The Red Masque of the Red Death

  Having read a quite suggestive title of the story I associated it at once with some disastrous and terrible happenings in the life of the main personages. Undoubtedly, my expectations were confirmed if not even surpassed.  Death, Horror, Blood, Inevitability, Darkness, Hollowness...The head is spinning because of all these mystical unearthly matters.  However, the challenge is accepted. No steps back.

   Edgar Allan Poe thoroughly elaborated the setting of the story. A  "crenellated abbey ", an "extensive and magnificent structure ", an isolated palace  is the place where the events take place in the story. Having been in seclusion for 5 or 6 months in the realm of Beauty and Wealth, people completely forgot about the outer world with its' hazards and sufferings. Those six luxurious chambers substituted the whole Universe for the prince and his devoted knights and dames of the court. But...What was there in the seventh room? What was patiently waiting for such a life-thirsty company there?What mysteries were hidden in that fantastical residence of Red and Black?  

   

“A Bird Came Down the Walk” byEmily Dickinson

I have found one very interesting picture presentation of this poem and I'd like to share it with you. Enjoy)

http://zenpencils.com/comic/99-emily-dickinson-a-bird-came-down-the-walk/

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

Edgar Allan Poe 

Edgar Allan Poe - an insane genius, an obsessed artist, a passionate revolutionist who turned the world upside down creating his literary masterpieces: "The Fall of The house of Usher", "The Raven", "The Black Cat", "The Masque of the Red Death", "Elonora" and many others. Making tangible contributions to the development of the genres of horror and science fiction, Poe is considered to be the father of the modern detective story and highly lauded as a master of lyrics. His thrilling, sometimes macabre, psychologically tense works touched the deepest reaches of his reader's soul. Isn't this unique personality  worth admiration of the whole Universe? 

The Mysterious World of Edgar Allan Poe

http://www.americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allen-poe/short-story/the-masque-of-the-red-death

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling at once five balls in the air. Let's name them - work, family, friends, health and spirit. You are keeping all of them in the air. You are trembling like an aspen leaf because it's unbearably difficult to strive the right balance. Quite soon you will understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other 4 balls are made of glass. If you drop one of them, they will be irrevocably scuffed, damaged and shattered. They will never be the same. Edgar Allan Poe - a prominent American writer and a tremendously popular creator of a new literary genre - a horror story- played the same breathtaking game juggling 5 balls in the air and... he failed. He was defeated, conquered by his own self. He dropped all the balls except the rubber one- his last refuge that made him live and pave the way for his incontestable genius. 

Being greatly impressed by the talent of this literary virtuoso, I have chosen  for my project his short story "The Masque of the Red Death".