The Cask of Amontillado  

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"The Cask of Amontillado" (sometimes spelled "The Casque of Amontillado") is a short story, written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book.

The story is set in a nameless European city in an unspecified year (possibly sometime during the eighteenth century) and concerns the deadly revenge taken by the narrator (Montresor) on a friend (Fortunato) whom he claims has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around a person being buried alive, or more specifically, by immurement.

As in "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe conveys the story through the murderer's perspective.

The remorseless, calculating Italian aristocrat Montresor thinks and behaves very much like a psychopathic personality. His aristocratic pride and bearing, as well as his concern for preserving and vindicating his reputation, are reminiscent of the duke in Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess".



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Cask of Amontillado" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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