This week we are celebrating Edgar Allen Poe's birthday with an oddly apropos story about the wealthy Prince Prospero who attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his castle with his obscenely rich friends. One night he hosts an ornate masquerade ball for his guests, but in the midst of their revelry, a mysterious and threatening figure appears.

The story was first published in the May 1842 issue of Graham's Magazine and has since been adapted in many different forms, including a 1964 film starring Vincent Price.

Read by Lucé Tomlin-Brenner

Original Sound Design by Pete Byrnes

You can read The Masque of the Red Death here.

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