The Masque of the Red Death

A novella by the American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. Its theme revolves around attempts to avoid a dangerous plague called the Red Death by the main protagonist, Prince Prospero.
The story follows the footsteps of gothic literature and is often interpreted as an allegory of the inevitability of death, although such an analysis is not recommended by some critics. There are many explanations regarding the interpretation of the novella, as well as numerous attempts to identify the nature of the 'Red Death.'