“The Masque of the Red Death” follows Prince Prospero’s attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, hosts a masquerade ball in seven rooms of the abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose “costume” proves to contain nothing tangible inside it. The guests also die in turn. The final line of the story sums up, “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”
First Appearance “The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy” in Graham’s Magazine (1842)
First Publisher Graham’s Magazine
Appearance List Collections: Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1923). Film: The Plague of Florence (Silent, 1919), The Masque of the Red Death (1964). Comics: “The Red Death” in The Thing #2 (1952), “A Máscara da Morte Rubra” in Clássicos de Terror #9 (1960), Dell’s The Masque of the Red Death (1964).
Description “The Masque of the Red Death” follows Prince Prospero’s attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, hosts a masquerade ball in seven rooms of the abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger, whose “costume” proves to contain nothing tangible inside it. The guests also die in turn. The final line of the story sums up, “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”
