Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der Schwarze Abt
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who enjoy ghost stories, hidden treasure and old English country houses will find plenty here, along with fans of clever detectives, quick chapters and a quiet love story.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Black Abbot is a mystery novel by Edgar Wallace, who died in 1932 after writing a very large number of thrillers. It is set in the Sussex countryside at Fossaway Manor, where a ghost in a monk's habit has begun to walk again and where, according to legend, a fortune in Spanish gold lies hidden. The book gives you a ghost story, a treasure hunt and a crime story in one.
At its centre is Dick Alford, the earl's practical younger half-brother, who does not believe in ghosts but cannot ignore what happens around him. Beside him stand Leslie Gwyn, a girl engaged to the wrong brother, and a Scotland Yard sergeant who looks like a chimpanzee and thinks like a chess player. Against them move a vain lawyer, his sinister head clerk and a former secretary with a nose for gold.
You will hear how a bookish earl, a bookmaker and a pair of schemers come to meet among the same ruined stones, and why the people around the manor are drawn one by one into danger. Let us begin with the earl himself and the library where he guards his fears.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A haunted house and a frightened earlFree
- 2A second son falls for his brother's fiancée
- 3Arthur Gwyn lives on money that is gone
- 4Gilder is the bookmaker who ruined Arthur
- 5A ghost at the Abbey and a knife in the dark
- 6Scotland Yard sends a man who looks like a monkey
- 7Gilder searches the vault beneath the Abbey
- 8Ruin, a forced bargain and a body in a cowl
- 9What the story is about and how it is told
Punkt 1 von 9
A haunted house and a frightened earl
Fossaway Manor stands in Sussex above the village of Chelfordbury, and the book opens in its shadowy library. Harry Alford, the eighteenth Earl of Chelford, works there under green-shaded lamps among black-letter books from Germany. He is thin, pale and not yet thirty. Over the fireplace hangs a portrait of his dead mother, whose dark eyes he shares.
Harry has just forbidden his servants to mention the Black Abbot. By the old story, the Abbot of Chelfordbury was murdered seven hundred years ago on the second earl's orders, and his ghost has walked ever since. Lately the figure is seen again, and a London paper prints the news. Harry tells reporters it is a village prank, yet he believes in the ghost as firmly as he denies it.
The footman Thomas hears everything and writes to someone with a close interest in the manor. He once served three years in prison for theft, and no one in the house knows it. The butler, the grocer and the village inn all trade tales of the Abbot, and each telling grows darker.
Then comes the treasure. An Elizabethan ancestor kept a diary in faded green ink. It tells how Sir Walter Hythe brought home a thousand gold ingots, each of thirty-five pounds, taken from two Spanish ships, along with a crystal flask of Life Water said to wake the dead. The earl meant to hide it all in a secret place. His entry breaks off in the middle of a sentence about his loyalty to Queen Mary.
Harry cares little for gold. He wants the flask, because he lives in fear of death. His half-brother Dick thinks an elixir is nonsense and suspects the Queen took the gold long ago. Four hundred years of Chelfords have searched without success, yet Harry insists he is halfway to the answer.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about Der Schwarze Abt
What is The Black Abbot about?
It follows the Chelford family at Fossaway Manor in Sussex, where a ghost in a monk's habit appears while several people hunt a hidden Elizabethan fortune. Dick Alford and a Scotland Yard detective try to protect the household from a growing series of crimes.
Who is the Black Abbot in the book?
The Black Abbot is a figure in a black monk's habit said to be the ghost of an abbot murdered seven hundred years ago. Dick Alford and others believe it is a human wearing a disguise, and finding who wears it drives the mystery.
What is the Chelford treasure?
It is a thousand gold ingots of thirty-five pounds each, brought from Spanish ships in Elizabethan times and hidden on the estate. Harry also seeks a crystal flask of Life Water. Four hundred years of searches have found neither.
Is The Black Abbot a true story?
No, it is fiction by Edgar Wallace, who died in 1932. Its Sussex village, Fossaway Manor and the Chelford family are invented, though the setting draws on real English history, such as the Tudor court and the ruined abbeys that many counties still have.
Is The Black Abbot easy to read?
Yes is not needed here: the book has short chapters, lively dialogue and a clear plot that moves quickly from scene to scene. Its humorous side characters, strong sense of place and frequent cliffhangers make it easy to follow and enjoyable to hear.