Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1: 'The Pit and the Pendulum', 'The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar', and 'The Cask of Amontillardo' recap

This volume collects three tales of confinement at the edge of death. In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition survives darkness, a hidden pit, a descending blade, and closing heated walls until General Lasalle rescues him as French troops enter Toledo. In “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” an experiment holds the dying Valdemar in a mesmeric suspension for seven months; when the mesmerist finally releases him, his body instantly decays. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” Montresor uses Fortunato's vanity about wine to lure him beneath a carnival into family catacombs, chains him in a recess, and seals him alive behind masonry. Montresor reports that the concealed remains have gone undisturbed for fifty years.

In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” an unnamed prisoner is sentenced by the Spanish Inquisition and awakens in a completely dark cell. Exploring by touch, he narrowly avoids falling into a deep pit at its center. He later wakes bound beneath a large bladed pendulum that descends gradually toward him. By smearing food on his restraints, he attracts rats that gnaw the bindings and free him just before the blade reaches him. His unseen captors then heat the metal walls and force them inward, driving him toward the pit. At the final instant, French troops enter Toledo; General Lasalle catches the prisoner as the Inquisition's machinery fails, saving him from the fall.

The first tale ends with the Inquisition's prisoner rescued from the closing walls and central pit by General Lasalle. In “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” a mesmerist tests whether hypnosis can delay death by placing the terminally ill M. Valdemar under influence as his physicians expect him to die. Valdemar ceases ordinary breathing and movement, yet remains responsive in a disturbing suspended condition and communicates that he is dead. The witnesses leave him in that state under supervision. Seven months later, the mesmerist and physicians attempt to awaken him. Valdemar begs either to be returned to sleep or fully awakened. As the mesmeric control is released, his body collapses almost instantly into advanced decay, ending the experiment without a recoverable living patient.

After the prisoner's rescue in the first tale and Valdemar's fatal release from suspended death in the second, “The Cask of Amontillado” follows Montresor's carefully concealed revenge. During carnival he finds Fortunato intoxicated and dressed as a jester. Knowing Fortunato's pride in his wine expertise, Montresor claims to have bought Amontillado and repeatedly offers to consult Luchesi instead. Fortunato insists on judging it and follows him into the damp Montresor catacombs. Deep inside, Montresor suddenly chains Fortunato in a narrow recess. He builds a brick wall across the opening while Fortunato moves from disbelief to desperate appeals. Montresor completes the wall, restores the bones that hid the site, and states that Fortunato's remains have been undisturbed for fifty years. His revenge succeeds without any stated discovery or punishment.

The volume closes with “The Cask of Amontillado.” During carnival, Montresor exploits Fortunato's pride in his knowledge of wine and leads him into the family catacombs to inspect a supposed purchase of Amontillado. Deep underground, Montresor chains him inside a recess and walls up the opening. Fortunato's disbelief gives way to pleas, but Montresor finishes the masonry, replaces the bones that concealed the site, and reveals that no one has disturbed it for fifty years. This follows the rescue of the Inquisition's prisoner by General Lasalle in the first story and the second story's catastrophic end, when the mesmerist releases Valdemar after seven months of suspended death and Valdemar's body immediately collapses into decay.