The Masque of The Red Death [Paperback]

Edgar Allan Poe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2004

However you try to escape it, horror is always there 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 ...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 torments of ingenious, malevolent tormentors and of a mind's own sickening madness.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 49), was born in Boston, USA. He was a short-story writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor the detective-fiction genre. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

The title story, on the first side of this tape, is a magnificent demonstration of the very best the medium has to offer. The music of Poe's text is amplified and clarified with sound effects and an original score. My two boys, aged 9 and 12, were transfixed. Poe's daunting vocabulary is played here for sound, as well as content. Tragically, "Silence: A Fable," the story on the other side of the tape, is far more abstract and quite difficult to follow. "I don't like the two-hundred-year-old words," my 9-year-old complained. I'm afraid I knew what he meant. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 24 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Classics (April 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594567395
• ISBN-13: 978-1594567391
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,737,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trasfixed by the music, narration, and writing, March 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Masque of the Red Death - Generations Radio Theater Presents (NPR) (Audio Cassette)

I was on my way to pick up my parents at the train station when I turned on National Public Radio and caught this reading of "Masque of the Red Death." I was instantly mesmerized (remarkable for a station surfer such as myself). In fact, I immediately called my husband on the cell phone and made him turn it on at home. And, when my parents finally made it to the car, I shushed them and we all listened to it, with rapt attention, on the way back to my house. I can't remember the last time radio has caught my attention in such a fashion. I am going to buy several of these to play for my daughter when she gets older.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Red-masked Death, June 17, 2007

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Masque of The Red Death (Paperback)

"The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous."

Edgar Allen Poe had a talent for the macabre and gothic, all wrapped up in beautiful prose. But more beautiful -- and macabre -- than most is "Masque of the Red Death," a short story crammed with symbolism, beauty, and the horror of a disease that no gates can keep outside.

A horrible plague called the Red Death (due to the bleeding from pores) is sweeping a country, killing half of the country's inhabitants in a brief time. Prince Prospero, thinking that the "external world could take care of itself," seals himself and a thousand of his closest friends inside a secluded abbey and prepares a lavish, luxurious party.

Five or six months pass, and still the prince and his pals enjoy the wild, strange parties he throws. But as a clock strikes midnight, a strange figure appears -- a blood-soaked mummer disguised as the Red Death. The enraged prince orders for him to be seized and unmashed... but the figure's true identity is more horrific than anyone can handle.

It's a simple story, and when Prince Prospero orders the doors to be sealed so they can't possibly catch the Red Death, you just know exactly what is going to happen. It's Poe's presentation that really makes the story come alive -- his lack of drama, and his sensually creepy prose.

And he takes time out of the plot to paint a beautiful, bizarre setting -- gilded, jagged, vividly colourful, with stained windows and flaming braziers, but no lights. Poe's writing is at its most exquisitely poetic here ("But the echoes of the chime die away... and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart"), and he builds up a sense of foreboding that lingers through the story.

Prince Prospero is one of those people who is always around -- because of his birth and money, he thinks he's immune. Big sense of entitlement, and he's pretty hedonistic. Yet the only compelling character in the entire story is the Red Death itself, a creepy figure who never speaks a word and who simply glides through the abbey.

"The Masque of the Red Death" is one of Poe's most unique, poetic stories, ditching your average chills in favour of a more aesthetically-pleasing kind of horror. A gothic treat.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Here comes red-masked Death, March 27, 2011

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Masque of the Red Death (Kindle Edition)

"The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous."

Edgar Allen Poe had a talent for the macabre and gothic, all wrapped up in beautiful prose. But more beautiful -- and macabre -- than most is "Masque of the Red Death," a short story crammed with symbolism, beauty, and the horror of a disease that no gates can keep outside.

A horrible plague called the Red Death (due to the bleeding from pores) is sweeping a country, killing half of the country's inhabitants in a brief time. Prince Prospero, thinking that the "external world could take care of itself," seals himself and a thousand of his closest friends inside a secluded abbey and prepares a lavish, luxurious party.

Five or six months pass, and still the prince and his pals enjoy the wild, strange parties he throws. But as a clock strikes midnight, a strange figure appears -- a blood-soaked mummer disguised as the Red Death. The enraged prince orders for him to be seized and unmashed... but the figure's true identity is more horrific than anyone can handle.

It's a simple story, and when Prince Prospero orders the doors to be sealed so they can't possibly catch the Red Death, you just know exactly what is going to happen. It's Poe's presentation that really makes the story come alive -- his lack of drama, and his sensually creepy prose.

And he takes time out of the plot to paint a beautiful, bizarre setting -- gilded, jagged, vividly colourful, with stained windows and flaming braziers, but no lights. Poe's writing is at its most exquisitely poetic here ("But the echoes of the chime die away... and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart"), and he builds up a sense of foreboding that lingers through the story.

Prince Prospero is one of those people who is always around -- because of his birth and money, he thinks he's immune. Big sense of entitlement, and he's pretty hedonistic. Yet the only compelling character in the entire story is the Red Death itself, a creepy figure who never speaks a word and who simply glides through the abbey.

"The Masque of the Red Death" is one of Poe's most unique, poetic stories, ditching your average chills in favour of a more aesthetically-pleasing kind of horror. A gothic treat.