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
Readers who like a compact mystery with a courtroom at its heart, nineteenth century Spain, travellers' tales, and a plot that keeps one clever object in view from the first chapters to the last.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A silent companion in the dark coach
- A judge tells of his lost love
- A skull pierced by an iron nail
- Witnesses, a warrant and what it means
Who’s who
- FelipeA young lawyer and the narrator, witty and curious, who meets a mysterious woman on a coach and stands by his friend the judge.
- Joaquín ZarcoAn investigating judge, upright and tireless, who is still broken-hearted over a lost love and is set on solving the case of the skull.
- The woman in mourningA pale, elegant stranger on the Málaga coach who hides her name and says she hates love after being betrayed.
- BlancaThe beautiful widow Zarco loved in Seville, who plays the piano, fears losing him and promises to meet him on May 15.
- Don Alfonso Gutiérrez del RomeralA wealthy young landowner who died suddenly in 1843, and whose buried skull holds the proof of a crime.
- The gravediggerA nervous cemetery keeper who must dig up old graves to make room, and whose coffin boards help identify the dead.
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- Audiobook
- 1 h 18 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- 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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Read and hear Le Clou in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Le Clou
by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón · 1853
A skull with an iron nail through it lies in a Spanish graveyard, and a young judge swears to hang the killer.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A silent companion in the dark coach
On a stormy autumn night in 1844, Felipe climbs into the Granada to Málaga stagecoach with ticket number two. Ticket number one is somewhere in the dark, and nobody answers his greeting. He fears a snorer, a smoker or a thief, and he finally reaches out with his hands. Nothing is there, and a flash of lightning shows him that he is alone.
At the first change of horses, a young woman in mourning steps in. She is pale, elegant and very beautiful, and Felipe cannot believe his luck. In the dark she answers him with single words. By daylight she warms a little, and they share lunch at Colmenar.
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What is The Nail by Alarcón about?
It is a short Spanish crime tale. A lawyer named Felipe meets a mysterious woman on a stagecoach, then joins a judge friend who finds a skull with an iron nail in it and sets out to catch the killer.
Is The Nail a true story?
No, it is fiction by the nineteenth century Spanish writer Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. It uses real Spanish places such as Granada, Málaga, Seville and Córdoba, and a plausible legal process, to make its crime feel believable.
Who is Joaquín Zarco in The Nail?
Zarco is an investigating judge and Felipe's friend from law school. He is devoted to duty, still hurt by a lost love in Seville, and he leads the inquiry into the skull found in the cemetery.
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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