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The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The Fall of the House
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Speaker 1: of Usher Edgar Allan Poe. During the whole of a dull,
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Speaker 1: dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year,
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Speaker 1: when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I
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Speaker 1: had been passing alone on horseback through a singularly dreary
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Speaker 1: tract of country, and at length found myself, as the
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Speaker 1: shades of the evening drew on within view of the
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Speaker 1: melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was,
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Speaker 1: but with the first glimpse of the building, a sense
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Speaker 1: of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable, for
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Speaker 1: the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half pleasurable,
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Speaker 1: because poetic sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even
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Speaker 1: the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I
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Speaker 1: looked upon the scene before me, upon the mere house
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Speaker 1: and the simple landscape features of the domain, upon the
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Speaker 1: bleak walls, upon the vacant eye like windows, upon a
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Speaker 1: few rank sedges, and upon a few white trunks of
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Speaker 1: decayed trees, with an utter depression of soul which I
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Speaker 1: can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to
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Speaker 1: the after dream of the reveler. Upon Opium, the bitter
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Speaker 1: lapse into every day life, the hideous dropping off of
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Speaker 1: the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening
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Speaker 1: of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought, which no
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Speaker 1: goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.
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Speaker 1: What was it, I paused to think, What was it
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Speaker 1: that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the house
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Speaker 1: of Usher. It was a mystery all insoluble. Nor could
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Speaker 1: I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me.
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Speaker 1: As I pondered, I was forced to fall back upon
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Speaker 1: the unsatisfactory conclusion that, while beyond doubt there are combinations
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Speaker 1: of very simple natural objects which have the power of
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Speaker 1: thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies
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Speaker 1: among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected,
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Speaker 1: that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene,
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Speaker 1: of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify,
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Speaker 1: or perhaps to annihilate, its capacity for sorrowful impression. And
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Speaker 1: acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the
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Speaker 1: precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay
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Speaker 1: in unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down but
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Speaker 1: with a shudder, even more thrilling than before, upon the
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Speaker 1: remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the
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Speaker 1: ghastly tree stems, and the vacant and eye like windows. Nevertheless,
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Speaker 1: in this mansion of gloom, I now proposed to myself
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Speaker 1: a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderic Usher, had
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Speaker 1: been one of my boon companions in boyhood, but many
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Speaker 1: years had elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however,
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Speaker 1: had lately reached me in a distant part of the country,
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Speaker 1: a letter from him, which, in its wildly importunate nature,
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Speaker 1: had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The
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Speaker 1: m s gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke
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Speaker 1: of acute bodily illness, of a mental disorder which oppressed him,
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Speaker 1: and of anurnest desire to see me as his best
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Speaker 1: and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting,
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Speaker 1: by the cheerfulness of my society some alleviation of his malady.
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Speaker 1: It was the manner in which all this and much
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Speaker 1: more was said. It was the apparent heart that went
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Speaker 1: with his request, which allowed me no room for hesitation,
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Speaker 1: and I accordingly obeyed forth with what I still considered
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Speaker 1: a very singular summons. Although as boys we had been
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Speaker 1: even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend.
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Speaker 1: His reserve had been always excessive and habitual. I was aware, however,
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Speaker 1: that his very ancient family had been noted time out
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Speaker 1: of mind for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, displaying itself
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Speaker 1: through long ages in many works of exalted art, and
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Speaker 1: manifested of late in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity,
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Speaker 1: as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies,
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Speaker 1: perhaps even more than to the orthodox and easily recognizable
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Speaker 1: beauties of music science. I had learned, too, the very
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Speaker 1: remarkable fact that the stem of the Usher race, all time,
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Speaker 1: honored as it was, had put forth at no period
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Speaker 1: any enduring branch. In other words, that the entire family
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Speaker 1: lay in the direct line of descent, and had always
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Speaker 1: with very trifling, in very temporary variation. So lain it
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Speaker 1: was this deficiency I considered, while running over in thought
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Speaker 1: the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with
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Speaker 1: the accredited character of the people, and while speculating upon
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Speaker 1: the possible influence which the one, in the long lapse
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Speaker 1: of centuries might have exercised upon the other. It was
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Speaker 1: this deficiency, perhaps of collateral issue, and the consequent undeviating
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Speaker 1: transmission from sire to son of the patrimony with the
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Speaker 1: name which had at length so identified the two as
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Speaker 1: to merge the original title of the estate in the
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Speaker 1: quaint and equivocal appellation of the House of Usher, an
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Speaker 1: appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the
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Speaker 1: peasantry who used it, both the family and the family mansion.
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Speaker 1: I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat
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Speaker 1: childish experiment, that of looking down within the tarn, had
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Speaker 1: been to deepen the first singular impression. There can be
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Speaker 1: no doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of
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Speaker 1: my superstition, for why should I not so term it,
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Speaker 1: serve mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such I have
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Speaker 1: long known is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having
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Speaker 1: terror as a basis, And it might have been for
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Speaker 1: this reason only that when I again uplifted my eyes
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Speaker 1: to the house itself from its image in the pool,
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Speaker 1: there grew in my mind a strange fancy, A fancy
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Speaker 1: so ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show
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Speaker 1: the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed me. I
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Speaker 1: had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe
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Speaker 1: that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an
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Speaker 1: atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity, an atmosphere
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Speaker 1: which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but
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Speaker 1: which had wreaked up from the decayed trees and the
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Speaker 1: gray wall and the silent tarn, a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish,
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Speaker 1: faintly discernible, and leaden hued. Shaking off from my spirit
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Speaker 1: what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly
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Speaker 1: the real aspect of the building. Its principal feature seemed
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Speaker 1: to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of
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Speaker 1: ages had been great. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior,
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Speaker 1: hanging in a fine tangled webwork from the eaves. Yet
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Speaker 1: all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion
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Speaker 1: of the masonry had fallen, and there appeared to be
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Speaker 1: a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts
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Speaker 1: and the crumbling condition of the individual stones. In this
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Speaker 1: there was much that reminded me of the specious totality
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Speaker 1: of old woodwork, which has rotted for long years in
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Speaker 1: some neglected vault with no disturbance from the breath of
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Speaker 1: the external air. Beyond this indication of extensive decay, however,
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Speaker 1: the fabric gave little token of instability. Perhaps the eye
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Speaker 1: of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered a barely perceptible
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Speaker 1: fissure which, extending from the roof of the building in front,
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Speaker 1: made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction
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Speaker 1: until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.
