Hop-Frog

"Hop-Frog" (originally «Hop-Frog; Or, the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs») is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character, a person with dwarfism taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for the king's striking of his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses the king and his cabinet as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all by setting their costumes on fire before escaping with Trippetta. Critical analysis has suggested that Poe wrote the story as a form of literary revenge against a woman named Elizabeth F. Ellet and her circle. Edgar Allan Poe is also famous for such works as «The Raven», «The Cask of Amontillado», «The Fall of the House of Usher», «The Masque of the Red Death», «The Pit and the Pendulum», «The Murders in the Rue Morgue», «The Tell-Tale Heart», «The Gold-Bug», «The Black Cat», «The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar», «Hop-Frog» and many more.