Edgar Allan Poe indulges in involved descriptions of the members of the horrible party that is held in an undertaker’s shop in his short story King Pest. Consequently, it seems important to understand the characteristics that he gives to each member of the Pest family.
First Party Member – King Pest the First
The first person, who the narrator referred to as the president, faced the door and sat at a higher elevation than the others. He was tall and even thinner than the sailor Legs. He was very yellow in color. His one unusual characteristic was his extremely high forehead. His forehead was so immense that it almost appeared as if a crown of flesh has been added on top of the normal forehead. His expression was pleasant although his eyes (like those of his companions) were the glassy-eyes of one intoxicated.
He was wearing a black pall (a heavy cloth generally draped over a coffin) that he wrapped around himself like a cloak. He had black feathers, of the kind typically used to decorate the horses that pull the hearse, sticking out of his head. The feathers bobbed as he spoke. He had a human thighbone in his right hand that he seemed to use like a staff.
Second Party Member – Queen Pest Serene – Consort to the King
The second person sat with her back to the door. She was as tall as the first man, King Pest, but she was extremely bloated or obese. She had a round red face with an enormous mouth. She tried to appear dignified by keeping her mouth closed. She was dressed in a starched and ironed funeral shroud.
Third Party Member – Her Serene Highness the Arch Duchess Ana-Pest
To the right hand of the large woman was a especially small woman who seemed be her particular friend. Her appearance was that of a person in the last stages of consumption. Her outstanding feature was a large, flexible, pimply nose that hung down below her bottom lip. She was dressed in an Indian winding shroud.
Fourth Party Member
Next to the thin woman and opposite of the heavy lady was a fat, asthmatic, arthritic old man. This gentleman’s cheeks were so large that they rested on his shoulders. He had his gout-ridden foot bandaged and resting on the table. He too wore funeral cloths.
Fifth Party Member
Sitting between the old man and the president was a figure wrapped up rather like a mummy. Despite his bandages, his enormous ears managed to escape his wraps. The ears rose to the very atmosphere of the room and would twitch at any small sound such as the removal of a cork.
Sixth Party Member
Opposite the mummified gentleman was a paralyzed man who inhabited a mahogany coffin. His outstanding physical feature was huge goggle eyes.
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