Shortstory Report

Some time ago, I bought a collection of 50 short stories, each by a different author, and have been slowly working my way through those. Here's some thoughts I had on some of them.

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The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

The story is about the Red Death, a plague even worse than the black death, which is devastating the countryside. To avoid its grasp, prince Prospero prepares a castle with plentiful supplies and retires with all his friends and courtiers to it, sealing the entrance. There they spend their time in merriment and distraction, while the world falls apart.

One day they hold a mask ball, across multiple rooms. And all goes well until people start to notice someone someone with a mask and costume of the 'Red Death' in the form of a plague victim, covered in their own blood.

The prince is enraged, but no one dares to approach the figure, until eventually Prospero himself tries to strike at them - only to find their body to be immaterial. Suddenly, he drops dead. And then, all the other revelers follow suit. The castle, meant to be a safe haven, is left quiet and empty.

Thoughts:

The title of this one made me initially think of the King in Yellow, and that thought was maybe not entirely misplaced. Both feature something inhuman and powerful that is first assumed to be wearing a disquieting mask, only for it to be revealed that it is not.

Between this and The Conqueror Worm, this is also the second story by Poe that has a distinctly apocalyptic theme. I wonder if there are more.

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The Man Higher Up by O. Henry

A story about how 3 masters of graft meet, a burglar, a huckster and a Wallstreet speculator, each of which has recently run into a spot of bad luck and lost all their money.

They spend a bit of time in each others company, and the burglar voices his satisfaction in proving that unlike the others, he doesn't require some starting capital to work with, and that now he can show off why the common view of looking down on him most among the three is overturned in their shared situation.

The story is told from the perspective of the fraudster, and we get to see how later on, when the burglar stole a few thousand dollars worth of money, the fraudster manages to trick him out of it. Yet in the end, some years later, it's the investor who walks away with the money. Capital always wins.

Thoughts:

This was a fun one, and I can recommend reading it if you can find it online. It has enough detail to embed you in the period and the perspectives of the characters, and the way the narrative is told as the huckster retelling it to someone else as a story from his event rich life is neat.

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I'll probably add more stories to this thread on occasion, so watch it if you want to see those.