Audiobook16 minutes
The Masque of the Red Death
Written by Poe
Narrated by Cathy Dobson
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal - the redness and the horror of blood. To avoid the terrible plague which is devastating his kingdom, Prince Prospero locks himself with 1000 revellers in his castle and holds one hedonistic party after another. For months they celebrate their crazed feasts, until one night a stranger appears at the festivities... a stranger who strikes fear into the hearts of all present. Terrifying!
Author
Poe
Dan Ariely is James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and Sunday Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. Ariely's TED talks have over 10 million views; he has 90,000 Twitter followers; and probably the second most famous Behavioural Economist in the World after Daniel Kahneman.
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Reviews for The Masque of the Red Death
Rating: 3.9765396260997066 out of 5 stars
4/5
341 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's Poe, always a bit of a twist.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extremely relevant now, during the COVID-19 pandemic! Place Trump, or any other ugly, wealth and power hungry despot, in the place of Prince Prospero, and you've basically got the system we have now in the U.S.. The wealthy get protection the rest of us can only dream of. But in this story, the Prince and his 1,000 chosen ones enter a world that I could only dream of! Comeuppance! For me, in this context, the "spectral image" is a hero! Wish we had someone like him now..."And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death."
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another one by a supreme innovator and true master. It's hard to find much of any of his work that disappoints. While he didn't invent the horror or gothic genres, I would contend he was the first and most influential in creating, shaping and sustaining such genres before the baton was later passed on to Lovecraft. Recommended, as always with Poe...
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love Edgar Allen Poe after I read thin in a class called great books. I have read this book like a 100 times and it still never gets old.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rich in symbolism, a fast and entertaining read on the inevitability of death.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A hauntingly gothic tale showing that no one is safe from death and disease. Not the arrogant, the rich or the privileged can escape it's clutches. It's only a matter of time. Tick, tock.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have never read anything by Edgar Allan Poe before, and I've always been a bit worried about attempting to because of the hype around his writing and the reputation he has in literature.
I found this short story amazing! It's beautifully written in a poetic, descriptive way, and even though there isn't really much of a horror aspect, the atmosphere created by the language used has you gripped from the beginning, expecting the worst. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This short story is hands down one of my favorite Poe stories! I love the symbolism and imagery in this tale. Basically, the "Red Death" is a plague that is wreaking havoc on the town in the story and Prince Prospero decides to lock himself, and many of his friends, away in his home. He ultimately ends up hosting a very grand masquerade party and while him and his people are lavishly partying it up within the confines of his sanctuary, everyone else is dying a terrible death. There are seven uniquely decorated rooms in his house where the party-goers roam while the celebrations never cease; and in the last room (decorated in black and red) there is an ebony clock which has a very eery and distinct chime that marks the end of an hour. When the clock chimes, everyone inexplicably pauses and the music stops until the clock is quiet. When midnight arrives, everyone is confronted with a terrifying figure, the "Red Death". As you can imagine, some very unfortunate and gruesome things follow the appearance of this figure. I feel like the main point in this story can really be up to anyone's interpretation. But for me, the message that is loud and clear is that you can't cheat death and that it will creep up on you (much like the "Red Death" figure) no matter what. The clock in the story is symbolic of our internal clocks that are ticking away. One thing in the story that I didn't entirely catch the meaning of initially was the seven rooms. Upon further research, I learned that some believe that the seven rooms that were featured in Poe's story are to be interpreted as the seven stages of life. To me, that makes sense after reading about the rooms in this tale. At any rate, no matter what Edgar was trying to prove, this story was an astonishing one that vividly plays out in my head every time I read it.