This Edgar Allan Poe story is a masterpiece of the Gothic Horror genre. A man visits a childhood friend in his crumbling family mansion to help him cope with an acute attack of depression. An interdependent relationship exists between the friend, his twin sister and the house (some say a shared soul), which ends in the downfall of all three. The story’s most remarkable feature is the almost total lack of physical action. The feeling of terror and impending doom develops solely from Poe’s descriptions of setting, characters, and atmosphere. Themes: isolation, friendship, fear, madness, the supernatural.
Original Text / PDF / Audio (7,150 words)
Video Version
There have been several films made about this story over the years. However, because of the lack of “action” in the original, movie length adaptions have had to modify and extend the plot. This 30 minute video from Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation is the closest I have found to the Poe version. Watch and enjoy!