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Speaker 1: Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to
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Speaker 1: the house. A servant in waiting took my horse, and
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Speaker 1: I entered the gothic archway of the hall. A valet
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Speaker 1: of stealthy step thence conducted me in silence through many
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Speaker 1: dark and intricate passages. In my progress to the studio
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Speaker 1: of his master. Much that I encountered on the way contributed.
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Speaker 1: I know not how to heighten the vague sentiments of
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Speaker 1: which I have already spoken. While the objects around me,
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Speaker 1: while the carvings of the ceilings, the somber tapestries of
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Speaker 1: the walls, the ebb and blackness of the floors, and
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Speaker 1: the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode, were
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Speaker 1: but matters to which, or to such as which I
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Speaker 1: had been accustom from my infancy. While I hesitated not
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Speaker 1: to acknowledge how familiar was all this, I still wondered
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Speaker 1: to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images
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Speaker 1: were stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met
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Speaker 1: the physician of the family. His countenance, I thought, wore
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Speaker 1: a mingled expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted
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Speaker 1: me with trepidation, and passed on the valet. Now threw
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Speaker 1: open a door and ushered me into the presence of
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Speaker 1: his master. The room in which I found myself was
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Speaker 1: very large and lofty. The windows were long, narrow and pointed,
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Speaker 1: and at so vast a distance from the black oaken
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Speaker 1: floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams
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Speaker 1: of incrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes
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Speaker 1: and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects
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Speaker 1: around the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the
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Speaker 1: remoter angles of the chamber or the recesses of the
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Speaker 1: vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the walls.
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Speaker 1: The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many
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Speaker 1: books and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to
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Speaker 1: give any vitality to the scene. I felt that I
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Speaker 1: breathed an atmosphere of sorrow, an air of stern, deep
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Speaker 1: and irredeemable gloom, hung over and pervaded all. Upon my entrance.
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Speaker 1: Usher arose from a sofa on which he had been
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Speaker 1: lying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious
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Speaker 1: warmth which had much in it. I at first thought
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Speaker 1: of an overdone cordiality, of the constrained effort of the
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Speaker 1: anue man of the world. A glance, however, at his countenance,
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Speaker 1: convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down, and
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Speaker 1: for some moments while he spoke not I gazed upon
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Speaker 1: him with a feeling half of pity, half of all,
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Speaker 1: surely man had never before so terribly altered in so
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Speaker 1: brief a period as had Roderick Usher. It was with
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Speaker 1: difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity
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Speaker 1: of the one being before me with the companion of
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Speaker 1: my early boyhood. Yet the character of his face had
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Speaker 1: been at all times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion, an
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Speaker 1: eye large, liquid and luminous beyond comparison, lipped somewhat thin
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Speaker 1: and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve, a
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Speaker 1: nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth
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Speaker 1: of nostril unusual and similar formations, a finely molded chin
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Speaker 1: speaking in its want of prominence, of a want of
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Speaker 1: moral energy, hair of a more than weblike softness and tenuity.
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Speaker 1: These features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of
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Speaker 1: the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to
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Speaker 1: be forgotten. And now, in the mere exaggeration of the
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Speaker 1: prevailing character of these features and of the expression they
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Speaker 1: were wont to convey, lay so much of change that
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Speaker 1: I doubted to whom I spoke, the now ghastly pallor
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Speaker 1: of the skin, and the now miraculous luster of the
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Speaker 1: eye above all things startled and even awed me. The
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Speaker 1: silken hair, too had been suffered to grow all unheeded,
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Speaker 1: and as in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather
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Speaker 1: than fell about the face. I could not, even with effort,
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Speaker 1: connect its arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity.
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Speaker 1: In the manner of my friend, I was at once
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Speaker 1: struck with an incoherence, an inconsistency, and I soon found
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Speaker 1: this to arise from a series of feeble and feudal
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Speaker 1: struggles to overcome an habitual trepidency, an excessive nervous agitation
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Speaker 1: for something of this nature. I had indeed been prepared
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Speaker 1: no less by his letter than by reminiscences of certain
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Speaker 1: boyish traits, and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical
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Speaker 1: conformation and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and sullen.
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Speaker 1: His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision when the
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Speaker 1: animal spirit seemed utterly in abeyance, to that species of
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Speaker 1: energetic concision, that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow sounding in
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Speaker 1: unciation that leaden self balanced and perfectly modulated guttural utterance
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Speaker 1: which may be observed in a lost drunkard or the
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Speaker 1: irreclaimable eater of opium. During the periods of his most
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Speaker 1: intense excitement, it was thus that he spoke of the
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Speaker 1: object of my visit, of his earnest desire to see me,
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Speaker 1: and of the solace he expected me to afford him.
