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Post by andydecker on Mar 24, 2020 11:07:01 GMT
Marie Kiraly - Madeline After the Fall of Usher (Berkley Books, 1996, 400 p.)
In Edgar Allan Poe's masterpiece 'The Fall of the House of Usher' spellbound readers were introduced to a brother and sister unlike any in literature. Cursed by a terrible, tainted bloodline, Roderick and Madeline Usher surrendered to their most unnatural passions – passions that led the tortured man to seal his own sister, alive, in a stone crypt.
What really happened that fateful night? What was the unspoken secret that cursed the family for generations? In this brilliant historical novel, Marie Kiraly takes us back in time – to a dark and lonely night when a writer names Edgar Allan Poe receives a mysterious visitor. Her name is Pamela, and her son has been stolen away by a member of her husband's family. They are descendants of the infamous Ushers, whose strange history inspired Poe's most chilling tale. Moved by the mother's loss, Poe agrees to help Pamela. This begins his own descent into the maelstrom, where the master storyteller comes face-to-face with the woman he immortalized … and learns that Madeline's secret is as dark and twisted as the House of Usher itself. Marie Kiraly is a pseudonym for Elaine Bergstrom, who wrote a couple of vampire novels. Her contributions to Ravenloft – anybody remember these? – were quite good for a games novelisation. Also her sequel to Dracula Mina is not bad. I got it cheap and never read it. It is 400 pages of small print, and I just couldn't muster the energy. Still the premise is interesting, and it can't be that disappointing as Ellen Datlow's anthology Poe. Or the godawful Poe movie where he hunts a serial-killer. On the other hand, this is mostly told from the first person perspective of Poe himself, so it could be a trainwreck. Seems that Berkley was not really sure how to present this. As if it can't decide if it wants to be a Gothic or a Horror novel.
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Post by helrunar on Mar 24, 2020 12:19:02 GMT
The house on the cover looks more like the Addams Family house which is more or less in the US version of the popular Victorian "Queen Anne" style... the House of Usher must have been, from what Poe says in the tale, a 16th century (or earlier) stone monstrosity. I really like the art of Charles Addams which the cover evokes, however.
cheers, Steve
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Post by andydecker on Mar 24, 2020 19:15:48 GMT
The house on the cover looks more like the Addams Family house which is more or less in the US version of the popular Victorian "Queen Anne" style... the House of Usher must have been, from what Poe says in the tale, a 16th century (or earlier) stone monstrosity. I really like the art of Charles Addams which the cover evokes, however. cheers, Steve You should see the cover of the ebook-version of Grant's The Curse. The same motive, but looking like a screenshot of a 90s PC game.
I don't have the Poe at hand. I always wondered if the story is supposed to happen in America or if this was intended to be Europe. The genre likes its sequels, but as far as Usher is concerned I know only two from the top of my head. This one and the one by Robert McCammon. Any other?
Addams still is funny.
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Post by Dr Strange on Mar 24, 2020 20:13:58 GMT
The house on the cover looks more like the Addams Family house which is more or less in the US version of the popular Victorian "Queen Anne" style... the House of Usher must have been, from what Poe says in the tale, a 16th century (or earlier) stone monstrosity. I really like the art of Charles Addams which the cover evokes, however. cheers, Steve You should see the cover of the ebook-version of Grant's The Curse. The same motive, but looking like a screenshot of a 90s PC game.
I don't have the Poe at hand. I always wondered if the story is supposed to happen in America or if this was intended to be Europe. The genre likes its sequels, but as far as Usher is concerned I know only two from the top of my head. This one and the one by Robert McCammon. Any other?
I've never read the book, but I've always assumed The House of Usher was somewhere in Europe - for some reason (possibly just the name Usher), I had a vague impression that it might have been in Ireland. Anyway, gothic castles with crypts and/or dungeons can really only be European - but I am obviously just basing all this on the Roger Corman film. What's the McCammon sequel? I haven't read any of his stuff since the 80s.
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Post by andydecker on Mar 24, 2020 23:29:30 GMT
I've never read the book, but I've always assumed The House of Usher was somewhere in Europe - for some reason (possibly just the name Usher), I had a vague impression that it might have been in Ireland. Anyway, gothic castles with crypts and/or dungeons can really only be European - but I am obviously just basing all this on the Roger Corman film. What's the McCammon sequel? I haven't read any of his stuff since the 80s. Yes, me too. The Corman is overwhelming in this. The McCammon is Usher's Passing. It is about an American dynasty named Usher which inspired Poe to his story. (Who gets a small cameo in the prologue) The Usher's are the biggest weapon manufacturers of the country, all descendants are suffering from the sickness. Now the patriarch lies dying in Usherland, their family seat somewhere in North Carolina, while the feuding family comes together. One son is a struggling horror writer who has cut all ties to the family money, the other is a bully, the daughter is a model. The writer, who is the main protagonist, discovers something supernatural about his family, while a monster is prowling the backwoods and the inbred hillbillys living there. It is all terrible complicated and OTT, a rambling novel like all of McCammon's early work. I have forgotten how the rest goes, started a re-read last year but got stuck due to circumstances. Still I liked it so far because of the blockbuster nature of the plot. It sure is original, but I am not convinced it really works. Still it is not boring.
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Post by helrunar on Mar 25, 2020 4:23:12 GMT
For anyone out there who reads French, the translation of the "Fall of the House of Usher" by Charles Baudelaire is amazing. I found this 1956 US TV adaptation of the story strangely fascinating. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yL5zI1WKAY&t=42sThe adaptation in the Thames Television series Mystery & Imagination from 1966 was also really good--eerie and compelling. H.
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Post by bluetomb on Mar 25, 2020 18:28:11 GMT
I've never read the book, but I've always assumed The House of Usher was somewhere in Europe - for some reason (possibly just the name Usher), I had a vague impression that it might have been in Ireland. Anyway, gothic castles with crypts and/or dungeons can really only be European - but I am obviously just basing all this on the Roger Corman film. What's the McCammon sequel? I haven't read any of his stuff since the 80s. Yes, me too. The Corman is overwhelming in this. The McCammon is Usher's Passing. It is about an American dynasty named Usher which inspired Poe to his story. (Who gets a small cameo in the prologue) The Usher's are the biggest weapon manufacturers of the country, all descendants are suffering from the sickness. Now the patriarch lies dying in Usherland, their family seat somewhere in North Carolina, while the feuding family comes together. One son is a struggling horror writer who has cut all ties to the family money, the other is a bully, the daughter is a model. The writer, who is the main protagonist, discovers something supernatural about his family, while a monster is prowling the backwoods and the inbred hillbillys living there. It is all terrible complicated and OTT, a rambling novel like all of McCammon's early work. I have forgotten how the rest goes, started a re-read last year but got stuck due to circumstances. Still I liked it so far because of the blockbuster nature of the plot. It sure is original, but I am not convinced it really works. Still it is not boring. I remember having a mostly fine time with Usher's Passing, tearing through it on a train down to London and back. It only lost me somewhat in the final block, at the time I wasn't well versed in the Gothic genre and didn't appreciate that everything coming together in over the top fashion is more or less essential to the tradition.
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Post by helrunar on Mar 26, 2020 4:38:41 GMT
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