The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
FictionMysteryClassicsHorrorGothicShort Stories
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"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story first published in November 1846. Set during Carnival in an Italian city, it follows nobleman Montresor as he enacts revenge against fellow noble Fortunato for perceived insults and injuries. Told from the murderer's perspective, the tale lures Fortunato into the catacombs beneath Montresor's home with the promise of rare amontillado wine. What awaits is a carefully planned trap that ends in live burial. The story's central mystery lies not in detection, but in understanding Montresor's true motives for such extreme vengeance.
Contains spoilers for the entire book
- Themes
- Atmosphere
About the book
First published in November 1846, “The Cask of Amontillado” is narrated by Montresor, who announces in its opening sentence that he has borne a thousand injuries from Fortunato and has vowed revenge for an insult. During the carnival season he meets Fortunato, a proud connoisseur of wine, and invites him to judge a cask of Amontillado stored in the vaults beneath his palazzo. Edgar Allan Poe tells the story in a few pages with almost no explanation of the original offence, and lets the reader follow the two men deeper into the damp family catacombs. The narrator’s calm, exact voice, recalling events from half a century before, makes it one of Poe’s most chilling studies of pride and premeditated cruelty.
Characters
Montresor — Narrator
A man who recounts his carefully planned revenge for an insult he refuses to explain.
Fortunato — Montresor's acquaintance
A proud wine connoisseur tempted by the promise of a rare cask during carnival.
Luchesi — Absent wine expert
A rival connoisseur whose name Montresor invokes to provoke Fortunato's professional vanity.
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American poet, short-story writer and critic. Born in Boston to two actors, he was orphaned before he was three and taken in by John Allan, a merchant in Richmond, Virginia, with whom he later fell out. After leaving the University of Virginia and being dismissed from West Point, he tried to live by writing, working as an editor and reviewer for magazines in Richmond, Philadelphia and New York. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) is often called the first modern detective story, and “The Raven” (1845) made him famous, though never prosperous. His wife, Virginia, died of tuberculosis in 1847. Poe died in Baltimore in October 1849, in circumstances that have never been explained. His tales of terror and his ideas about the short story reached far beyond America, not least through Charles Baudelaire’s French translations.