Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der dritte Kreis
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About 3 h 30 min to read.Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who love short stories with a sting, mysteries left open, ghostly shivers and vivid pictures of old San Francisco will feel at home here.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Who is the woman who vanishes from a Chinatown restaurant with a tiny butterfly inked on her little finger? Who stabbed a man in a shuttered house during a binge that six drunk gentlemen cannot remember? And what does an old man pull from a baby's coffin in the pouring rain?
These puzzles run through The Third Circle, sixteen tales by Frank Norris, an American novelist who died in 1902. The scenes move from Chinatown to a Sierra mining town, a Paris art studio and a bare Icelandic rock. Some are comic, some cruel, some haunting, and many close with a sting.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A harmless lark opens a door into ChinatownFree
- 2Six drunk men, one dead body, no answer
- 3A boxer's potato salad and a baby's coffin
- 4Respectable men break loose or lose their grip
- 5Flags, duels and the voice of a distant homeland
- 6Gifted men let their best fire go out
- 7An outlaw's island and a lonely last dinner
- 8Ordinary lives hide wilder selves beneath them
- 9Many mysteries are left deliberately unanswered
- 10Norris tells each tale in a distinct voice
Punkt 1 von 10
A harmless lark opens a door into Chinatown
The collection opens with a warning. San Francisco's Chinatown has three circles, the narrator says. The guides show the first, do not show the second, and no one ever hears about the third.
In the Seventy Moons restaurant on Waverly Place, Tom Hillegas and Harriett Ten Eyck, both from the East and engaged to be married, sit among lanterns and incense jars. A fortune-teller inks a tiny butterfly on the little finger of her left hand. Hillegas jokes that she can never commit a crime without being known. Then he goes downstairs, meets a courteous merchant in a blue robe, and lingers to talk. When he climbs the stairs again, Harriett is gone, and no white man ever sees her again.
Twenty years later a pearl diver turned bum named Manning leads the narrator to the hidden rooms where white women are kept as slaves. A small careless choice can mark a life forever.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Questions about Der dritte Kreis
What is The Third Circle about?
It is a collection of sixteen short tales by Frank Norris. They begin in San Francisco's Chinatown and travel to mining camps, the desert, Paris, Iceland and a skyscraper banquet hall, with mysteries, comedy and shocks along the way.
What does the third circle of Chinatown mean?
The opening tale says Chinatown has three parts: the one guides show, the one they hide, and the one no one hears about. The third circle is the secret underworld the story goes on to visit.
Is The Third Circle one story or many?
It holds sixteen separate tales, including The House With the Blinds, Shorty Stack, Pugilist, Toppan, Dying Fires and Grettir at Drangey. Each stands on its own, so you can read them one at a time.
Is Grettir at Drangey a true story?
Grettir the Strong is a famous outlaw of Icelandic saga tradition, and Norris retells his last stand on the island of Drangey. The tale follows that saga material with vivid scenes of storm, witchcraft and a final fight.
Is The Third Circle easy to follow?
Yes, in the sense that each tale is short, built on clear scenes and told by a lively narrator. The plain language and quick pace make the stories easy to enjoy one by one.
Cite this edition
Norris, Frank. The Third Circle. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-third-circle.
Norris, F. (2026). The third circle. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-third-circle (Original work published 1909)
Norris, Frank. The Third Circle. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-third-circle.
@book{norris2026third,
author = {Norris, Frank},
title = {The Third Circle},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-third-circle},
note = {First published 1909}
}
