What I'd Recommend

Of all the works of fiction that we have covered, the one I would probably recommend to a friend is “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe. Actually I already have recommended it to someone. Anyway, there are several reasons why I recommend it. One of those is the way in which Poe gives insights into a man that is deranged through first person narrative. This helps to make the story very gripping, and suspenseful. The fact that we have an insight into this man’s thoughts gives the story an amazing intensity, for all of its five pages. Also an aspect of point of view is the brief use of the second person, which serves to draw in the reader and involve them in it. The foreshadowing throughout the story is subtle at times, and can be seen as both macabre and humorous. For example, when the narrator offers Fortunato a bottle of De Grâve wine, the name is ironically similar to the word grave. We may think it funny, or we may think of it as a death sentence. Another bit of irony is Fortunato’s name which means lucky, when he is just the opposite. All this, to state a few reasons, is much of why I would recommend this story to a friend.