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Speaker 1: He entered at some length into what he conceived to
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Speaker 1: be the nature of his malady. It was, he said,
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Speaker 1: a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which
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Speaker 1: he despaired to find a remedy. A mere nervous affection,
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Speaker 1: he immediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It
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Speaker 1: displayed itself in a host of unnatural sensations. Some of these,
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Speaker 1: as he detailed them, interested and bewildered me. Although perhaps
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Speaker 1: the terms and the general manner of the narration had
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Speaker 1: their weight, He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of
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Speaker 1: the senses. The most insipid food was alone endurable. He
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Speaker 1: could wear only garments of certain texture. The odors of
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Speaker 1: all flowers were oppressive, His eyes were tortured by even
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Speaker 1: a faint light. And there were but peculiar sounds, and
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Speaker 1: these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him. With
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Speaker 1: horror to an anomalous species of terror, I found him
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Speaker 1: abounden slave. I shall perish, said he, I must perish
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Speaker 1: in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus and not otherwise, shall
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Speaker 1: I be lost. I dread the events of the future,
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Speaker 1: not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at
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Speaker 1: the thought of any even the most trivial incident, which
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Speaker 1: may operate upon this intolerable agitation of soul. I have
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Speaker 1: indeed no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect
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Speaker 1: in terror. In this unnerved, in this pitiable condition, I
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Speaker 1: feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when
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Speaker 1: I must abandon life and reason together in some struggle
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Speaker 1: with the grim phantasm fear, I learned moreover at intervals
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Speaker 1: and through broken and equivocal hints, another singular feature of
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Speaker 1: his mental condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions
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Speaker 1: in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence
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Speaker 1: for many years he had never ventured forth in regard
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Speaker 1: to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms
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Speaker 1: too shadowy here to be re stated, an influence which
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Speaker 1: some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his
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Speaker 1: family mansion, had, by dint of long sufferance, he said,
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Speaker 1: obtained over his spirit, an effect which the physique of
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Speaker 1: the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn
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Speaker 1: into which they all looked down, had at length brought
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Speaker 1: about upon the morale of his existence. He admitted, however,
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Speaker 1: although with hesitation, that much of the peculiar gloom which
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Speaker 1: thus afflicted him could be traced to a more natural
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Speaker 1: and far more palpable origin, to the severe and long
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Speaker 1: continued illness, indeed, to the evidently approaching dissolution of a
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Speaker 1: tenderly beloved sister, his sole companion for long years, his
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Speaker 1: last and only relative on birth. Her decease, he said,
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Speaker 1: with a bitterness which I can never forget, would leave
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Speaker 1: him him the hopeless and the frail, the last of
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Speaker 1: the ancient race of the Ushers. While he spoke, the
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Speaker 1: Lady Madeleine, for so was she called, passed slowly through
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Speaker 1: a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed
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Speaker 1: my presence, disappeared. I regarded her with an utter astonishment,
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Speaker 1: not unmingled with dread. And yet I found it impossible
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Speaker 1: to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed
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Speaker 1: me as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a
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Speaker 1: door at length closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively
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Speaker 1: and eagerly the countenance of the brother, But he had
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Speaker 1: buried his face in his hands, and I could only
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Speaker 1: perceive that a far more than ordinary oneness had overspread
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Speaker 1: the emaciated fingers through which trickled many passionate tears. The
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Speaker 1: disease of the lady Madeleine had long baffled the skill
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Speaker 1: of her physicians, a settled apathy, a gradual wasting away
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Speaker 1: of the person, and frequent, although transient affections of a
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Speaker 1: partially cataleptical character. The unusual diagnosis. Hitherto, she had steadily
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Speaker 1: borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had
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Speaker 1: not bade a ken herself finally to bed. But on
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Speaker 1: the closing in of the evening of my arrival at
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Speaker 1: the house, she succumbed, as her brother told me at night,
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Speaker 1: with inexpressible agitation, to the prostrating power of the destroyer.
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Speaker 1: And I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of
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Speaker 1: her person would thus probably be the last I should obtain.
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Speaker 1: That the lady, at least while living, would be seen
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Speaker 1: by me no more for several days, ensuing her name
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Speaker 1: was unmentioned by either Usher or myself. And during this
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Speaker 1: period I was busied in earnest endeavors to alleviate the
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Speaker 1: melancholy of my friend. We painted and read together, or
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Speaker 1: I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild
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Speaker 1: improvisations of his speaking guitar, and thus, as a closer
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Speaker 1: and still closer intimacy, admitted me more unreservedly into the
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Speaker 1: recesses of his spirit. The more bitterly did I perceive
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Speaker 1: the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from
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Speaker 1: which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth
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Speaker 1: upon all objects of the moral and physical universe in
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Speaker 1: one unceasing radiation of gloom. I shall ever bear about
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Speaker 1: me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus
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Speaker 1: spent alone with the Master of the House of Usher.
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Speaker 1: Yet I should fail in any attempt to convey an
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Speaker 1: idea of the exact character of the studies or of
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Speaker 1: the occupations in which he involved me, or led me
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Speaker 1: the way an excited and highly distempered ideality through a
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Speaker 1: sulfurious luster. Over All, his long improvised dirges will ring
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Speaker 1: forever in my years among other things I hold painfully
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Speaker 1: in mind, a certain singular perversion and amplification of the
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Speaker 1: wild air of the last Waltz of von Weber, from
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Speaker 1: the paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded, and which grew,
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Speaker 1: touch by touch into vaguenesses at which I shuddered, the
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Speaker 1: more thrillingly, because I shuddered, knowing not why from these paintings,
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Speaker 1: vivid as their images now are before me, I would,
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Speaker 1: in vain endeavor to reduce more than a small portion
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Speaker 1: which should lie within the compass of merely written words.
