Edgar Allen Poe: The Masque of the Red Death (First published as The Mask of the Red Death : a Fantasy in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, 1842)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 –1849) was an American literary figure, best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, but with a much wider legacy. He was one of the first writers of the short story and was also instrumental in the beginnings of detective stories and science-fiction. His works have been adapted into many forms including films, plays and comic books. The Masque of the Red Death is a Victorian Gothic horror short story which can be read literally, as allegory or as autobiography.
We started collecting references for the Encyclopaedia Pandemica project before the Covid-19 lockdown, and well before the ensuing publication rush of books relating to pandemics and specifically to Corinavirus. Ranging from reprints of often only tangentially related fiction, to self-help and survival guides, their numbers seem to be increasing exponentially - like the virus which is their raison d’etre. Even in these early stages of the crisis, a collection titled The Epidemic Anthology had been reprinted as Best Pandemic Books to Read During Coronavirus and includes Masque of the Red Death as well as other public domain titles already noted by us.
Masque of the Red Death is included here primarily because of its relationship with later works. It is cited by Jack London as having inspired The Scarlet Plague, and similarities exist in the title (obviously), the rapid onset of the respective pestilences, some similarity of symptoms, the background of depopulation and the protagonists taking refuge from the plague with a company of friends or associates in an isolated building.
In short, the story concerns a Prince Prospero who, to escape the eponymous epidemic, locks himself and a large company of courtiers in a fortified abbey. Five or six months in, the Prince entertained his guests with a marked ball, held in a suite of seven lavishly appointed colour-coded rooms. Much of the story consists of descriptions of the interior décor. Amidst the bizarre costumes, a stranger appears who resembles a plague victim Death. The Prince pursues the stranger through the seven rooms and, catching up with him in the final room (black velvet with red windows) attempts to stab him but is himself killed. The guests try to capture the stranger but grab onto only a costume and mask. They then succumb to the plague one by one.
The legacy of The Red Death is widespread, and its importance is easily underestimated. Its influence on Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague alone can be seen as having spawned the entire pandemic sub-genre of post-apocalyptic speculative fiction. It has proved one of the most popular of Poe’s works in terms of adaptations and influences on popular culture. There have been multiple film, radio, stage, and comic book versions as well as countless references and hommages in other films, literature, music, TV shows, computer games etc. In turn, some of these adaptations have themselves gone on to be influential in poplar culture, for example the magnificent 1964 film starring Vincent Price, part of a series of eight films made by director Roger Cprman based on Poe's works..
Coronavirus Lessons
Much has been written about Masque of the Red Death and if you are literary-minded you will be able to find plenty to interest you about, say, the character of the Prince, the story’s symbolism, how the piece should be interpreted, with particular reference to the life of Poe himself, or whether the character of Prince Prospero should make us look for parallels in Shakespeare's The Tempest. The most obvious allegory concerns the inevitability of death – here in the form of the plague represented by the initially unseen stranger. For the Covid-19 generation there is an implicit warning against complacency. Prospero is portrayed as selfish and arrogant, believing he can cheat death by hiding in luxury behind his ramparts. We should remember that now, as it was then, we are all in this together.
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