Madeline Usher's Tale

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hello to everyone who reads this! Just a few little things I want to say before you get started.

"Madeline Usher's Tale" is about Madeline Usher from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." If you've read Poe's story, as you know, Madeline is pretty much a non-existent character. In Poe's tale, the story is told entirely by the unnamed Narrator. I've always been fascinated with this question: "Who is Madeline Usher?" We know nothing about her. We know nothing of Roderick Usher either, her crazed brother, other than the fact that he seems to be insane. So the point of this story is to give life to Madeline and make her the narrator, give her a childhood, and a deeper, darker relationship with her brother. Also: give the poor Narrator a name---Matthew Kennedy!

This story will contain many dark elements. Among them: rape and incest. If these are things that disturb you (even though they are vital to the story I'm trying to tell), don't bother reading and leaving "hate comments." Everyone has their own cup of tea, and this may not be for you.

What I'd love from my readers: comments! I'm all up for positive and negative feedback. My goal is to get this published one day and I'd like to know what's working and what's not. If you spot bad grammar, misspellings, inconsistancies with characters or dates, ANYTHING, let me know and I'll try my best and fix those issues. I know that this story is no where near being a "masterpiece." I know there are flaws and that's why I would truly love feedback of any sort beside the cliche, "Oh, that's great! Can't wait for the next chapter." I want honest opinions and help with anything that's wrong. If you have suggestions for additional scenes, that would be great, too.

Thanks so very much and I really hope the story of Madeline Usher is intriguing and inspires you to re-read Poe's original tale with fresh eyes.

Stacie