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Speaker 1: By the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs,
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Speaker 1: he arrested an overwrought attention, if ever mortal painted, an
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Speaker 1: idea that mortal was roderic usher for me, at least
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Speaker 1: in the circumstances then surrounding me. There arose out of
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Speaker 1: the pure abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon
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Speaker 1: his canvas, an intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of
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Speaker 1: which felt I ever yet, in the contemplation of the
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Speaker 1: certainly glowing yet two concrete reveries of Fusali, one of
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Speaker 1: the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking not so rigidly
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Speaker 1: of the spirit of abstraction may be shadowed forth, although
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Speaker 1: feebly in words. A small picture presented the interior of
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Speaker 1: an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls,
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Speaker 1: smooth white, and without interruption or device. Certain accessory points
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Speaker 1: of the design served well to convey the idea that
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Speaker 1: this excavation lay at an exceeding depth below the surface
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Speaker 1: of the earth. No outlet was observed in any portion
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Speaker 1: of its vast extent, and no torch or other artificial
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Speaker 1: source of light was discernible. Yet a flood of intense
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Speaker 1: rays rolled throughout and bathed the whole in a ghastly
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Speaker 1: and inappropriate splendor. I have just spoken of that morbid
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Speaker 1: condition of the auditory nerve, which rendered all music intolerable
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Speaker 1: to the suffer, with the exception of certain effects of
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Speaker 1: stringed instruments. It was perhaps the narrow limits to which
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Speaker 1: he thus confined himself upon the guitar, which gave birth
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Speaker 1: in great measure to the fantastic character of his performances.
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Speaker 1: But the fervid facility of his impromptus could not be
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Speaker 1: so accounted, for they must have been, and were in
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Speaker 1: the notes as well as in the words of his
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Speaker 1: wild fantasias, for he not unfrequently accompanied himself with rhymed
19:49
Speaker 1: verbal improvisations, the result of that intense mental collectedness and
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Speaker 1: concentration to which I have previously alluded, as observable only
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Speaker 1: in particular moments of the highest artificial excit the words
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Speaker 1: of one of these rhapsodies I have easily remembered. I
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Speaker 1: was perhaps the more forcibly impressed with it as he
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Speaker 1: gave it, because in the under or mystic current of
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Speaker 1: its meaning, I fancied that I perceived, and for the
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Speaker 1: first time, a full consciousness on the part of Usher,
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Speaker 1: of the tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne.
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Speaker 1: The verses which were entitled the Haunted Palace ran very nearly,
20:25
Speaker 1: if not accurately. Thus I, in the greenest of our valleys,
20:29
Speaker 1: by good angels tenanted, once a fair and stately palace,
20:33
Speaker 1: radiant palace reared its head in the monarch thoughts dominion
20:37
Speaker 1: it stood. There never sareah spread opinion over fabric half
20:42
Speaker 1: so fair. Two banner's yellow, glorious golden on its roof
20:48
Speaker 1: did float and flow. This all this was in the
20:51
Speaker 1: olden time, long ago, and every gentle air that dallied
20:55
Speaker 1: in that sweet day along the ramparts, plumed and pallid,
20:58
Speaker 1: a winged odor went away. Free Wanderers in that happy
21:03
Speaker 1: valley through two luminous windows saw spirits moving musically to
21:06
Speaker 1: a lute's well tuned law, round about a throne, where
21:09
Speaker 1: sitting Porphyrygine in state, his glory well befitting the ruler
21:14
Speaker 1: of the realm was seen. Four and all with pearl
21:19
Speaker 1: and ruby glowing was the fair palace door, through which
21:22
Speaker 1: came flowing, flowing, flowing, and sparkling evermore, a troop of echoes,
21:27
Speaker 1: whose sweet duty was but to sing in voices of
21:30
Speaker 1: surpassing beauty, the wit and wisdom of their king. The
21:35
Speaker 1: but evil things in roads of sorrow assailed the monarch's
21:38
Speaker 1: high estate. Ah let us mourn, for never morrow shall
21:42
Speaker 1: dawn upon him, desolate and round about his home. The
21:47
Speaker 1: glory that blushed and bloomed is but a dim remembered
21:49
Speaker 1: story of the old time entombed. Six and travelers now
21:55
Speaker 1: within that valley, through the red litten windows see vast
21:58
Speaker 1: forms that move fantastically to a discordant melody, while like
22:02
Speaker 1: a rapid, ghastly river through the pale door a hideous throng,
22:05
Speaker 1: rush out forever and laugh, but smile no more. I
22:10
Speaker 1: well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad led us
22:13
Speaker 1: into a train of thought, wherein there became manifest an
22:16
Speaker 1: opinion of ushers, which I mention not so much on
22:18
Speaker 1: account of its novelty, for other men Asterisk have thought thus,
22:22
Speaker 1: as on account of the pergnacity with which he maintained it.
22:26
Speaker 1: This opinion, in its general form was that of the
22:28
Speaker 1: sentience of all vegetable things. But in his disordered fancy,
22:33
Speaker 1: the idea had assumed a more daring character, and trespast
22:37
Speaker 1: under certain conditions upon the kingdom of inorganization. I lack
22:41
Speaker 1: words to express the full extent or the earnest abandon
22:45
Speaker 1: of his persuasion. The belief, however, was connected, as I
22:49
Speaker 1: have previously hinted, with the gray stones of the home
22:52
Speaker 1: of his forefathers. The conditions of the sentience have been here,
22:56
Speaker 1: he imagined, fulfilled in the method of collocation of these
23:00
Speaker 1: in the order of their arrangement, as well as in
23:03
Speaker 1: that of the many fungi which overspread them, and of
23:05
Speaker 1: the decayed trees which stood around above all in the
23:09
Speaker 1: long undisturbed endurance of this arrangement, and in its reduplication
23:13
Speaker 1: in the still waters of the Tarn, its evidence, the
23:17
Speaker 1: evidence of the sentience, was to be seen, he said,
23:20
Speaker 1: And I here started, as he spoke, in the gradual
23:23
Speaker 1: yet certain condensation of an atmosphere of their own about
23:26
Speaker 1: the waters and the walls. The result was discoverable, he added,
23:31
Speaker 1: in that silent, yet importunate and terrible influence which for
23:34
Speaker 1: centuries had molded the destinies of his family, and which
23:37
Speaker 1: made him what I now saw him, what he was.
