5 h 7 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
In a Paris street where neighbors know one another’s business, a crime makes every small lie matter.
In The Little Old Man of Batignolles, Émile Gaboriau brings a mystery into a district of modest homes and small incomes. A quiet old man stands at its center. As a crime disturbs his street, police agent Méchinet must work out what happens among people whose ordinary lives offer no simple answers.
Méchinet relies on patience, close observation and careful questions. Around him, clerks, landladies, shopkeepers and neighbors gossip, guess and guard their reputations. Some have reasons to be careful with the truth. Here, the pull comes from small habits and hidden secrets rather than a chase, and everyday nineteenth-century Paris becomes part of the puzzle.
What you’ll discover
- An ordinary street unsettled Enter Batignolles, where modest homes and familiar neighbors form the setting for a troubling crime.
- A patient police agent Follow Méchinet as he builds his inquiry through close attention and careful questions.
- Small lies that matter Watch gossip and guarded reputations complicate the search for what really happens.
- