Prince Prospero. The Masque of the Red Death. 1842
The Masque of the Red Death is a short story written by the American author, poet, editor, and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849). First published in the May 1842 edition of Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine as "The Mask of the Red Death", the short story tells of Prince Prospero’s and one thousand other nobles who have taken refuge in a walled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague that has swept over the land. To pass the time they hold a masquerade ball within seven rooms of the abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure enters wearing a death shroud, with traits to those of a Red Death victim. Prospero dies after confronting this stranger. The Red Death can be likened to tuberculosis, as this was the disease that Poe’s wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (August 15, 1822 – January 30, 1847), was suffering from at the time Poe wrote the story.