Midnight

• This article contains spoilers Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) is one of the most famous short stories in American literature.
• A tale of illness, psychosis and premature burial, the downfall of Roderick and Madeline Usher has horrified readers for generations.
• However, The Fall of the House of Usher incessantly remixes, grafts and merges references to Poe’s work to confusing effect.

Drowning in pointless references

• The references to Poe, which are initially fun and engaging to identify, quickly become exasperating and exhausting to endure.
• For example, the names of each of the Usher children – Frederick, Tamerlane, Victorine, Camille, Napoleon and Prospero – are taken from several tales and poems.
• These include “Metzingerstein,” “The Premature Burial,” “Tamerlane,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Spectacles,” and “The Masque of the Red Death.” Beyond featuring in these stories, these references largely lack real sense of purpose.

Two saving graces

• These episodes are similar in that they centre around the psychological disintegration and violent deaths of Napoleon and Victorine Usher.
• Like in Poe’s original tales, Napoleon and Victorine are plagued by their wrongdoings.
• Napoleon is tormented by a cat he gets to replace an identical-looking one he had accidentally killed.
• Driven to madness by the feline he goes on a destructive rampage and manages to kill himself.

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Dr Ahmed Honeini had received funding from the Society of Authors. He works for Royal Holloway, University of London and the Journal of American Studies. He is affiliated with the British Association for American Studies.