About this audiobook
This is the full text of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado (1846), read aloud word for word in about 15 minutes. The video highlights each word as it is spoken, so you can follow the original wording, and adds a who’s-who, five hard words and a short recap after each of 3 parts. The narration is a synthetic voice (Kokoro text-to-speech). The text comes from the public-domain Project Gutenberg edition, ebook 2148, and nothing is cut.
Who is who
Montresor: The narrator. He says Fortunato insulted him, and he wants revenge without getting caught. Fortunato: His friend, dressed as a jester at carnival and very proud of his taste in wine. Luchesi: Another man Montresor says could judge the wine. He never appears.
Five hard words
- Impunity: Freedom from punishment.
- Immolation: A sacrifice, here a killing.
- Nitre: A white mineral that grows on damp walls.
- Roquelaire: A short cloak.
- Flambeaux: Burning torches.
What happens: Carnival night
Montresor says Fortunato insulted him, so he vows revenge, but he must punish without being caught. He keeps smiling at Fortunato, who is proud of his knowledge of wine. At carnival he meets Fortunato, drunk and dressed as a jester, and says he has bought a cask of Amontillado, a rare wine. He says he will ask Luchesi to check it instead, and that is enough to make Fortunato insist on coming.
What happens: Down to the vaults
The servants have gone to the carnival, so Montresor leads Fortunato down into the damp catacombs. Fortunato coughs because of the nitre on the walls. Montresor offers to turn back, but Fortunato refuses. They drink, and talk about the Montresor family arms and its motto. Fortunato makes a secret sign of the masons, and Montresor answers by showing him a trowel.
What happens: The niche
At the far end of the crypt is a small recess, and Fortunato steps in looking for the wine. Montresor chains him inside and builds a wall of stone across the opening, one tier at a time. Fortunato screams, laughs, and then begs. Montresor mocks him. The last answer is only the jingling of the bells, and Montresor says no one has disturbed the bones for half a century.
The missing insult
Montresor never says what Fortunato did to him, and he tells the story to someone he calls ‘you’. Our reading, which is an opinion, is that the story gives us his revenge in loving detail and almost nothing of his reason.
