In the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allan Poe, the house itself is described in many words, which sets the gothic scene. The painting by Arthur Rackham in the book perfectly illustrates what I imagined the house would look like. At a quick glance the house gives me a scary and uneasy feeling, just as the narrator states, when he says, “I know not how it was—but, with …showed first 75 words of 440 total…

…showed last 75 words of 440 total…view of the melancholy House of Usher,” the narrator says in the opening line of the story. Poe gives a bit of leeway for the imagination, but the painting embodies the words that Poe wrote. The painting like the story itself gives a gloomy, scary, nervous and almost a sad feeling. So, I suppose that Poe did his job as a gothic writer and also Rackham did a great job of portraying Poe’s images.