The Books We Kept

Gothic Summer continues. Our narrator hasn't opened the door yet — tonight he does. In Part Two of Edgar Allan Poe's 1839 masterpiece we answer a desperate letter, cross the causeway, and are led through the dark passages of the house — right up to the door of the man who summoned him. No notes, no summary — just Poe, read aloud.

A dull, dark, and soundless day. A lone rider on horseback. And a house that fills him with dread before he ever reaches the door. Gothic Summer opens with Edgar Allan Poe's 1839 masterpiece: after a brief welcome, we read the story's entire opening paragraph aloud, word for word — the approach to the melancholy House of Usher, the black tarn, and those vacant, eye-like windows. No notes, no summa...