that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly +pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, +above all things startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, +had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild +gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I +could not, even with effort, connect its Arabesque expression +with any idea of simple humanity.</p> + +<p>In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an +incoherence—an inconsistency; and I soon found this to +arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an +habitual trepidancy—an excessive nervous agitation. For +something of this nature I had indeed been prepared, no less by +his letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish traits, and +by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical conformation +and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. +His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the +animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of +energetic concision—that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and +hollow-sounding enunciation—that leaden, self-balanced and +perfectly modulated guttural utterance, which may be observed in +the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium, during +the periods of his most intense excitement.</p> + +<p>It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his +earnest desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to +afford him. He entered, at some length, into what he conceived to +be the nature of his malady. It was, he said, a constitutional +and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a +remedy—a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, +which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself in a +host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed them, +interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms and +the general manner of the narration had their weight. He suffered +much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food +was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain +texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were +tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar +sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not +inspire him with horror.</p> + +<p>To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. +“I shall perish,” said he, “I <i>must</i> +perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, +shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in +themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of +any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this +intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of +danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror. In this +unnerved, in this pitiable, condition I feel that the period will +sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason +together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, <font size= +"+1">F</font>EAR.”</p> + +<p>I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and +equivocal hints, another singular feature of his mental +condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions +in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many +years, he had never ventured forth—in regard to an +influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too +shadowy here to be re-stated—an influence which some +peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family +mansion had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over +his spirit—an effect which the <i>physique</i> of the gray +walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked +down, had, at length, brought about upon the <i>morale</i> of his +existence.</p> + +<p>He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of +the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a +more natural and far more palpable origin—to the severe and +long-continued illness—indeed to the evidently approaching +dissolution—of a tenderly beloved sister, his sole +companion for long years, his last and only relative on earth. +“Her decease,” he said, with a bitterness which I can +never forget, “would leave him (him the hopeless and the +frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.” While +he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed slowly +through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having +noticed my presence, disappeared. I regarded her with an utter +astonishment not unmingled with dread; and yet I found it +impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor +oppressed me as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a +door, at length, closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively +and eagerly the countenance of the brother; but he had buried his +face in his hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than +ordinary wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through +which trickled many passionate tears.</p> + +<p>The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of +her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the +person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially +cataleptical character were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she +had steadily borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had +not betaken herself finally to bed; but on the closing in of the +evening of my arrival at the house, she succumbed (as her brother +told me at night with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating +power of the destroyer; and I learned that the glimpse I had +obtained of her person would thus probably be the last I should +obtain—that the lady, at least while living, would be seen +by me no more.</p> + +<p>For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either +Usher or myself; and during this period I was busied in earnest +endeavors to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted +and read together, or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild +improvisations of his speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and +still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the +recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive the +futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which darkness, +as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects +of the moral and physical universe in one unceasing radiation of +gloom.</p> + +<p>I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I +thus spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I +should fail in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact +character of the studies, or of the occupations, in which he +involved me, or led me the way. An excited and highly distempered +ideality threw a sulphureous lustre over all. His long improvised +dirges will ring forever in my ears. Among other things, I hold +painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and amplification +of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber. From the +paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded, and which grew, +touch by touch, into vagueness at which I shuddered the more +thrillingly, because I shuddered knowing not why—from these +paintings (vivid as their images now are before me) I would in +vain endeavor to educe more than a small portion which should lie +within the compass of merely written words. By the utter +simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs, he arrested and +overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that mortal +was Roderick Usher. For me at least, in the circumstances then +surrounding me, there arose out of the pure abstractions which +the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an +intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I ever yet +in the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet too concrete +reveries of Fuseli.</p> + +<p>One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking +not so rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed +forth, although feebly, in words. A small picture presented the +interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, +with low walls, smooth, white, and without interruption or +device. Certain accessory points of the design served well to +convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding depth +below the surface of the earth. No outlet was observed in any +portion of its vast extent, and no torch or other artificial +source of light was discernible; yet a flood of intense rays +rolled throughout, and bathed the whole in a ghastly and +inappropriate splendor.