The Fall of the House of Usher [and 8 Others]; in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine

Philadelphia: William E. Burton, 1839. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A annual volume (12 months, starting in July 1839 and ending June 1840). Contemporary 3/4 calf and marbled boards, binding worn, sporadic foxing throughout, but, otherwise, clean internally. Seven stories and poems by Poe, first appeared in these issues of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and 2 more are reprinted for the first time. They are:

"The Conversation of Eiros and Chairman"
"The Fall of the House of Usher" (September 1839)
"The Journal of Julius Rodman" (one chapter per issue; January-June 1840)
"The Man That Was Used Up" (August 1839)
"Peter Pendulum" aka "The Business Man" (February 1840)
"The Philosophy of Furniture" (May 1840)
"To——" (a variation of "Lines Written in an Album", 1835) (August 1839)
"To Ianthe in Heaven" (July 1839)
"William Wilson" (1st appeared in "The Gift [...] for 1840, September 1839 reprinted here October 1839)

The Fall of the House of Usher has all the essential features of the Gothic, a haunted house, dreary landscape, granite sky, inclement weather, mysterious sickness, and doubled personality. For all its Gothic elements, however, the terror of this story is its vagueness because we never know where or when it takes place (there are no narrative markers). The reader is alone with the narrator in this haunted space, and neither we nor the narrator know why. Although he is Roderick's most intimate boyhood friend, the narrator apparently does not know much about him—like the fact that Roderick has a twin sister. Poe asks us to question the reasons both for Roderick's decision to contact the narrator in this time of need and the bizarre tenacity of the narrator's response. While Poe provides the recognizable building blocks of the Gothic tale, he contrasts this standard form with a plot that is inexplicable, sudden, and full of unexpected disruptions. The story begins without complete explanation of the narrator's motives for arriving at the house of Usher, and this ambiguity sets the tone for a plot that continually blurs the real and the fantastic.