The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe - Audiobook - Short Story

Name: The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe - Audiobook - Short Story
Uploaded: 2025-05-14T03:37:03+00:00
Duration: 18 min 18 s
Channel: Quizlitbooks

Quizlitbooks

14/05/2025

🔥 ➡️ The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe - Audiobook - Short Story

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book.

https://quizlit.org/the-cask-of-amontillado-by-edgar-allan-poe

🔔 Subscribe for more just like this:

BOOKS FEATURED IN THIS VIDEO

Greatest Work of Edgar Allan Poe https://amzn.to/3D3aif0

↑ Links listed above are amazon affiliate links ↑

CHAT WITH QUIZLIT!
===============================
🛠️ - QUIZLIT CUSTOMER SUPPORT: support@quizlit.org
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/quizlitbooks
X https://twitter.com/Stephen48437445
IG: https://www.instagram.com/quizlitbooks/
PIN - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/QuizlitBooks/
SUBSTACK https://substack.com/@quizlitbooks
THREADS @quizlitbooks

#podcast #shortstory #audiobook #edgarallanpoe #booktok #read #books #booktube #bookrecs #fiction #literature #freeaudiobooks #freebooks #horrorstories
Narrated by Phil Chenevert, courtesy of Librivox

Category

😹

Fun

Transcript

Display full video transcript

00:00the cask of amontillaro the thousand injuries of fortunato i had borne as best i could but when he ventured upon insult i vowed revenge

00:18you who know me well you who so well know the nature of my soul will not suppose however that i gave utterance to a threat at length i would be avenged this was a point definitely settled

00:35but the very definiteness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk i must not only punish but punish with impunity

00:48a wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser it is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong

01:02it must be understood that neither by word nor deed had i given fortunato cause to doubt my good-will i continued as was my wont

01:14to smile in his face and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation he had a weak point this fortunato

01:29although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared he prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine

01:40few italians have the true virtuoso spirit for the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and opportunity to practise imposture upon the british and austrian millionaires

01:55in painting and jimmery fortunato like his countrymen was a quack but in the matter of old wines he was sincere

02:08in this respect i did not differ from him materially i was skilful in the italian vintages myself and bought largely whenever i could

02:18it was about dusk one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season that i encountered my friend he accosted me with excessive warmth

02:31for he had been drinking much the man wore motley he had on a tight-fitting party-striped dress and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells

02:43i was so pleased to see him that i thought i should never have done wringing his hand i said to him my dear fortunato you are luckily met how remarkably well you are looking to-day

02:58but i have received a pipe of what passes for amontillado and i have my doubts how said he amontillado a pipe impossible and in the middle of the carnival

03:15i have my doubts i replied and i was silly enough to pay the full amontillado price without consulting you in the matter you were not to be found and i was fearful of losing a bargain

03:29amontillado i have my doubts amontillado and i must satisfy them amontillado

03:39as you are engaged i am on my way to lucecy if any one has a critical turn it is he he will tell me lucecy cannot tell amontillado from sherry

03:52and yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own come let us go whither to your vaults

04:02my friend no i will not impose upon your good nature i perceive you have an engagement lucecy i have no engagement come

04:14my friend no it is not the engagement but the severe cold with which i perceive you are afflicted

04:23the vaults are insufferably damp they are encrusted with nitre let us go nevertheless the cold is merely nothing amontillado you have been imposed upon

04:38as for lucecy he cannot distinguish sherry from amontillado thus speaking fortunato possessed himself of my arm putting on a mask of black silk and drawing a roquelure closely about my person i suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo

04:58there were no attendants at home they had absconded to make merry in honour of the time i had told them that i should not return until the morning and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house

05:13these orders were sufficient i well knew to ensure their immediate disappearance one and all as soon as my back was turned

05:23i took from their sconces two flambeaux and giving one to fortunato bowed him through several suites of rooms to the archway that led into the vaults

05:35i passed down a long and winding staircase requesting him to be cautious as he followed we came at length to the foot of the descent and stood together on the damp ground to the catacombs of the montresors

05:51the gate of my friend was unsteady and the bells upon his cap jingled as he strode the pipe said he it is farther on said i but observe the white web-work which gleams from these cavern walls

06:09he turned towards me and looked into my eyes with two filmy orbs that distilled the room of intoxication nitre he asked at length nitre i replied how long have you had that cough

06:27my poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minutes

06:42it is nothing he said at last come i said with decision we will go back your health is precious you are rich respected admired beloved

06:55you are happy as once i was you are a man to be missed for me it is no matter

07:02we will go back you will be ill and i cannot be responsible besides there is luceci enough he said the cough is a mere nothing it will not kill me i shall not die of a cough

07:17true true i replied and indeed i had no intention of alarming you unnecessarily but you should use all proper caution

07:27a draught of this medoc will defend us from the dance here i knocked off the neck of a bottle which i drew from a long row of its fellows that lay upon the mould

07:38drink i said presenting him the wine he raised it to his lips with a leer he paused and nodded to me familiarly while his bells jingled i drink he said

07:53to the buried that repose around us and i to your long life he again took my arm and we proceeded

08:02these vaults these vaults he said are extensive the montresaurs i replied were a great and numerous family i forget your arms

