What I’m Reading – The Cask of Amontillado

*Spoilers*

I recently finished reading The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe written in 1846.

The story itself is pretty straightforward: It’s about revenge. The main character feels that his friend, Fortunato, has insulted him many times and now wants to get revenge. During a carnival, he tells Fortunato that he recently bought wine that was supposed to be Amontillado, but he isn’t sure. Fortunato wants to check the wine himself since he is a connoisseur.

The two men go to the vaults, where Fortunato begins to cough. He has been sick, and the vault is full of nitre, potassium nitrate, irritating his condition. His friend tells him to go back if it aggravates his cough, he can get his other friend Luchesi to test the wine, but Fortunato, who is quite drunk, insists on continuing. Fortunato continues to cough and drink as they go deeper into the vaults.

The whole time, his friend’s internal monologue is dark. He thinks about how much he hates Fortunato and can’t wait to get revenge. He doesn’t care about Fortunato’s cough and continually gives him wine to keep him complacent and prevent him from catching on to what is going to happen……

It was a good read. The revenge the character enacts on Fortunato is extreme, especially because we never really know what Fortunato did besides insult him. Give this story a try for a quick, dark Halloween read.

Rating: 7/10