The hourly (*) chiming of a "gigantic clock of ebony" in this story makes everyone stop dancing in an array of colorful rooms.
In Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, the poet Aubrey Buffing compares this story's meaning to AIDS. This story references Victor Hugo's play Hernani to describe the "piquancy and phantasm" of a certain event. One figure in this story is said to have "out-Heroded Herod" and is asked "who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery?" by a person who draws a dagger at him. The hourly (*) chiming of a "gigantic clock of ebony" in this story makes everyone stop dancing in an array of colorful rooms. The title character of this story, which holds "illimitable dominion over all," is revealed to be an intangible form that strikes Prince Prospero dead on sight. For 10 points, name this short story about the visit of the title plague to a ball, written by Edgar Allen Poe.
In Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, the poet Aubrey Buffing compares this story's meaning to AIDS.
"The Masque of the Red Death"