It was a voluptuous scene that masquerade.


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Federico Castillon
Masque of the Red Death, 1968
1975.39.04
It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence. It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade.

But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven — an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different; as might have been expected from the duke’s love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite.

Upcoming Big Read Events:

March 17th – Poe’s Women

Vigo County Public Library, 12:10-12:50 p.m.
Join local history columnist Dorothy Jerse and ISU Professor Mandy Reid for a local and literary look at women during the Victorian era.

March 20th – Welcome to My Nightmare

Sinfonietta Concert, Scottish Rite, 3:00 p.m.
Free Books! Tickets available at the door. $10 adult/$5 student

March 23rd – The Mystery of Orchids

Paris Public Library (IL), 6:30 p.m. (CST)
Edgar Allan Poe wrote stories filled with mystery, terror and wonder. No plant fills gardeners with more terror than orchids. Dick Wells of Hilltop Orchids will guide us through the mysteries of these wonderful flowers.