23:41
Speaker 1: Such opinions need no comment, and I will make none.
23:45
Speaker 1: Astoris Watson, doctor Percival Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of
23:50
Speaker 1: landaf Dot see Chemical Essays vol v Our books. The
23:56
Speaker 1: books which for years had formed no small portion of
24:00
Speaker 1: the mental existence of the invalid, were, as might be supposed,
24:04
Speaker 1: in strict keeping with this character of Phanfasm. We poured
24:08
Speaker 1: together over such works as the Ververdidi Chartruse of Gresset,
24:11
Speaker 1: the Belfegor of Machiavelli, the Heaven and Hell of Speedenborg,
24:15
Speaker 1: the subterranean Voyage of Nicholas klem by Halberg, the Chiromancy
24:19
Speaker 1: of Robert Flood of Gene Dindigen and of de la Chamber,
24:23
Speaker 1: the Journey into the Blue Distance of tik and the
24:26
Speaker 1: City of the Sun of Campanella. One favorite volume was
24:30
Speaker 1: a small octavo edition of the Directorium Inquisitorium by the
24:34
Speaker 1: Dominican Eymeric de Gerran, and there were passages in Pomponius
24:37
Speaker 1: Mela about the old African sadders and ogipans, over which
24:41
Speaker 1: Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight, however,
24:46
Speaker 1: was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and
24:48
Speaker 1: curious book in Quardo Gothic, the Manual of a forgotten Church,
24:52
Speaker 1: the Vigilia Mortuorum Secundum Choram Ecclesi Magatini. I could not
24:57
Speaker 1: help thinking of the wild ritual of this work and
25:00
Speaker 1: of its probable influence upon the hypochondriac. When one evening,
25:04
Speaker 1: having informed me abruptly that the Lady Madeleine was no more,
25:07
Speaker 1: he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a
25:10
Speaker 1: fortnight previously to its final interment in one of the
25:14
Speaker 1: numerous vaults within the main walls of the building. The
25:18
Speaker 1: worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular proceeding, was one
25:22
Speaker 1: which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. The
25:25
Speaker 1: brother had been led to his resolution, so he told me,
25:28
Speaker 1: by consideration of the unusual character of the malady of
25:31
Speaker 1: the deceased, of certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the
25:34
Speaker 1: part of her medical men, and of the remote and
25:36
Speaker 1: exposed situation of the burial ground of the family, I
25:40
Speaker 1: will not deny that, when I call to mind the
25:42
Speaker 1: sinister countenance of the person whom I met upon the
25:45
Speaker 1: staircase on the day of my arrival at the house,
25:48
Speaker 1: I had no desire to oppose what I regarded as
25:50
Speaker 1: at best but a harmless and by no means an
25:52
Speaker 1: unnatural precaution. At the request of Usher, I personally aided
25:57
Speaker 1: him in the arrangements for the temporary entumens. The body
26:01
Speaker 1: having been encoffined, we two alone bore it to its rest.
26:05
Speaker 1: The vault in which we placed it, and which had
26:08
Speaker 1: been so long unopened that our torches, half smothered in
26:11
Speaker 1: its oppressive atmosphere, gave us little opportunity for investigation, was small, damp,
26:16
Speaker 1: and entirely without means of admission for light. Lying at
26:20
Speaker 1: great depth immediately beneath that portion of the building in
26:24
Speaker 1: which was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used,
26:27
Speaker 1: apparently in remote feudal times for the worst purposes of
26:31
Speaker 1: a dungeon keep, and in later days as a place
26:34
Speaker 1: of deposit for powder or some other highly combustible substance.
26:38
Speaker 1: As a portion of its floor and the whole interior
26:42
Speaker 1: of a long archway through which we reached it were
26:44
Speaker 1: carefully sheathed with copper. The door of massive iron had
26:49
Speaker 1: been also similarly protected. Its immense weight caused an unusually
26:54
Speaker 1: sharp grating sound as it moved upon its hinges. Having
26:59
Speaker 1: deposited our mournful burden upon trestles within this region of horror,
27:03
Speaker 1: we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the
27:05
Speaker 1: coffin and looked upon the face of the tenant. A
27:09
Speaker 1: striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested
27:12
Speaker 1: my attention. An usher divining perhaps my thoughts, murmured out
27:17
Speaker 1: some few words, from which I learned that the deceased
27:19
Speaker 1: and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a
27:22
Speaker 1: scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them. Our glances, however,
27:28
Speaker 1: rested not long upon the dead, for we could not
27:30
Speaker 1: regard her una wet. The disease which had thus entombed
27:34
Speaker 1: the lady in the maturity of youth, had left, as
27:37
Speaker 1: usual in all maladies of a strictly cataleptical character, the
27:40
Speaker 1: mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and the face,
27:44
Speaker 1: and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip, which is
27:47
Speaker 1: so terrible in death. We replaced and screwed down the lid,
27:52
Speaker 1: and having secured the door of iron, made our way
27:55
Speaker 1: with toil into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of the
27:58
Speaker 1: upper portion of the house. And now some days of
28:02
Speaker 1: bitter grief having elapsed, an observable change came over the
28:06
Speaker 1: features of the mental disorder of my friend. His ordinary
28:09
Speaker 1: manner had vanished, his ordinary occupations were neglected or forgotten.