</p> + +<p>I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory +nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with +the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, +perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself upon +the guitar which gave birth, in great measure, to the fantastic +character of the performances. But the fervid <i>facility</i> of +his <i>impromptus</i> could not be so accounted for. They must +have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the words of his +wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself with +rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental +collectedness and concentration to which I have previously +alluded as observable only in particular moments of the highest +artificial excitement. The words of one of these rhapsodies I +have easily remembered. I was, perhaps, the more forcibly +impressed with it as he gave it, because, in the under or mystic +current of its meaning, I fancied that I perceived, and for the +first time, a full consciousness on the part of Usher of the +tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne. The verses, which +were entitled “The Haunted Palace,” ran very nearly, +if not accurately, thus:—<br> +</p> + +<center> +<table cellpadding="6" cellspacing="4" summary= +"The Haunted Palace"> +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> +I.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>In the greenest of our valleys,<br> + By good angels tenanted,<br> + Once a fair and stately palace—<br> + Radiant palace—reared its head.<br> + In the monarch Thought’s dominion—<br> + It stood there!<br> + Never seraph spread a pinion<br> + Over fabric half so fair.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + II.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>Banners yellow, glorious, golden,<br> + On its roof did float and flow;<br> + (This—all this—was in the olden<br> + Time long ago);<br> + And every gentle air that dallied,<br> + In that sweet day,<br> + Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,<br> + A winged odor went away.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + III.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>Wanderers in that happy valley<br> + Through two luminous windows saw<br> + Spirits moving musically<br> + To a lute’s well-tunèd law;<br> + Round about a throne, where sitting<br> + (Porphyrogene!)<br> + In state his glory well befitting,<br> + The ruler of the realm was seen.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + IV.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>And all with pearl and ruby glowing<br> + Was the fair palace door,<br> + Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing<br> + And sparkling evermore,<br> + A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty<br> + Was but to sing,<br> + In voices of surpassing beauty,<br> + The wit and wisdom of their king.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + V.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>But evil things, in robes of sorrow,<br> + Assailed the monarch’s high estate;<br> + (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow<br> + Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)<br> + And, round about his home, the glory<br> + That blushed and bloomed<br> + Is but a dim-remembered story<br> + Of the old time entombed.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="2"> <br> + VI.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>And travellers now within that valley,<br> + Through the red-litten windows see<br> + Vast forms that move fantastically<br> + To a discordant melody;<br> + While, like a rapid ghastly river,<br> + Through the pale door,<br> + A hideous throng rush out forever,<br> + And laugh—but smile no more.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +<br> +<p>I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad, led +us into a train of thought wherein there became manifest an +opinion of Usher’s which I mention not so much on account +of its novelty (for other men<a href="#1">*</a> have thought +thus), as on account of the pertinacity with which he maintained +it. This opinion, in its general form, was that of the sentience +of all vegetable things. But, in his disordered fancy, the idea +had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under +certain conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganization. I lack +words to express the full extent, or the earnest <i>abandon</i> +of his persuasion. The belief, however, was connected (as I have +previously hinted) with the gray stones of the home of his +forefathers. The conditions of the sentience had been here, he +imagined, fulfilled in the method of collocation of these +stones—in the order of their arrangement, as well as in +that of the many <i>fungi</i> which overspread them, and of the +decayed trees which stood around—above all, in the long +undisturbed endurance of this arrangement, and in its +reduplication in the still waters of the tarn. Its +evidence—the evidence of the sentience—was to be +seen, he said, (and I here started as he spoke), in the gradual +yet certain condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the +waters and the walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in +that silent yet importunate and terrible influence which for +centuries had moulded the destinies of his family, and which made +<i>him</i> what I now saw him—what he was. Such opinions +need no comment, and I will make none.</p> + +<p>Our books—the books which, for years, had formed no +small portion of the mental existence of the invalid—were, +as might be supposed, in strict keeping with this character of +phantasm. We pored together over such works as the “Ververt +et Chartreuse” of Gresset; the “Belphegor” of +Machiavelli; the “Heaven and Hell” of Swedenborg; the +“Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm” by Holberg; +the “Chiromancy” of Robert Flud, of Jean +D’Indaginé, and of De la Chambre; the “Journey +into the Blue Distance” of Tieck; and the “City of +the Sun” of Campanella. One favorite volume was a small +octavo edition of the “Directorium Inquisitorium,” by +the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were passages in +Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs and Œgipans, +over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight, +however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and +curious book in quarto Gothic—the manual of a forgotten +church—the <i>Vigiliæ Mortuorum Secundum Chorum +Ecclesiæ Maguntinæ</i>.</p> + +<p>I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and +of its probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one +evening, having informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was +no more, he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a +fortnight (previously to its final interment), in one of the +numerous vaults within the main walls of the building. The +worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular proceeding, +was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. The brother +had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by consideration +of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of +certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical +men, and of the remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground +of the family. I will not deny that when I called to mind the +sinister countenance of the person whom I met upon the staircase, +on the day of my arrival at the house, I had no desire to oppose +what I regarded as at best but a harmless, and by no means an +unnatural, precaution.</p> + +<p>At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the +arrangements for the temporary entombment. The body having been +encoffined, we two alone bore it to its rest. The vault in which +we placed it (and which had been so long unopened that our +torches, half smothered in its oppressive atmosphere, gave us +little opportunity for investigation) was small, damp, and +entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great +depth, immediately beneath that portion of the building in which +was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used, apparently, in +remote feudal times, for the worst purposes of a donjon-keep, +and, in later days, as a place of deposit for powder, or some +other highly combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, +and the whole interior of a long archway through which we reached +it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The door, of massive +iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense weight +caused an unusually sharp, grating sound, as it moved upon its +hinges.