Who wrote 'The Fall of the House of Usher'?

• A. Poe
• B. Hawthorne
• C. Lovecraft
• D. Whitman

Answer: (A)

Recognizing the author of a famous Gothic short story. This tale is a hallmark of Edgar Allan Poe, a master of American Gothic fiction known for creating a moody, claustrophobic atmosphere, precise prose, and symbolism that links setting to psyche. The story follows a narrator who visits the decaying mansion of his friend, and the house itself seems to mirror the siblings’ sick minds and the family’s collapse. Poe’s style—tight, rhythmic sentences, eerie descriptions, and motifs of confinement, decay, and the double—clearly point to him as the author. The other writers listed are associated with different voices and themes: Hawthorne with moral allegory and different Gothic sensibilities, Lovecraft with cosmic horror, and Whitman with expansive poetry. So this attribution aligns with Poe’s distinctive voice and themes.