28:15
Speaker 1: He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal and
28:19
Speaker 1: objectless step. The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible,
28:24
Speaker 1: a more ghastly hue, but the luminousness of his eye
28:27
Speaker 1: had utterly gone out. The once occasional huskiness of his
28:30
Speaker 1: tone was heard no more, and a tremulous quaver, as
28:34
Speaker 1: if of extreme terror, habitually characterized his utterance. There were times, indeed,
28:40
Speaker 1: when I thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with
28:43
Speaker 1: some oppressive secret to divulge, which he struggled for the
28:46
Speaker 1: necessary courage. At times, again, I was obliged to resolve
28:51
Speaker 1: all into the mere, inexplicable vagaries of madness. For I
28:54
Speaker 1: beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an
28:57
Speaker 1: attitude of the profoundest attention, as if little listening to
29:00
Speaker 1: some imaginary sound. It was no wonder that his condition
29:04
Speaker 1: terrified that it infected me. I felt creeping upon me,
29:08
Speaker 1: by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of his
29:12
Speaker 1: own fantastic yet impressive superstitions. It was especially upon retiring
29:18
Speaker 1: to bed late in the night of the seventh or
29:20
Speaker 1: eighth day after the placing of the Lady Madeleine within
29:22
Speaker 1: the dungeon, that I experienced the full power of such feelings.
29:27
Speaker 1: Sleep came not near my couch. While the hours waned
29:30
Speaker 1: and waned away. I struggled to reason off the nervousness
29:34
Speaker 1: which had dominion over me. I endeavored to believe that much,
29:38
Speaker 1: if not all, of what I felt, was due to
29:40
Speaker 1: the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of the room,
29:43
Speaker 1: of the dark and tattered draperies, which tortured into motion
29:47
Speaker 1: by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to
29:50
Speaker 1: and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the
29:53
Speaker 1: decorations of the bed. But my efforts were fruitless. An
29:58
Speaker 1: irrepressible tremor gradually pervailed my frame, and at length there
30:02
Speaker 1: sat upon my very heart and incubus of utterly causeless alarm.
30:07
Speaker 1: Shaking this off with a gasp and a struggle, I
30:09
Speaker 1: uplifted myself upon the pillows, and, peering earnestly within the
30:13
Speaker 1: intense darkness of the chamber, hearkened. I know not why,
30:17
Speaker 1: except that an instinctive spirit prompted me to certain low
30:20
Speaker 1: and indefinite sounds, which came through the pauses of the
30:23
Speaker 1: storm at long intervals. I knew not whence, overpowered by
30:28
Speaker 1: an intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable yet unendurable, I threw
30:32
Speaker 1: on my clothes with haste, for I felt that I
30:34
Speaker 1: should sleep no more during the night, and endeavored to
30:37
Speaker 1: arouse myself from the pitiable condition into which I had fallen,
30:40
Speaker 1: by pacing rapidly to and fro through the apartment. I
30:44
Speaker 1: had taken but few turns in this manner. When a
30:46
Speaker 1: light step on an adjoining staircase arrested my attention, I
30:50
Speaker 1: presently recognized it as that of Usher in an instant afterward,
30:55
Speaker 1: he rapped with a gentle touch at my door, and
30:58
Speaker 1: entered bearing a lamp. His countenance was as usual cadaverously wan,
31:04
Speaker 1: but moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in
31:07
Speaker 1: his eyes, and evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor.
31:12
Speaker 1: His air appalled me, but anything was preferable to the
31:15
Speaker 1: solitude which I had so long endured, And I even
31:18
Speaker 1: welcomed his presence as a relief. And you have not
31:21
Speaker 1: seen it, he said abruptly, after having stared about him
31:25
Speaker 1: for some moments in silence. You have not then seen it.
31:29
Speaker 1: But stay you shall. Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded
31:34
Speaker 1: his lamp, he hurried to one of the casements and
31:37
Speaker 1: threw it freely open to the storm. The impetuous fury
31:41
Speaker 1: of the entering gust nearly lifted us from our feet.
31:45
Speaker 1: It was, indeed a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and
31:49
Speaker 1: one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A
31:53
Speaker 1: whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our vicinity, for
31:56
Speaker 1: there were frequent and violent alterations in the direction of
31:59
Speaker 1: the wind, and the exceeding density of the clouds, which
32:03
Speaker 1: hung so low as to press upon the turrets of
32:05
Speaker 1: the house, did not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity
32:08
Speaker 1: with which they flew, careering from all points against each other,
32:11
Speaker 1: without passing away into the distance. I say that even
32:15
Speaker 1: their exceeding density did not prevent our perceiving this. Yet
32:19
Speaker 1: we had no glimpse of the moon or stars, nor
32:21
Speaker 1: was there any flashing forth of the lightning. But the
32:25
Speaker 1: under surfaces of the huge masses of agitated vapor, as
32:28
Speaker 1: well as all terrestrial objects immediately around us, were glowing
32:32
Speaker 1: in the unnatural light of a faintly luminous and distinctly
32:34
Speaker 1: visible gaseous exhalation, which hung about and enshrouded the mansion.
32:39
Speaker 1: You must not, you shall not behold this, said I
32:43
Speaker 1: shudderingly to Usher, as I led him with a gentle
32:47
Speaker 1: violence from the window to a seat. These appearances which
32:51
Speaker 1: bewilder you are merely electrical phenomenon, not uncommon. Or it
32:55
Speaker 1: may be that they have their ghastly origin in the
32:57
Speaker 1: rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this casement.
