edgar allan poe the cask of amontillado summary

Several sources for the story have been suggested in the last century and a half: Edward Bulwer-Lytton's historical novel The Last Days of Pompeii (1843) a local Boston legend a collection of Letters from Italy and a real quarrel Poe had with two other poets. When the two men reach the last underground chamber, Montresor chains Fortunato to the wall, builds a new wall to seal him in, and leaves him to die.

Montresor leads a drunken Fortunato through a series of chambers beneath his palazzo with the promise of a taste of Amontillado, a wine that Montresor has just purchased. The story is narrated by Montresor, who carries a grudge against Fortunato for an offense that is never explained. Like Poe's other stories, it has remained in print continuously since 1850.

Although 'The Cask of Amontillado' was not singled out for critical attention when it appeared, it did nothing to change the opinions of Poe's contemporary admirers and detractors. These earlier stories were widely reviewed and argued over by critics who found them brilliant and disturbing, and their author perplexing and immoral. By the time Poe wrote this story, he was already nationally known as the author of the poem 'The Raven' (1844) and of several short stories collected in a book called, simply, Tales (1845). Griswold, Poe's literary executor, in 1850. The story next appeared in the collection Poe's Works, edited by Rufus W. 'The Cask of Amontillado' was first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book, a monthly magazine from Philadelphia that published poems and stories by some of the best American writers of the nineteenth century, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Edgar allan poe the cask of amontillado summary