It's Poe, always a bit of a twist. ( )

Edgar Allan Poe’s highly symbolic short story about death and the futility of attempting to avoid it, is one of the most read short stories of all time. In these days of pestilence abroad, it made for a reminder that things could be worse, but also that time marches regardless of circumstance and that death is to come for all of us, and often when least expected.
( )

I think this is supposed to be a gothic thriller. But while it definitely had gothic elements, I didn't find it thrilling at all. I enjoy Poe's work (or at least I did last time I read it) but I found this one boring. And I don't think that's just because of the COVID-19 crisis we're currently living through. I had thought that reading The Masque of the Red Death now would be even more interesting given COVID-19. But the writing style wasn't what I had expected from Poe, and I didn't really care for it.

I mean, it was okay. Its writing style is a product of its time, and I didn't exactly dislike it. I just didn't exactly like it either. ( )

Extremely relevant now, during the COVID-19 pandemic! Place Trump, or any other ugly, wealth and power hungry despot, in the place of Prince Prospero, and you've basically got the system we have now in the U.S.. The wealthy get protection the rest of us can only dream of. But in this story, the Prince and his 1,000 chosen ones enter a world that I could only dream of! Comeuppance! For me, in this context, the "spectral image" is a hero! Wish we had someone like him now...

"And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death." ( )

Another one by a supreme innovator and true master. It's hard to find much of any of his work that disappoints. While he didn't invent the horror or gothic genres, I would contend he was the first and most influential in creating, shaping and sustaining such genres before the baton was later passed on to Lovecraft. Recommended, as always with Poe... ( )