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Usher II

by Ray Bradbury

Listen to the book: Usher II

Read the book online: Usher II

This week in the book club we are reading 'Usher II' by Ray Bradbury. 'Usher II' is a horror story and homage to Edgar Allan Poe about the wealthy William Stendahl and the house he built to murder his enemies.

The story begins with Stendahl's meeting with Mr. Bigelow, his architect, to perform a final check-out for the completion of his newly built house. Stendahl is satisfied and refers to the house as, The House of Usher. The owner is angered that Bigelow doesn't know anything of or about Poe and sends him away. Bigelow's ignorance is innocent because for decades, anything "produced in any way suggesting ... any creature of the imagination" has been outlawed, including books, many of which were confiscated and burned in the Great Fire thirty years earlier, including Stendahl's own fifty thousand book library...

The story references Bradburys well known book 'Fahrenheit 451' in which books are outlawed and burned. This story in a way is the revenge taken by one character on the achitects of the book burning that take place in 'Fahrenheit 451'.

Along with referencing his own work, Brabdury directly points to Edgar Allen Poe and his story 'The Fall of the House of Usher', but he doesnt stop there. 'Usher II' also references a lot of other Edgar Allan Poe stories: the seven rooms of the house are based on 'The Masque of the Red Death'; the beating heart is from 'The Tell-Tale Heart'; the murderous ape stuffing a body up a chimney is from 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'; the deadly pendulum is from 'The Pit and the Pendulum'; the premature burial is from 'Premature Burial' ; and the death of Garrett is from "The Cask of Amontillado".

'Usher II' is also stuffed full of other literary references not only Edgar Allan Poe but; H. P. Lovecraft, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ambrose Bierce; many characters from The Wizard of Oz books, including Glinda, Ozma, Polychrome, and Jack Pumpkinhead; and many figures from fairy tales, such as Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, and Sleeping Beauty; and also figures from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. 

How many references did you spot in this story?

About the Author

Ray Douglas Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

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