16 h 54 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 16 h 54 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a respectable face is the most dangerous disguise of all?
In Mary Elizabeth Braddon's The Trail of the Serpent, Jabez North wants to climb from poverty to wealth. Charm is his tool, and other people's trust is his opportunity. As he advances through lies, disguises and crime, innocent people bear the cost. Richard Marwood's good name and safety hang in the balance.
Against North's polished deceit stands Mr. Peters, a patient detective who follows small clues toward the guilty. Loyal Dickon Hargraves and the lawyer Gabriel Forrester also stand against deception. Beneath the suspense runs an unsettling question: how easily can good clothes, smooth speech and a respectable address pass for proof of character?
What you’ll discover
- Charm with a cruel purpose Meet Jabez North, whose hunger for wealth turns borrowed trust into a weapon.
- An innocent life in danger Follow Richard Marwood as events he does not cause threaten his safety and reputation.
- The patience of detection Watch Mr. Peters read small clues and slowly trace a path through deception.
- Loyalty against polished lies Discover Dickon Hargraves, a silent, loyal figure who stands against the villain's deceit.
- Respectability under suspicion Explore a Victorian world where outward polish can hide a ruthless heart.
Who will love it
Readers who love Victorian mysteries, daring disguises and quick-witted detectives will feel at home here, as will anyone who enjoys a story that moves between comedy, courtroom drama and high society.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Pious Usher Hides a Rope
- A Prodigal Comes Home to the Black Mill
- Arrested in a Back Street
- Slopperton Tries Richard Marwood
- Blind Peter and the Man With a Familiar Face
- Paris and a Cold Observer With an Opera Glass
- A Fortune Told in Cards and a Poisoned Glass
- Eight Years Pass and an Escape Is Planned
- A Banker in Park Lane and a Face Peters Knows
- What Braddon Is Really Writing About
Who’s who
- Richard MarwoodCalled Daredevil Dick, he is a reckless, warm-hearted young man who comes home repentant and then fights to clear his name of a murder.
- Jabez NorthA pale, handsome usher at a small academy, praised by the town as pious, who hides a fierce ambition to rise by any means.
- Joseph PetersA mute, overlooked detective who speaks with his fingers and believes in Richard's innocence when everyone else has given up on him.
- SloshA tiny, sharp-eyed foundling raised by Peters, he is a street-wise boy who dreams of the detective trade and proves useful in a crisis.
- Valerie de CevennesA proud, passionate Spanish-French heiress who marries in secret and is drawn into a scheme that haunts her for years.
- Raymond MarollesA cool, calculating adventurer who studies people as a mathematician studies numbers and wants a fortune he can win by marrying it.
- Augustus DarleyA cheerful young surgeon with a chipped tumbler and endless jokes, he is Richard's loyal friend and brother to Isabella.
- KuppinsPeters's lively young housekeeper, who loves babies, tripe and the detective, and sees the world as a grand and wonderful stage.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 16 h 54 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La pista de la serpiente
by M. E. Braddon · 1860
A pious usher slips out at midnight with a rope, and a prodigal son sleeps at the Black Mill.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Trail of the Serpent is a Victorian sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It follows a crime from a rainy factory town in England to the opera houses of Paris and the back streets of London.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Pious Usher Hides a Rope
The story opens on a black November day in Slopperton-on-the-Sloshy. Rain floods the gutters and the fog seems to whisper bad thoughts into every ear. The narrator takes a moment to ask what such weather does to the human mind, then turns to a man it does not touch at all.
That man is Jabez North, assistant and usher at Dr. Tappenden's academy. He is handsome, pale and fair, with blue eyes that never look at you long enough to show their colour. A visiting lecturer on skulls once said he lacked the bump of conscientiousness, but the town laughed at the idea. Slopperton believes in Jabez, partly because Slopperton made him.
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What is The Trail of the Serpent about?
It is a Victorian mystery about a murder at a lonely house near Slopperton and the man blamed for it. The story follows a mute detective, a cold-hearted schemer and a wronged heiress across England and France.
Who is Joseph Peters in The Trail of the Serpent?
Peters is a mute police detective who talks with his fingers. Others overlook him, but he notices what they miss and believes in Richard Marwood's innocence from the start.
Is The Trail of the Serpent a true story?
No, it is fiction by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, a Victorian novelist. The towns are partly invented, though the courts, railways and opera houses reflect real English and French life of the time.
The author
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
1835–1915 · English sensation novelist
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915) was an English novelist born in London. She wrote The Trail of the Serpent (1860), Lady Audley’s Secret (1862), and Only a Clod (1865). She also wrote short stories. She lived in Richmond, Surrey, for many years and died there in 1915.
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