Emotional intensities do not only pertain to the ‘inner life’ of individuals; they are also to be found, as the saying goes, ‘in the air,’ i.e. as shared atmospheres that envelope and affect us. Such affective atmospheres are omnipresent in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839). The house in the story is not only enshrouded in an atmosphere of its own; the entire plot is focused on the ways in which this atmosphere affects the characters. Informed by these recent theories on affect, the essay analyzes Poe’s short story and proposes a number of new concepts for affect theory.