The fall of the house of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher was first published in September 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. The tale opens with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a distant part of the country complaining of an illness and asking for his help. Although strong-willed Poe wrote this short story before the invention of modern psychological science, Roderick's symptoms can be described according to its terminology.