The Masque of the Red Death: And Other Stories

by Edgar Allan Poe

In 'The Masque of the Red Death' and other tales of gothic horror, Edgar Allan Poe writes as no one else ever has of creeping, mounting terrors, of malevolent tormentors and of a mind's own sickening madness Outside the abbey's armoured walls, the common poor are ravaged by a grisly pestilence known as the 'Red Death', while within, safe and untroubled, the happy Prince Prospero hosts lavish entertainments. But, in their immodest comfort, the Prince and his guests are not as safe as they hope from the horrors of the outside world ...

Genres: Short Stories, Gothic, Classics, Horror, 19th Century

175 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2008

About the author

The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.

The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...

Reviews

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as part of my Stephen King reference-to-reference reading challenge and as part of a Poe buddy read. This short story was mentioned several times in "The Shining," so I think I set my expectations a little too high going into it since that is my new favorite King story. In general, I do not *love* most short stories (always needing more!!), and it was the same with this. It was good, but it just felt too short.

[Zaynab · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can run but you can't hide ...

[Paris Chadwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories that I loved were absolutely a 5 but the book is a collection and was overall brought down by the stories that were closer to a 2. I would like to mention that I must have forgotten that poe is referred to as the father of modern horror and gothic creep. I was disturbed. Yeah I couldn't stop thinking about certain stories and my sleep definitely suffered.

[Sophie Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edgar Allan Poe's take on death, mortality and his remarkable ability to write from the perspective of madmen. His descriptiveness and gothic flair to his writing makes it such a haunting classic. The copy of the book I have is the Penguin classic hardback version that contains 7 of his short stories, and I only wrote my thoughts for those that REALLY struck me.

1. The Masque of Red Death
Being the headlining short story, I went into this in the most detail. I think it’s safe to say that I enjoyed this piece the most. I highlighted the following key themes from this story being:
* Mortality and the inevitability of death
* Karmic justice
* Class Division
* Illusion of control + Denial
Death, regardless of class, is ultimately the Great Equaliser.
I always enjoy a good personification of Death and this one really took the cake for me, as a tall, masked figure, in “the habiliments of the grave” — I loved the silent way Death crept into the ballroom regardless of how intensely they tried to keep it out, the different coloured rooms representing different stages of life, and the indiscriminate way Death brought the people to their ends. We all can never escape death — something all members of the human race certainly have in common.

3. The Fall of the House of Usher

4. The Black Cat
The madman pov writing — oh boy, the way he went from animal-adoring to animal-abusing and wife-murdering… it haunts me…

4. Ligeia

5. The Cask of Amontillado

6. The Pit and the Pendulum
I really enjoyed the descriptions of the darkness and impending death, the desperation and struggle to survive, the exploration of fear. The narrator went through mental and physical torture, struggling between the unknown of the pit and the relentless pendulum. His struggle of whether to just end it all in a physically painful death or to live on (and who knows if you would even live… just at least a little longer) with intense mental suffering was so human and raw.

7. The Tell-Tale Heart

[Dorian Meza]

The Masque Of The Red Death And Other Stories, is a book by Edgar Allan Poe that contains some of his best short horror stories. Most of the stories have one genre in them which is horror. While all of them are horror stories they also have another thing in common which is that they all have gothic elements in them. One of my favorite stories is The Black Cat, which discusses addiction, animal abuse, and Murder. Although it is gruesome, there is a message to be told. Other stories like The Masque Of The Red Death talked about how no matter how much money you have you can't escape death.
There were 6 different stories in this compilation, Most of them have a deeper meaning, Like greed or The Nature Madness, or The mortality that someone is eventually going to die. A lot of these are very dark, but the way he describes these topics is super interesting sometimes I felt like I didn't understand it. For example in the short story The Tell-Tale Heart, he talks about guilt and not committing a crime because guilt will swallow you alive. He also discusses how we are going to lose people, In the book Legeia, the story is about the main character losing his beautiful wife. Which he is all depressed about. A lot of them have dark/ disturbing meanings but the stories are quite interesting
I would recommend this book to people who like digging for the deeper meaning because it is hard to find the meaning. It was also pretty challenging to read as there were some parts where I didn't understand it very well, But Overall it is a good book to read and it's super short but complex. I wouldn't recommend this book if you are sensitive to gore/ violence as there is a lot of it. This book also helps the reader understand some important values.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired by Flannagan's Usher series

zoo wee mama what plots are these!

Big fan of the og raven spook

I need to stop mass reviewing the books I've read this year because my reviews become sillier and sillier as I go

Ahem.

There's a reason Poe is regarded as highly as he is as haunted poet and storyteller and it is an honor to read such craft and be chilled almost two centuries later.

[Popescu Constantin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall good book, it is just reaaaaally hard to read and follow without a dictionary by your side😂

[RAILLARD DUNTON Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t exactly read that precise book, but mine had the same content. I must say, I didn’t understand every short stories; but the “Black Cat” was very shocking, that’s why I really liked it !

[Red Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Particularly important reading for these times.

[Alastair Savin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very mixed. There are some true jems here and then some extremely boring ones that caused my progress to grind to a halt.

[miuuz · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. The Fall of the House of Usher
2. The Pit and the Pendulum
3. The Mask of the Red Death

[Hannah Wilkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t let the ultimate emo boy’s birthday go by without a mention so here is the cutest little clothbound edition of a collection of his short stories, along with my raven tattoo, who I affectionately call Poe. And what is more emo than the acceptance of the fact that no matter who you are, how much money you have, or how big a castle you can hide in, no-one can escape the inevitability of death.

The titular story tells of a Prince who, wanting to avoid the plague that is ravaging his country, holes up in his home with a thousand of his closest friends, they enjoy a masquerade ball, taking in the opulent surroundings, and try their hardest to cheat death. I particularly liked the descriptions of the multiple rooms in the castle, the rich colours and what they symbolised, seven of them, one for each stage of life. They seemed almost too colourful for the King of gothic literature, until we reach the seventh room, cloaked in red and black! Ahhhh, that’s ma boy!

This collection also includes The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe’s miniature masterpiece of madness, The Black Cat, and The Tell-Tale Heart, both featuring a touch of murder but with the real horror coming in the aftermath of the act.

No surprise that I’ll recommend this one. Also, it’s super tiny so a good gateway into his writing. If it’s not for you then you’ve not invested too much time in it!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers for everything written by Poe.
I really like Edgar Allen Poe, even though most of his work comes to three conclusions. If it's a poem, the gist usually is: "She's dead. I miss her." Most of his short stories break down to two endings in this gothic choose your own adventure setting. Mind you, for each ending, it must be narrated by someone who is becoming or is already raving mad:
Scenario One: "The Professor ran down the hall and burst into the room. I heard him cry Mercy once, then emit an unearthly wail. When I reached him, he was already cold to the touch and through open eyes I saw he was already dead!"
Scenario Two: "After the flash of lightning I looked towards the top of the stairs, to behold the shape of my wife Evangeline. She pointed a finger towards me and opened her mouth as to speak. I let out an unearthly wail, as Evangeline has been dead over a year!"

[3.14]

I couldn't understand anything till the last pages
I really enjoyed reading every word of it

[Marie (UK) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just cannot get into the writing of edgar Allan Poe and this was no exception. It was stilted to read and to some extent repetitive