</p> + +<p>Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this +region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid +of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking +similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my +attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured +out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and +himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely +intelligible nature had always existed between them. Our glances, +however, rested not long upon the dead—for we could not +regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the lady +in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a +strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush +upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering +smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced and +screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made +our way, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of +the upper portion of the house.</p> + +<p>And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an +observable change came over the features of the mental disorder +of my friend. His ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary +occupations were neglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber +to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. The pallor +of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly +hue—but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone out. +The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more; and +a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually +characterized his utterance. There were times, indeed, when I +thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some +oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the +necessary courage. At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all +into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld him +gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the +profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound. +It was no wonder that his condition terrified—that it +infected me. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain +degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive +superstitions.</p> + +<p>It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of +the seventh or eighth day after the placing of the lady Madeline +within the donjon, that I experienced the full power of such +feelings. Sleep came not near my couch—while the hours +waned and waned away. I struggled to reason off the nervousness +which had dominion over me. I endeavored to believe that much, if +not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence of +the gloomy furniture of the room—of the dark and tattered +draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising +tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled +uneasily about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were +fruitless. An irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; +and, at length, there sat upon my very heart an incubus of +utterly causeless alarm. Shaking this off with a gasp and a +struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows, and, peering +earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber, +hearkened—I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit +prompted me—to certain low and indefinite sounds which +came, through the pauses of the storm, at long intervals, I knew +not whence. Overpowered by an intense sentiment of horror, +unaccountable yet unendurable, I threw on my clothes with haste +(for I felt that I should sleep no more during the night), and +endeavored to arouse myself from the pitiable condition into +which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly to and fro through the +apartment.</p> + +<p>I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a light step on +an adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently +recognized it as that of Usher. In an instant afterward he +rapped, with a gentle touch, at my door, and entered, bearing a +lamp. His countenance was, as usual, cadaverously wan—but, +moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in his +eyes—an evidently restrained <i>hysteria</i> in his whole +demeanor. His air appalled me—but anything was preferable +to the solitude which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed +his presence as a relief.</p> + +<p>“And you have not seen it?” he said abruptly, +after having stared about him for some moments in +silence—“you have not then seen it?—but, stay! +you shall.” Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded his +lamp, he hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely +open to the storm.</p> + +<p>The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from +our feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful +night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A +whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our vicinity; for +there were frequent and violent alterations in the direction of +the wind; and the exceeding density of the clouds (which hung so +low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did not prevent +our perceiving the life-like velocity with which they flew +careering from all points against each other, without passing +away into the distance. I say that even their exceeding density +did not prevent our perceiving this—yet we had no glimpse +of the moon or stars, nor was there any flashing forth of the +lightning. But the under surfaces of the huge masses of agitated +vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects immediately around us, +were glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly luminous and +distinctly visible gaseous exhalation which hung about and +enshrouded the mansion.</p> + +<p>“You must not—you shall not behold this!” +said I, shuddering, to Usher, as I led him, with a gentle +violence, from the window to a seat. “These appearances, +which bewilder you, are merely electrical phenomena not +uncommon—or it may be that they have their ghastly origin +in the rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this +casement;—the air is chilling and dangerous to your frame. +Here is one of your favorite romances. I will read, and you shall +listen:—and so we will pass away this terrible night +together.”</p> + +<p>The antique volume which I had taken up was the “Mad +Trist” of Sir Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a +favorite of Usher’s more in sad jest than in earnest; for, +in truth, there is little in its uncouth and unimaginative +prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty and +spiritual ideality of my friend. It was, however, the only book +immediately at hand; and I indulged a vague hope that the +excitement which now agitated the hypochondriac, might find +relief (for the history of mental disorder is full of similar +anomalies) even in the extremeness of the folly which I should +read. Could I have judged, indeed, by the wild overstrained air +of vivacity with which he hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to +the words of the tale, I might well have congratulated myself +upon the success of my design.</p> + +<p>I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where +Ethelred, the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for +peaceable admission into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to +make good an entrance by force. Here, it will be remembered, the +words of the narrative run thus:</p> + +<p>“And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and +who was now mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the +wine which he had drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with +the hermit, who, in sooth, was of an obstinate and maliceful +turn, but, feeling the rain upon his shoulders, and fearing the +rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace outright, and, with +blows, made quickly room in the plankings of the door for his +gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so +cracked, and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the +dry and hollow-sounding wood alarumed and reverberated throughout +the forest.”