The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Plays Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe

Best known for his tales of mystery and macabre, Poe ventured far and wide across a range of types of stories. This collection of plays is, in one sense, a handbook on how to adapt Poe's stories and stay true to their spirit. Plays in this book are: “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Imp of the Perverse”, “Landor’s Cottage Revisited”, “Spectacles”, “Hop-Frog”, “The Man of the Crowd”, “The Power of Words”, “The Man That Was Used Up”, Some Words with a Mummy”, and “The Oval Portrait”. These one-act plays most often require a cast of four actors: two women, two men. 


Tony McGowan provides a preface that, among other things, speaks to what many Poe fans are concerned with, that is, how do these plays deal with Poe's concept of fear and Poe's concept of "effect." 


Andrew Sutherland provides a stimulating introduction that helps to equip us for a new journey into the many dimensions that Poe lives in and that are explored in the book. One of these dimensions is comic.