Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, audio and text

Prince Prospero, seeking to escape a deadly plague ravaging his land, retreats with a thousand nobles to a fortified abbey. They seal themselves in, determined to wait out the "Red Death" in opulent revelry. A grand masquerade ball is held within the abbey's seven uniquely colored rooms, each more bizarre and unsettling than the last. As the party reaches its feverish peak, a mysterious, uninvited guest appears…