-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Эдгар Алан По
-
- Падение дома Ашеров
-
- Стр. 1/13
The Fall of the House of Usher
Son
cœur
est
un
luth
suspendu
;
Sitôt
qu'on
le
touche
il
résonne
.
De
Béranger
.
During
the
whole
of
a
dull
,
dark
,
and
soundless
day
in
the
autumn
of
the
year
,
when
the
clouds
hung
oppressively
low
in
the
heavens
,
I
had
been
passing
alone
,
on
horseback
,
through
a
singularly
dreary
tract
of
country
,
and
at
length
found
myself
,
as
the
shades
of
the
evening
drew
on
,
within
view
of
the
melancholy
House
of
Usher
.
I
know
not
how
it
was
--
but
,
with
the
first
glimpse
of
the
building
,
a
sense
of
insufferable
gloom
pervaded
my
spirit
.
I
say
insufferable
;
for
the
feeling
was
unrelieved
by
any
of
that
half-pleasurable
,
because
poetic
,
sentiment
,
with
which
the
mind
usually
receives
even
the
sternest
natural
images
of
the
desolate
or
terrible
.
I
looked
upon
the
scene
before
me
--
upon
the
mere
house
,
and
the
simple
landscape
features
of
the
domain
--
upon
the
bleak
walls
--
upon
the
vacant
eye-like
windows
--
upon
a
few
rank
sedges
--
and
upon
a
few
white
trunks
of
decayed
trees
--
with
an
utter
depression
of
soul
which
I
can
compare
to
no
earthly
sensation
more
properly
than
to
the
after-dream
of
the
reveller
upon
opium
--
the
bitter
lapse
into
every-day
life
--
the
hideous
dropping
off
of
the
veil
.
There
was
an
iciness
,
a
sinking
,
a
sickening
of
the
heart
--
an
unredeemed
dreariness
of
thought
which
no
goading
of
the
imagination
could
torture
into
aught
of
the
sublime
.
What
was
it
--
I
paused
to
think
--
what
was
it
that
so
unnerved
me
in
the
contemplation
of
the
House
of
Usher
?
It
was
a
mystery
all
insoluble
;
nor
could
I
grapple
with
the
shadowy
fancies
that
crowded
upon
me
as
I
pondered
.
I
was
forced
to
fall
back
upon
the
unsatisfactory
conclusion
,
that
while
,
beyond
doubt
,
there
are
combinations
of
very
simple
natural
objects
which
have
the
power
of
thus
affecting
us
,
still
the
analysis
of
this
power
lies
among
considerations
beyond
our
depth
.
It
was
possible
,
I
reflected
,
that
a
mere
different
arrangement
of
the
particulars
of
the
scene
,
of
the
details
of
the
picture
,
would
be
sufficient
to
modify
,
or
perhaps
to
annihilate
its
capacity
for
sorrowful
impression
;
and
,
acting
upon
this
idea
,
I
reined
my
horse
to
the
precipitous
brink
of
a
black
and
lurid
tarn
that
lay
in
unruffled
lustre
by
the
dwelling
,
and
gazed
down
--
but
with
a
shudder
even
more
thrilling
than
before
--
upon
the
remodelled
and
inverted
images
of
the
gray
sedge
,
and
the
ghastly
tree-stems
,
and
the
vacant
and
eye-like
windows
.
Nevertheless
,
in
this
mansion
of
gloom
I
now
proposed
to
myself
a
sojourn
of
some
weeks
.
Its
proprietor
,
Roderick
Usher
,
had
been
one
of
my
boon
companions
in
boyhood
;
but
many
years
had
elapsed
since
our
last
meeting
.
A
letter
,
however
,
had
lately
reached
me
in
a
distant
part
of
the
country
--
a
letter
from
him
--
which
,
in
its
wildly
importunate
nature
,
had
admitted
of
no
other
than
a
personal
reply
.
The
MS
gave
evidence
of
nervous
agitation
.
The
writer
spoke
of
acute
bodily
illness
--
of
a
mental
disorder
which
oppressed
him
--
and
of
an
earnest
desire
to
see
me
,
as
his
best
and
indeed
his
only
personal
friend
,
with
a
view
of
attempting
,
by
the
cheerfulness
of
my
society
,
some
alleviation
of
his
malady
.
It
was
the
manner
in
which
all
this
,
and
much
more
,
was
said
--
it
was
the
apparent
heart
that
went
with
his
request
--
which
allowed
me
no
room
for
hesitation
;
and
I
accordingly
obeyed
forthwith
what
I
still
considered
a
very
singular
summons
.
Although
,
as
boys
,
we
had
been
even
intimate
associates
,
yet
I
really
knew
little
of
my
friend
.
His
reserve
had
been
always
excessive
and
habitual
.
I
was
aware
,
however
,
that
his
very
ancient
family
had
been
noted
,
time
out
of
mind
,
for
a
peculiar
sensibility
of
temperament
,
displaying
itself
,
through
long
ages
,
in
many
works
of
exalted
art
,
and
manifested
,
of
late
,
in
repeated
deeds
of
munificent
yet
unobtrusive
charity
,
as
well
as
in
a
passionate
devotion
to
the
intricacies
,
perhaps
even
more
than
to
the
orthodox
and
easily
recognizable
beauties
,
of
musical
science
.
I
had
learned
,
too
,
the
very
remarkable
fact
,
that
the
stem
of
the
Usher
race
,
all
time-honored
as
it
was
,
had
put
forth
,
at
no
period
,
any
enduring
branch
;
in
other
words
,
that
the
entire
family
lay
in
the
direct
line
of
descent
,
and
had
always
,
with
very
trifling
and
very
temporary
variation
,
so
lain
.
It
was
this
deficiency
,
I
considered
,
while
running
over
in
thought
the
perfect
keeping
of
the
character
of
the
premises
with
the
accredited
character
of
the
people
,
and
while
speculating
upon
the
possible
influence
which
the
one
,
in
the
long
lapse
of
centuries
,
might
have
exercised
upon
the
other
--
it
was
this
deficiency
,
perhaps
,
of
collateral
issue
,
and
the
consequent
undeviating
transmission
,
from
sire
to
son
,
of
the
patrimony
with
the
name
,
which
had
,
at
length
,
so
identified
the
two
as
to
merge
the
original
title
of
the
estate
in
the
quaint
and
equivocal
appellation
of
the
"
House
of
Usher
"
--
an
appellation
which
seemed
to
include
,
in
the
minds
of
the
peasantry
who
used
it
,
both
the
family
and
the
family
mansion
.
I
have
said
that
the
sole
effect
of
my
somewhat
childish
experiment
--
that
of
looking
down
within
the
tarn
--
had
been
to
deepen
the
first
singular
impression
.
There
can
be
no
doubt
that
the
consciousness
of
the
rapid
increase
of
my
superstition
--
for
why
should
I
not
so
term
it
?
--
served
mainly
to
accelerate
the
increase
itself
.
Such
,
I
have
long
known
,
is
the
paradoxical
law
of
all
sentiments
having
terror
as
a
basis
.
And
it
might
have
been
for
this
reason
only
,
that
,
when
I
again
uplifted
my
eyes
to
the
house
itself
,
from
its
image
in
the
pool
,
there
grew
in
my
mind
a
strange
fancy
--
a
fancy
so
ridiculous
,
indeed
,
that
I
but
mention
it
to
show
the
vivid
force
of
the
sensations
which
oppressed
me
.
