Classics Without All the Class discussion

Can't wait to read this! Please feel free to discuss your impressions here! (Feel free to start a new topic if you feel a discussion could use its own thread :) )

For effect, read it on a dark & stormy night.

GREAT story for October!

Ryan wrote: "For effect, read it on a dark & stormy night.


GREAT
story for October!"

I read while substitute teaching 11th graders. It has almost the same effect. lol

Ryan wrote: "For effect, read it on a dark & stormy night.

OMG I finally can read this book as we're about to have some dark and stormy nights!

oh! I need to get to this book already! I want to be freaked out! :)

Dammit! my audible version sucks! There are all these weird background "spooky noises" and I can't pay attention to what is actually being said! I've re-started it like 3 times. I might have to just find a copy and read it (omg!)!

Jeane wrote: "I might have to just find a copy and read it (omg!)!"

For some reason, I find that statement very humorous :)

Ryan wrote: "Jeane wrote: "I might have to just find a copy and read it (omg!)!"

For some reason, I find that statement very humorous :)"

lol Ryan! It is a bit humorous, but for those of you who don't know (Ryan knows ;P ) I have a 3 1/2 month old baby and I am in my first semester of grad school. So the only time I have to read read (like actual text in books) is taken up with reading school books, and sometimes I actually take a break and read regular books but that is pretty rare. So I listen to audiobooks whenever I can, and that is almost the total amount of recreational reading I get to do. While driving (cause my child isn't old enough to be talking to me nonstop), while walking my dogs, and if the baby is sleeping I will listen to them while doing chores (with one bud out of an ear so I can hear her if she wakes up).

Jeane wrote: "Dammit! my audible version sucks! There are all these weird background "spooky noises" and I can't pay attention to what is actually being said! I've re-started it like 3 times. I might have to jus..."

Jeane,

I paid the $2.95 for the audible edition. It is a collection of Poe that includes pretty much everything he's written. Not bad at all. It is read by Bob Tomley and I think he does a decent job.

Angie

I love how Poe almost always addresses the reader in his works. And, there is something very poetic about how The Fall of the House of Usher is written, and I don't mean to only reference the poem that is in the story. There are sentences throughout that are actually written in iambic pentameter, and some that even rhyme.

Now that I have read and listened to that story, I think I'm going to watch it. I saw that it is available on Demand, I think. Definitely a fun story to read this season!

Angie wrote: "Jeane wrote: "Dammit! my audible version sucks! There are all these weird background "spooky noises" and I can't pay attention to what is actually being said! I've re-started it like 3 times. I mig..."

Well I have my credits coming in just a couple more days, I might get this one http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?...

Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone narrating! awesome!

Oh, nevermind, I might not get that one cause some people are complinaing that some stories were abridged including the Fall of the House... So I might get the other one that you recommended Angie :) Although Vincent Price.........

Vincent Price sounds very tempting! But I think I would be annoyed by it being abridged as well... Such a dilemma!! :)

I found an audio copy on Spotify and it was actually ok to listen to (I generally have a hard time listening to audiobooks because I either get distracted or my kids want to pick that moment to talk). I have to say I kept thinking "this story is just screaming for Vincent Price" and then i read later that he indeed did a movie version! I might have to hunt it down. I liked this story. It (for once) had the right amount of detail, that didn't distract, but completely engulfed you into the story.

Ok so first I have to admit that I'm really judge mental but this story was just not for me. I really would appreciate if somebody defend it because I really didn't see why it is so good.

Kiss-koczka wrote: "Ok so first I have to admit that I'm really judge mental but this story was just not for me. I really would appreciate if somebody defend it because I really didn't see why it is so good."

Haha... I feel up to the challenge! Just kidding...

All I can really do is give you the reasons I enjoy the story. I like to be creeped out, and this story creeps me out. I'm not saying that it is the scariest story I've ever read... because it isn't. There are contemporary, creepy stories (primarily concerning zombies) that do a far better job of giving me the willies, but I think Mr. Poe does an excellent job of making the house itself feel alive... and haunted... or just plain evil...

Granted, I read this story... in the dark... at night... it was a good setting... plus, we are in the Halloween season. Again, I won't say it is the best story I've ever read (or even in the top 100 stories), but it did a sufficient job of entertaining me... by making me scared.

Ryan i appreciate the effort but to be honest the main reason I didn't really like this story is because of the effort that he made to describe tha house itself. It felt too much constantly referring to its evil appearance. (And sadly my English proved to be not good enough, so I had to look lots of words in the dictionary, so that didn't help either) to me sayin over and over again that it is evil and scary and haunted but only in a descriptional way not as part of the story makes it less scary ( I hope it makes any sense to you )
Ok I did not read it in a stormy night or anything, and as for a Halloween season, well I'm familiar with concept but we do a very different thing this time of the year, so that aspect was definitely missing for me.