33:01
Speaker 1: The air is chilling and dangerous to your frame. Here
33:05
Speaker 1: is one of your favorite romances. I will read, and
33:09
Speaker 1: you shall listen, and so we will pass away this
33:11
Speaker 1: terrible night together. The antique volume which I had taken
33:15
Speaker 1: up was The Mad Tryst of Sir Launcelot Canning. But
33:18
Speaker 1: I had called it a favorite of ushers more in
33:20
Speaker 1: sad jest than in earnest, For in truth there is
33:24
Speaker 1: little in its uncouth and unimaginative perlixity which could have
33:27
Speaker 1: had interest for the lofty and spiritual ideality of my friend.
33:31
Speaker 1: It was, however, the only book immediately at hand, and
33:35
Speaker 1: I indulged a vague hope that the excitement which now
33:37
Speaker 1: agitated the hypochondriac might find relief, For the history of
33:41
Speaker 1: mental disorder is full of similar anomalies. Even in the
33:44
Speaker 1: extremeness of the folly which I should read. Could I
33:48
Speaker 1: have judged indeed, by the wild, overstrained air of vivacity
33:52
Speaker 1: with which he hearkened, or apparently hearkened to the words
33:55
Speaker 1: of the tale, I might well have congratulated myself upon
33:58
Speaker 1: the success of my design. I had arrived at that
34:01
Speaker 1: well known portion of the story where Ethel read, the
34:04
Speaker 1: hero of the Tryst, having sought in vain for peaceable
34:07
Speaker 1: admission into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to make
34:10
Speaker 1: good an entrance by force. Here it will be remembered
34:14
Speaker 1: the words of the narrative run thus, and Ethel Read,
34:17
Speaker 1: who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who
34:19
Speaker 1: was now mighty withal on account of the powerfulness of
34:22
Speaker 1: the wine which he had drunken, waited no longer to
34:24
Speaker 1: hold parley with the hermit, who in sooth was of
34:27
Speaker 1: an obstinate and maliceful turn. But feeling the rain upon
34:32
Speaker 1: his shoulders, and fearing the rising of the tempest, uplifted
34:35
Speaker 1: his mace outright, and with blows made quickly room in
34:39
Speaker 1: the plankings of the door for his gauntlet hand, And
34:41
Speaker 1: now pulling therewith sturdily, he so cracked and ripped and
34:45
Speaker 1: tore all asunder that the noise of the dry and
34:48
Speaker 1: hollow sounding would alarumed and reverberated throughout the forest. At
34:53
Speaker 1: the termination of this sentence, I started, and for a
34:55
Speaker 1: moment paused, for it appeared to me, although I at
34:58
Speaker 1: once concluded that my excited fancy had deceived me. It
35:02
Speaker 1: appeared to me that from some very remote portion of
35:04
Speaker 1: the mansion there came, indistinctly to my ears, what might
35:09
Speaker 1: have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo,
35:13
Speaker 1: but a stifled and dull one, certainly of the very
35:16
Speaker 1: cracking and ripping sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described.
35:21
Speaker 1: It was beyond doubt the coincidence alone which had arrested
35:25
Speaker 1: my attention. For amid the rattling of the sashes of
35:28
Speaker 1: the casements and the ordinary commingled noises of the still
35:31
Speaker 1: increasing storm, the sound in itself had nothing surely which
35:35
Speaker 1: should have interested or disturbed me. I continued the story.
35:40
Speaker 1: But the good champion ethel Read, now entering within the door,
35:43
Speaker 1: was sore, enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of
35:46
Speaker 1: the maliceful hermit. But in the stead thereof a dragon
35:50
Speaker 1: of a scaly and prodigious demeanor, and of a fiery tongue,
35:53
Speaker 1: which Satan guard before a palace of gold with a
35:56
Speaker 1: floor of silver, And upon the wall there hung a
35:59
Speaker 1: shield of shop dining brass with this legend, and written,
36:02
Speaker 1: who entereth herein a conqueror hath been who slayeth the dragon,
36:06
Speaker 1: the shield he shall win. And Ethelred uplifted his mace
36:09
Speaker 1: and struck upon the head of the dragon, which fell
36:12
Speaker 1: before him, and gave up his pesty breath with a
36:14
Speaker 1: shriek so horrid and harsh and withal so piercing that
36:19
Speaker 1: Ethelred had fained to close his ears with his hands
36:21
Speaker 1: against the dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was
36:24
Speaker 1: never before heard. Here Again, I paused abruptly, and now
36:29
Speaker 1: with a feeling of wild amazement, for there could be
36:31
Speaker 1: no doubt whatever that in this instance I did actually hear,
36:35
Speaker 1: although from what direction it proceeded, I found it impossible
36:38
Speaker 1: to say, a low and apparently distant, but harsh, protracted,
36:43
Speaker 1: and most unusual screaming or grating sound, the exact counterpart
36:47
Speaker 1: of what my fancy had already conjured up for the
36:49
Speaker 1: dragon's unnatural shriek as described by the romancer. Oppressed as
36:54
Speaker 1: I certainly was upon the occurrence of this second and
36:57
Speaker 1: most extraordinary coincidence by a thousand conflicting sensations in which
37:02
Speaker 1: wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained sufficient
37:05
Speaker 1: presence of mind to avoid exciting by any observation the
37:09
Speaker 1: sensitive nervousness of my companion, I was by no means
37:13
Speaker 1: certain that he had noticed the sounds in question, although
37:16
Speaker 1: assuredly a strange alteration had, during the last few minutes
37:20
Speaker 1: taken place in his demeanor. From a position fronting my own,
37:25
Speaker 1: he had gradually brought round his chair so as to
37:27
Speaker 1: sit with his face to the door of the chamber,
37:29
Speaker 1: and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although
37:33
Speaker 1: I saw that his lips trembled as if he were
37:34
Speaker 1: murmuring inaudibly. His head had dropped upon his breast. Yet
