In the prefix of my last short story review, I was talking about Edgar Allan Poe and how he has set such high standards for me whenever I am reading a horror short story or something similar. I did not plan to read this particular story. I actually just selected this title from the list because it sounded interesting. When I saw the author I was already excited about what was to come. I don't need to start telling you guys about the author. You know what he is capable of, xd.
- Author - Edgar Allan Poe
- Title - The Masque of the red death
- Originally Published - 1842
- Genre - Horror Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Short Stories
PLOT
! [Hidden Spoiler Text]
The author tells the story of a certain prince in his abbey, who learns of a plague that seems to be leaving people for dead around town in the most gruesome of ways. After his discovery, he starts to devise a way to evade the claws of red death. He invites all the noble people into his fortified abbey with faith that they are safe and would wait for the plague to pass while living to the fullest in the castle. He then organizes a masquerade party, but there is a special visitor lurking in the shadows.
CHARACTERS
The characters in the play were Prince Prospero the protagonist and others.
SETTING
The story was set in the castellated abbey of the prince
PURPOSE
MEMENTO MORI
Edgar Allan Poe is a literary giant. He is credited with inventing the gothic genre. He also is one of the pioneers of the short story genre. Ah, I can go on and on, basically, one thing I did pick out from this was his brilliant description of a dark, macabre tale that truly exudes wisdom, while allowing readers to conjure up numerous derivatives from the body of literature. To put simply, he employs good old ambiguity while telling an intellectually and morally captivating story, and yet allowing for limitless interpretations. I am not going to lie, when I started reading it till almost the end, I just felt lost. He is just that brilliant. I was thinking, "it would all make sense in the end, just keep reading". And it sure as hell did. Albeit I needed other explanations to truly decrypt some things, I got the gist, haha. This is absolutely one of the best short stories I have read in a while. The number of literary devices he used in this story is endless. A powerful allegory. While there is an endless stream of takeaways from this story, mine is simply that death cannot be evaded. Make of that information what you will. I will rate it 4.2/5, and yes, I recommend.