Edgar Allan POE, “The Cask of Amontillado”, in Selected Stories, Oxford World´s Classics

By Pablo Manning Sánchez 2º ESO A

The story I found most interesting and intriguing was “The Cask of Amontillado”, which tells of a man who devises a sophisticated, ingenious and complex plan to get revenge on a character who has offended him in some way. Montressor, the main character, who has a knack for creating and executing his challenging and ambitious plans, uses this unique attribute to conjure up a plan of revenge on Fortunato, the unsuspecting victim.

The language is difficult (e.g., “surmounted”, “parti-striped”, “nitre”...), as in most of Poe’s writings, but the style is interesting and intriguing. He uses suspense to keep the reader intrigued and wanting to read on and on until they discover what happens.

I would recommend this short story and the whole book to students and people who master the English language and can understand its vocabulary and structures. 14 and above, and higher if English is your second language. Also, I would recommend this book because it has one-of- a-kind stories and because Poe is a good writer and a pioneer of the detective genre.