I found this story to be incredibly difficult to read, I had to go back a few times only to realize he was saying the same thing (again describing the house and how creepy it looked and how creeped out he was looking at it) over and over again. Definitely not one of Poe's better stories in my opinion. I found the The Raven, and the Tell-Tale Heart are much better and well written scary stories.

Jeane wrote: "I found this story to be incredibly difficult to read, I had to go back a few times only to realize he was saying the same thing (again describing the house and how creepy it looked and how creeped..."
It was a same with me but i tought my english is not good enough, maybe some other time i will give Poe another chance but i don't think that will be any time soon

Ahhh... Tell-Tale Heart... my personal favorite and, in my opinion, one of Poe's best stories. I would certainly recommend that story over 'Usher'.

That being said, I find it easier to read 'Usher' as opposed to 'The Raven'. Narrative poetry just isn't my cup of tea, and, at least when I read the story, I don't seem to pick up on all the allusions that the reader is, evidently, supposed to pick up on.

Normally, I don't get into the Gothic Horror type of stories. In fact, I don't normally get into any of the "romances" or stories written in the literary romantic tradition. They're great stories in many cases; however, I find them difficult to read. Perhaps because 'Usher' is a short story, or perhaps because I am reading Poe in the right setting when I am in the appropriate mood, or perhaps as a reader, my tastes and palate are becoming broader as I am becoming older... for me, 'Usher' did an excellent job of creating fear and doom through his descriptive writing in this story.

I think this is in an instance where if I would have read the story in an earlier period of my life, I may not have appreciated the story as much... it's hard for me to tell. I hope that makes sense.

A bit late to the party, but I thought I would pick some low hanging fruit out of the way by catching up on the backlog of books. Luckily Free online copy and 22 pages of poetic horror are easy to tick off.

The enjoyable part of the House of Usher for myself was eloquence and flow of the text.

I have to mention apart from the Raven episode on the Simpsons this is my first "proper" reading of any of E.A.P's work. It has encouraged me to try and knock off a few other of his stories seeing as they'll be easy to finish.

Chris wrote: "A bit late to the party, but I thought I would pick some low hanging fruit out of the way by catching up on the backlog of books. Luckily Free online copy and 22 pages of poetic horror are easy to..."

I think that this is very interesting that many people who disliked (or just didn't get as much pleasure out of it as other E.A.P. stories) were people who have read some of his other stories. For instance I have read the Raven or course, and also The Tell Tale Heart, and The Mask of the Red Death. All I enjoyed greatly, and I found this story, meh. I wonder if I was introduced to E.A.P. stories first with this story if I would have a different, and possibly better view point.

I'm late to the game but I have added this to my reading list. I want to say that I have ad bits and pieces of this in school but I honestly don't remember.

Chris wrote: "A bit late to the party, but I thought I would pick some low hanging fruit out of the way by catching up on the backlog of books. Luckily Free online copy and 22 pages of poetic horror are easy to..."

Chris, I completely agree about The Fall of the House of Usher. There are points in the story righting that are poetic (and I'm not referring to the poem...). Full sentences are written in iambic pentameter, and his word choices are sometimes both horrific and beautiful. :)

Not sure what happened. I think that is what made it difficult for me. The sister situation and the ending are the parts I am not clear on. ANyone able to help out?

As for enjoyable moments...I think Poe is great at describing not only a scene or moment but bringing in reactionary descriptions a paranoid/creeped out person would have. Example: When he is reading the story about Lancelot and the dragon, and there is a cut-to scene to the room or environment replicating the sounds he read. These parts I enjoyed. It made me think of the (many) times I have been in my house alone hearing creaks and thuds. I get so creeped out I about crawl out of my own skin.

I do agree with @Jeane. I remember reading The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amantialldo in high school. I liked those much more. I don't know if it had to do with the way he wrote this one, but it was a bit difficult for me to follow.

Note: I just read this for my Classic Author and Catch up and Mustard Challenge. I will be reading much more of his works.

This was one of the first Poe stories I ever read, and it was back in high school and about the only thing I remember was that it was impressed upon us that they had an incestuous relationship. Just weird. Reading it this time around, I was more impressed with the descriptions of the house and was more curious about the narrator. After all, he's writing about how creepy it is while looking back in retrospect; how creepy was it REALLY when he first approached, and how much was because of his imagination later? And did the sister really crawl out of her tomb? I still don't quite understand what's supposed to have happened in the end.

But, being that it was a particularly stormy afternoon when I sat down to read it this time, it was rather deliciously creepy :)

Love it, love it, love it. But my favorites stories of his are the red death and the pit and the pendulum. I'm scared typing this up.

I don't remember the Red Death very much, but the Pit and the Pendulum is shiveringly creepy :)