The Fall of the House of Usher, a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, is among Poe's most famous works. This highly unsettling, macabre story is recognized as a masterpiece of American Gothic literature. The narrator, receives a request for help from an ill friend. The house of his friend has an unusual crack going from the roof to the front. His friend asks the narrator's help in interring his dead sister in the family crypt in preparation for her burial. What follows is a gripping and terrifying tale from the master of suspense.