37:39
Speaker 1: I knew that he was not asleep from the wide
37:41
Speaker 1: and rigid opening of the eye, as I caught a
37:43
Speaker 1: glance of it in profile. The motion of his body,
37:47
Speaker 1: too was at variance with this idea, for he rocked
37:50
Speaker 1: from side to side with a gentle, yet constant and
37:52
Speaker 1: uniform sway. Having rapidly taken notice of all this, I
37:57
Speaker 1: resumed the narrative of Sir Launcelot, which thus proceeded. And
38:01
Speaker 1: now the champion, having escaped from the terrible fury of
38:04
Speaker 1: the dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield and of
38:07
Speaker 1: the breaking up of the enchantment which was upon it,
38:10
Speaker 1: removed the carcass from out of the way before him,
38:13
Speaker 1: and approached valorously over the silver pavement of the castle
38:16
Speaker 1: to where the shield was upon the wall, which, in
38:19
Speaker 1: sooth tarried not for his full coming, but fell down
38:21
Speaker 1: at his feet upon the silver floor with a mighty,
38:24
Speaker 1: great and terrible ringing sound. No sooner had these syllables
38:28
Speaker 1: passed my lips than as if a shield of brass
38:31
Speaker 1: had indeed, at the moment fallen heavily upon a floor
38:35
Speaker 1: of silver. I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic
38:38
Speaker 1: and clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely unnerved, I leaped
38:44
Speaker 1: to my feet, but the measured rocking movement of usher
38:47
Speaker 1: was undisturbed. I rushed to the chair in which he sat.
38:52
Speaker 1: His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and throughout his
38:55
Speaker 1: whole countenance there rained a stony rigidity. But as I
38:59
Speaker 1: placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a strong
39:02
Speaker 1: shudder over his whole person. A sickly smile quivered about
39:05
Speaker 1: his lips, and I saw that he spoke in a low,
39:07
Speaker 1: hurried and gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence,
39:12
Speaker 1: bending closely over him, I at length drank in the
39:15
Speaker 1: hideous import of his words. Not hear it? Yes, I
39:20
Speaker 1: hear it, and have heard it long, long, long, many minutes,
39:25
Speaker 1: many hours, many days. Have I heard it? Yet I
39:28
Speaker 1: dared not. Oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am.
39:32
Speaker 1: I dared not. I dared not speak. We have put
39:36
Speaker 1: her living in the tomb, said I, not that my
39:38
Speaker 1: senses were acute. I now tell you that I heard
39:42
Speaker 1: her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard
39:46
Speaker 1: them many many days ago. Yet I dared not. I
39:49
Speaker 1: dared not speak. And now to night ethel read ha ha,
39:55
Speaker 1: the breaking of the hermit's door, and the death cry
39:58
Speaker 1: of the dragon, and the clanger of the shield. Say rather,
40:02
Speaker 1: the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the
40:05
Speaker 1: iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the
40:07
Speaker 1: coppered archway of the vault. Oh, whither shall I fly?
40:12
Speaker 1: Will she not be here? Anon? Is she not hurrying
40:15
Speaker 1: to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard
40:18
Speaker 1: her footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that
40:22
Speaker 1: heavy and horrible beating of her heart? Madman? Here he
40:27
Speaker 1: sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables,
40:30
Speaker 1: as if in the effort he were giving up his soul. Madman,
40:34
Speaker 1: I tell you that she now stands without the door,
40:38
Speaker 1: as if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there
40:40
Speaker 1: had been found the potency of a spell. The huge
40:43
Speaker 1: antique panels to which the speaker pointed threw slowly back
40:47
Speaker 1: upon the instant their ponderous and ebony jaws. It was
40:51
Speaker 1: the work of the rushing gust. But then without those
40:53
Speaker 1: doors there did stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of
40:56
Speaker 1: the lady Madeleine. An usher. There was blood upon her,
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Speaker 1: her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle
41:03
Speaker 1: upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment
41:07
Speaker 1: she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold. Then,
41:11
Speaker 1: with a low, moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the
41:14
Speaker 1: person of her brother, and in her violent and now
41:16
Speaker 1: final death, Agonies bore him to the floor, a corpse
41:19
Speaker 1: and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated. From
41:23
Speaker 1: that chamber, and from that mansion. I fled aghast. The
41:27
Speaker 1: storm was still abroad in all its wrath, as I
41:29
Speaker 1: found myself crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along
41:34
Speaker 1: the path of wild light, and I turned to see
41:36
Speaker 1: whence a gleam so unusual could have issued For the
41:39
Speaker 1: vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The
41:43
Speaker 1: radiance was that of the full setting and blood red moon,
41:46
Speaker 1: which now shone vividly through that once barely discernible fissure
41:50
Speaker 1: of which I have before spoken as extending from the
41:52
Speaker 1: roof of the building in a zigzag direction to the base.
41:57
Speaker 1: While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened that there came
42:00
Speaker 1: a fierce breath of the whirlwind. The entire orb of
42:03
Speaker 1: the satellite burst at once upon my sight. My brain
42:06
Speaker 1: reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder. There
42:09
Speaker 1: was a long, tumultuous shouting, sound like the voice of
42:11
Speaker 1: a thousand waters, and the deep and dank tarn at
42:14
Speaker 1: my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of
42:18
Speaker 1: the House of Usher.