08:13a huge human foot door in a field azure the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in the heel and the motto nemo me impugne lacheset good he said

08:30the wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled my own fancy grew warm with the medoc we had passed through walls of piled bones with casks and puncheons intermingling into the innermost recesses of the catacombs

08:48i paused again and this time i made bold to seize fortunato by an arm above the elbow the nitre i said see it increases it hangs like moss upon the vaults we are below the river's bed

09:06the drops of moisture trickle among the bones come we will go back ere it is too late your cough it is nothing he said let us go on but first another draught of the medoc

09:20i broke and reached him a flagon of degrave he emptied it at a breath his eyes flashed with a fierce light he laughed and threw the bottle upwards with a gesticulation i did not understand

09:35i looked at him in surprise he repeated the movement a grotesque one you do not comprehend he said not i i replied then you are not of the brotherhood

09:50how you are not of the masons yes yes i said yes yes you impossible a mason a mason i replied a sign he said

10:04it is this i answered producing a trowel from beneath the folds of my roquilar you jest he exclaimed recalling a few paces

10:15but let us proceed to the amontillado be it so i said replacing the tool beneath the cloak and again offering him my arm he leaned upon it heavily

10:28we continued our route in search of the amontillado we passed through a range of low arches descended passed on and descending again arrived at a deep crypt in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeau rather to glow than flame

10:48at the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious its walls had been lined with human remains piled to the vault overhead in the fashion of the great catacombs of paris

11:03three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner from the fourth the bones had been thrown down and lay promiscuously upon the earth forming at one point a mound of some size

11:17within the wall thus exposed by the displacing of the bones we perceived a still interior recess in depth about four feet in width three in height six or seven it seemed to have been constructed for no especial use in itself

11:35but formed merely the interval between two of the colossal supports of the roof of the catacombs and was backed by one of their circumscribing walls of solid granite

11:46it was in vain that fortunato uplifting his dull torch endeavoured to pry into the depths of the recess its termination the feeble light did not enable us to see

12:00proceed i said herein is the amontillado as for luceci he is an ignoramus interrupted my friend as he stepped unsteadily forward while i followed immediately at his heels

12:16in an instant he had reached the extremity of the niche and finding his progress arrested by the rock stood stupidly bewildered

12:26a moment more and i had fettered him to the granite in its surface were two iron stables distant from each other about two feet horizontally

12:39from one of these depended a short chain from the other a padlock throwing the links about his waist it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it he was too much astonished to resist

12:52withdrawing the key i stepped back from the recess pass your hand i said over the wall you cannot help feeling the nitre indeed it is very damp once more let me implore you to return

13:10no then i must positively leave you but i must first render you all the little attentions in my power the amontillado ejaculated my friend not yet recovered from his astonishment

13:25true i replied the amontillado as i said these words i busied myself among the piles of bones of which i have before spoken throwing them aside i soon uncovered a quantity of building-stone and mortar

13:43with these materials and with the aid of my travel i began vigorously to wall up the entrance of the niche i had scarcely laid the first tier of my masonry when i discovered that the intoxication of fortunato had in a great measure worn off

14:03the earliest indication i had of this was a low moaning cry from the depth of the recess it was not the cry of a drunken man

14:14there was then a long and obstinate silence i laid the second tier and the third and the fourth and then i heard the furious vibrations of the chain

14:27the noise lasted for several minutes during which that i might hearken to it with the more satisfaction i seized my labors and sat down upon the bones

14:38when at last the clanking subsided i resumed the travel and finished without interruption the fifth the sixth and the seventh tier

14:50the wall was now nearly upon a level with my breast i again paused and holding the flambeau over the mason-work threw a few feeble rays upon the figure within

15:03a succession of loud and shrill screams bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form seemed to thrust me violently back

15:14for a brief moment i hesitated i trembled unsheathing my rapier i began to grope with it about the recess but the thought of an instant reassured me

15:25i placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs and felt satisfied i re-approached the wall i replied to the yells of him who clamoured i re-echoed i aided i surpassed them in volume and in strength

15:43i did this and the clamourer grew still it was now midnight and my task was drawing to a close i had completed the eighth the ninth and the tenth tier

15:56i had finished a portion of the last and the eleventh there remained but a single stone to be fitted and plastered in i struggled with this weight

16:07i placed it partially in its destined position but now there came from out the niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head

16:18it was succeeded by a sad voice which i had difficulty in recognizing as that of the noble fortunato the voice said

16:28a very good joke indeed an excellent jest we will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo he he he over our wine

16:45the amontillado i said he he he he yes the amontillado but is it not getting late will they not be awaiting us at the palazzo the lady fortunato and the rest let us be gone

17:03yes i said let us be gone for the love of god montresor yes i said for the love of god

17:14but to these words i hearkened in vain for a reply i grew impatient i called aloud fortunato no answer i called again fortunato

17:27no answer still i thrust the torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within there came forth in return only a jingling of the bells

17:40my heart grew sick on account of the dampness of the catacombs i hastened to make an end of my labor i forced the last stone into its position i plastered it up against the new masonry i re-erected the old rampart of bones

17:58for the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them in pace requiescat the casque of amontillado