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The Masque of the Red Death

Edgar Allan Poe

Book Overview: 

The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, has a masquerade ball within seven rooms of his abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose "costume" proves to have nothing tangible inside it; the guests also die in turn. (Summary by Wikipedia)

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .isatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the "Red Death".

It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. These were seven—an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different, as might have been expected from the duke's love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sha. . . Read More

Community Reviews

I’ve always sensed a strong connection to Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, perhaps because I've both played and listen to loads of medieval music, perhaps because I enjoy the art and history and philosophy of that period, or, perhaps because I’ve always been drawn to literature dealing with issues

This is one of my favourite short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. That final spectral image is haunting, and it also raises the ever-important question of the wealth divide.

No.......just no........it's not for me......more

Fascinating and lurid allegory about a group of people who, on the invitation of "Prince Prospero," lock themselves within a "castellated abbey" to escape the Red Death. The inhabitants of the abbey are provided "all the appliances of pleasure," and boy do they know how to party: "there were buffoon

يدرككم الموت ولو كنتم في بروج مشيدة
صدق الله العظيم
كأن ادجار الان بو سمع الآية الكريمة و استوحى منها صفحاته القليلة الصاعقة
قصة ثورية بامتياز

اذا كان من حقك اختيار من سينجو معك من الموت..فماهي معاييرك؟
وهل هذا من حقك؟ا
سؤال شديد الخرج

الأمير القوى قرر النجاة بالف من خاصته و حاشيته..و حشدهم في دير جبلي

I don't know how I overlooked "The Masque of the Red Death" when I was going through my Poe phase a while back, but someone's review reminded me of it (Thanks, random Goodreads friend!). So I found a copy of it online here and gave it another read to refresh my memory.

This story is both less and m

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