</p> + +<p>At the termination of this sentence I started and, for a +moment, paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once +concluded that my excited fancy had deceived me)—it +appeared to me that, from some very remote portion of the +mansion, there came, indistinctly to my ears, what might have +been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo (but a +stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping +sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It was, +beyond doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my +attention; for, amid the rattling of the sashes of the casements, +and the ordinary commingled noises of the still increasing storm, +the sound, in itself, had nothing, surely, which should have +interested or disturbed me. I continued the story:</p> + +<p>“But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the +door, was sore enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the +maliceful hermit; but, in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly +and prodigious demeanor, and of a fiery tongue, which sate in +guard before a palace of gold, with a floor of silver; and upon +the wall there hung a shield of shining brass with this legend +enwritten—</p> + +<center> +<table cellpadding="8" cellspacing="8" summary="verse"> +<tr> +<td>Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;<br> + Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +And Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the +dragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with +a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that +Ethelred had fain to close his ears with his hands against the +dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was never before +heard.” + +<p>Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild +amazement—for there could be no doubt whatever that, in +this instance, I did actually hear (although from what direction +it proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low and apparently +distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or +grating sound—the exact counterpart of what my fancy had +already conjured up for the dragon’s unnatural shriek as +described by the romancer.</p> + +<p>Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of this +second and most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand +conflicting sensations, in which wonder and extreme terror were +predominant, I still retained sufficient presence of mind to +avoid exciting, by any observation, the sensitive nervousness of +my companion. I was by no means certain that he had noticed the +sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange alteration +had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his demeanor. +From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought round +his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the chamber; +and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although I +saw that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. His +head had dropped upon his breast—yet I knew that he was not +asleep, from the wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a +glance of it in profile. The motion of his body, too, was at +variance with this idea—for he rocked from side to side +with a gentle yet constant and uniform sway. Having rapidly taken +notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of Sir Launcelot, +which thus proceeded:</p> + +<p>“And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible +fury of the dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and +of the breaking up of the enchantment which was upon it, removed +the carcass from out of the way before him, and approached +valorously over the silver pavement of the castle to where the +shield was upon the wall; which in sooth tarried not for his full +coming, but fell down at his feet upon the silver floor, with a +mighty great and terrible ringing sound.”</p> + +<p>No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than—as if +a shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon +a floor of silver—I became aware of a distinct, hollow, +metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled, reverberation. +Completely unnerved, I leaped to my feet; but the measured +rocking movement of Usher was undisturbed. I rushed to the chair +in which he sat. His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and +throughout his whole countenance there reigned a stony rigidity. +But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a strong +shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his +lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering +murmur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over +him, I at length drank in the hideous import of his words.</p> + +<p>“Not hear it?—yes, I hear it, and <i>have</i> +heard it. Long—long—long—many minutes, many +hours, many days, have I heard it—yet I dared not—oh, +pity me, miserable wretch that I am!—I dared not—I +<i>dared</i> not speak! <i>We have put her living in the +tomb!</i> Said I not that my senses were acute? I <i>now</i> tell +you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. +I heard them—many, many days ago—yet I dared +not—<i>I dared not speak!</i> And +now—to-night—Ethelred—ha! ha!—the +breaking of the hermit’s door, and the death-cry of the +dragon, and the clangor of the shield!—say, rather, the +rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her +prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the +vault! Oh! whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she +not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her +footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and +horrible beating of her heart? Madman!”—here he +sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as +if in the effort he were giving up his +soul—<i>“Madman! I tell you that she now stands +without the door!”</i></p> + +<p>As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been +found the potency of a spell, the huge antique panels to which +the speaker pointed threw slowly back, upon the instant, their +ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing +gust—but then without those doors there <i>did</i> stand +the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. +There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some +bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a +moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the +threshold—then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward +upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final +death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to +the terrors he had anticipated.</p> + +<p>From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The +storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself +crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a +wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could +have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind +me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red +moon which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible +fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof +of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I +gazed, this fissure rapidly widened—there came a fierce +breath of the whirlwind—the entire orb of the satellite +burst at once upon my sight—my brain reeled as I saw the +mighty walls rushing asunder—there was a long tumultuous +shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters—and the +deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over +the fragments of the “<i>House of Usher</i>.”<br> +</p> + +<hr> +<p class="noindent"><a name="1">*</a> Watson, Dr. Percival, +Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of Landaff.—See +“Chemical Essays,” vol. v.<br> +</p> + +<hr size="3" noshade> +</div> + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + +This file should be named usher10h.htm or usher10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, usher11h.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, usher10ha.txt + +This eBook was converted to HTML, with some additional editing, +by Jose Menendez from the text edition produced by Levent Kurnaz + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart [hart@pobox.com] + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + + diff --git a/old/usher10h.zip b/old/usher10h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cc0c33 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/usher10h.zip |