1 h 18 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How much can a single iron nail reveal about love, guilt, and the people who judge a crime?
In The Nail, Pedro Antonio de Alarcón places an ordinary piece of iron at the heart of a mystery. Set in Spain, this short novella follows a case that turns on that small clue. But the question reaches beyond evidence: how do people decide where guilt lies?
Love and passion give the crime its emotional force. Alarcón brings strong feelings into contact with the demands of justice, showing those who judge as people with consciences. The story belongs to the early days of crime fiction, before the detective tale settles into its familiar shape.
What you’ll discover
- One small, unsettling clue An everyday nail becomes the focus of a case that raises questions about guilt.
- Love with a sharp edge Passion gives this mystery its force, bringing uneasy feelings into the search for justice.
- The human face of judgment Those who must decide the case bring human consciences to the demands of law.
- An early crime story Explore a mystery from a time before detective fiction takes on its familiar conventions.
- Romantic Spain in transition Discover fiction poised between Romantic intensity and a closer attention to real life.
Who will love it
For readers who love a short, tense story about crime and conscience, and for anyone curious about early Spanish fiction.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A crime story in Romantic Spain
- One small object holds the mystery
- Love and passion drive the story
- Justice, judgment and how it is told
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- Large print hardcover
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El clavo
by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón · 1853
An iron nail becomes the key clue in a crime that puts love, guilt and the judgment of another person's fate at stake.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
A crime story in Romantic Spain
Alarcón wrote in the middle of the nineteenth century, when Spanish fiction was moving from Romantic excess toward closer attention to real life. The Nail belongs to that moment. It has the dark moods and strong passions of the Romantic tale, yet it is also interested in how courts, officials and ordinary townspeople handle a serious crime.
The book is short, so it moves fast. It does not stop to describe every street or custom. It sets up a mystery and then follows the people who try to explain it.
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What is The Nail by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón about?
It is a short Spanish novella about a crime and the investigation that follows. A single iron nail serves as the key clue, and the story weighs love, guilt and the workings of justice.
When was The Nail written?
Alarcón published it in the mid-nineteenth century, in the 1850s. It dates from the period when Spanish fiction was shifting from Romantic drama toward closer observation of real life and institutions.
What does the nail mean in the story?
The nail is the central piece of evidence and the title symbol. It shows how a small, ordinary object can hold a large truth and how people struggle to read evidence correctly.
The author
Pedro Antonio de Alarcón
1833–1891 · Spanish novelist
Pedro Antonio de Alarcón was a Spanish novelist born in Guadix in 1833. He wrote novels, short stories, and travel accounts. His works include The Three-Cornered Hat, published in 1874, and The Scandal, published in 1875. He also worked as a journalist and politician. He died in Madrid in 1891.
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