[Ebook reader of 'The Masque of the Red Death']
The Masque of the Red Death is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in May 1842 in Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine under the title The Mask of the Red Death, with the subtitle -title A Fantasy. A revised version appeared July 19, 1845 in the Broadway Journal under its final title.

The short story is situated in the tradition of the Gothic novel and has often been analyzed as an allegory about the inevitability of death, although other interpretations have been made.

Translated into French by Charles Baudelaire, it is part of the collection New Extraordinary Stories.

Summary
The story takes place in a fortified abbey, in which Prince Prospero has locked himself up, with a thousand of his courtiers, in order to flee the devastating epidemic of the “Red Death”, a terrible scourge which strikes the country. Indifferent to the misfortunes of populations struck by illness, they lead a life strewn with vices and pleasures in complete safety behind the walls of the abbey.

One night, Prospero organizes a masked ball in seven rooms of the abbey, each decorated and illuminated in a different color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet. The last one is lined in black and lit by a blood-red light. It inspires such great fear among guests that few dare to venture there. There is a large ebony clock which strikes sinisterly every hour; then, everyone stops talking and the orchestra stops playing...(Audiobook)