Showing results by narrator "Melissa Arredondo" in All Categories

"The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy" (1842), is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey.

A pilot is lost in the Sahara Desert after his plane suffered a breakdown, but to his surprise, that's where he meets a small prince from another planet. The story has a philosophical theme, which includes social criticisms aimed at the strangeness with which adults see things.

When Alice tumbles down, down, down a rabbit-hole one hot summer's afternoon in pursuit of a white rabbit, she finds herself in Wonderland. And there begins the fantastical adventures that will see her experiencing extraordinary changes in size, swimming in a pool of her own tears, and attending the very maddest of tea parties.

"King Pest: An Allegory" is a fantastic account by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) who with excellent humor narrates a night of terror, taking on the subject of epidemics, in this case the Plague.

The narrator presents the facts of the extraordinary case of his friend Ernest Valdemar, which have incited public discussion. He is interested in mesmerism, a pseudoscience involving bringing a patient into a hypnagogic state by the influence of animal magnetism, a process that later developed into hypnotism. He points out that, as far as he knows, no one has ever been mesmerized at the point of death, and he is curious to see what effects mesmerism would have on a dying person.

The narrator begins by booking passage on a ship to travel from Charleston, SC to New York. He soon finds that an artist friend, Mr. Cornelius Wyatt, along with Wyatt's wife and two sisters, will be on the same ship. Our narrator reports that there are three rooms booked for this party, and he wonders what the explanation can be. Of course, it must be a servant! But he sees that the word servant had been on the passenger list, but had been crossed out. We also learn at this point that the narrator knows Mr. Wyatt's sisters, but has never met the wife.

The narrator knows very little about his friend. Upon arriving, the narrator describes the Usher family mansion in great detail, focusing on its most fantastic features and its unearthly atmosphere. Shortly after entering, the narrator is greeted by Roderick, who displays a number of strange symptoms. He claims his senses are especially acute: therefore, he cannot wear clothes of certain textures or eat particularly flavourful foods, and his eyes are bothered by even the faintest lights.  

This bundle contains: The Black Cat; The Raven; The Mask of the Red Death; The Tell-Tale Heart; The Fall of the House of Usher; The Oblong Box; The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar; and King Pest.

This audiobook has a music version and a non-music version. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by cutting it into pieces and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately the narrator's guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that the man's heart is still beating under the floorboards.

Includes a with-music version and no-music version. Poe is considered the inventor of detective story. He had a great role in developing the science fiction genre. He is best known for his tales of mystery and macabre. One of his best-known poems is “The Raven”, which was published in 1845. It was an instant success. His characters and work often appear in popular culture.

"The Black Cat" is the story of an alcoholic who is driven insane by his addiction. He tortures and kills his cat, Pluto. Then, a stray cat that looks almost exactly like the cat he murdered except for a gallows mark on its chest follows him home and drives him even more insane.