Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher"

[neonerd]

on one of the pages, he mentions a large amount of books. This is the paragraph i'm talking about:

Our books --the books which, for years, had formed no small portion of the mental existence of the invalid --were, as might be supposed, in strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We pored together over such works as the Ververt et Chartreuse of Gresset; the Belphegor of Machiavelli; the Heaven and Hell of Swedenborg; the Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm by Holberg; the Chiromancy of Robert Flud, of Jean D'Indagine, and of De la Chambre; the Journey into the Blue Distance of Tieck; and the City of the Sun of Campanella. One favourite volume was a small octavo edition of the Directorium Inquisitorum, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were passages in Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs and AEgipans, over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight, however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and curious book in quarto Gothic --the manual of a forgotten church --the Vigilae Mortuorum secundum Chorum Ecclesiae Maguntinae.

anybody know speicifically why he chose those books to mention? I assume he read his fair share of books in his day, but specifically chose those for a reason.

if you know anything, please post it

for those interested link to the whole story

 

[neonerd]

bump

<-- somewhat in a hurry

 

[AnitaPeterson]

They all deal in whole or in part with alchemy, magic, and remote or parallel worlds. They underline Usher's sense of alienation and his being outside the world as we know it. Didn't you ever read Lovecraft?

 

[neonerd]

Originally posted by: AnitaPeterson
Didn't you ever read Lovecraft?

ah, I'm afraid not

 

[AnitaPeterson]

If you like Poe's darker works, you'll appreciate Lovecraft. "It's a very strange world, that he dwells in..."

 

[Platypus]

haha English requirement

Amazing stuff though, glad they at least teach you Poe.

 

[neonerd]

Originally posted by: AnitaPeterson
If you like Poe's darker works, you'll appreciate Lovecraft. "It's a very strange world, that he dwells in..."

i'll take a look at it

 

[pennylane]

That's a good one. I don't remember the details unfortunately. But I had a good time reading it.

 

[chuckywang]

So people like you will read more into it and analyze stuff that doesn't matter.
Poe >>> neonerd.