The Masque of the Red Death
4/5
()
About this ebook
The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious" Prince Prospero. Prospero and 1,000 other nobles have taken refuge in this walled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague with gruesome symptoms that has swept over the land. Victims are overcome by "sharp pains", "sudden dizziness", and "profuse bleeding at the pores", and die within half an hour. Prospero and his court are indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large; they intend to await the end of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure refuge, having welded the doors shut.
Prospero holds a masquerade ball one night to entertain his guests in seven colored rooms of the abbey. Each of the first six rooms is decorated and illuminated in a specific color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. The last room is decorated in black and is illuminated by a scarlet light, "a deep blood color" cast from its stained glass windows. Because of this chilling pairing of colors, very few guests are brave enough to venture into the seventh room. A large ebony clock stands in this room and ominously chimes each hour, upon which everyone stops talking or dancing and the orchestra stops playing. Once the chiming stops, everyone immediately resumes the masquerade.
Read this complete famous novel for further story....
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet, short story writer, and editor. Born in Boston to a family of actors, Poe was abandoned by his father in 1810 before being made an orphan with the death of his mother the following year. Raised in Richmond, Virginia by the Allan family of merchants, Poe struggled with gambling addiction and frequently fought with his foster parents over debts. He attended the University of Virginia for a year before withdrawing due to a lack of funds, enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1827. That same year, Poe anonymously published Tamerlane and Other Poems, his first collection. After failing to graduate from West Point, Poe began working for several literary journals as a critic and editor, moving from Richmond to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. In 1836, he obtained a special license to marry Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin, who moved with him as he pursued his career in publishing. In 1838, Poe published The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, a tale of a stowaway on a whaling ship and his only novel. In 1842, Virginia began showing signs of consumption, and her progressively worsening illness drove Poe into deep depression and alcohol addiction. “The Raven” (1845) appeared in the Evening Mirror on January 29th. It was an instant success, propelling Poe to the forefront of the American literary scene and earning him a reputation as a leading Romantic. Following Virginia’s death in 1847, Poe became despondent, overwhelmed with grief and burdened with insurmountable debt. Suffering from worsening mental and physical illnesses, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore in 1849 and died only days later. He is now recognized as a literary pioneer who made important strides in developing techniques essential to horror, detective, and science fiction.
Read more from Edgar Allan Poe
The Raven: And Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales of Mystery and Imagination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 4 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Famous Modern Ghost Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volumes 1 and 2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Weiser Book of Horror and the Occult: Hidden Magic, Occult Truths, and the Stories That Started It All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tell Tale Heart - The Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe (Fantasy and Horror Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fall of the House of Usher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of Mystery and Imagination - Illustrated by Harry Clarke Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gothic Novel Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Classic American Short Story MEGAPACK ® (Volume 1): 34 of the Greatest Stories Ever Written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Poems Tales Criticism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 1 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Masque of the Red Death
Related ebooks
The Masque of the Red Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invisible Man Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Robinson Crusoe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5To Build a Fire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of the Seven Gables Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasure Island Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes from the Underground Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsH. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction (ReadOn Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart of Darkness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sherlock Holmes: Classic Stories (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Island of Dr. Moreau Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParadise Lost Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDracula Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom of the Opera and Other Gothic Tales (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fall of the House of Usher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cask of Amontillado Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture Of Dorian Gray Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Beautiful and Damned Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrime And Punishment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Double Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Short Stories Of Guy de Maupassant Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnimal Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
YA Horror For You
The Grimmer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Delicious Monsters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warm Bodies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Stars Come Out Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cellar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wicked Deep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chain Letter: Chain Letter; The Ancient Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Smoke Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl from the Well Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vespertine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resurrection Bay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clown in a Cornfield Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Betrayal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Companions of the Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Me (Moth): (National Book Award Finalist) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heaven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Afterlife of Holly Chase Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dread Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book Jumper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murders in the Rue Morgue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mary Shelley Club Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5His Hideous Heart: 13 of Edgar Allan Poe's Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Road to Nowhere Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Masque of the Red Death
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe
Project Gutenberg's The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Masque of the Red Death
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Release Date: June 6, 2010 [EBook #1064]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH ***
Produced by Levent Kurnaz. HTML version by Al Haines.
The Masque of the Red Death
by
Edgar Allan Poe
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. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A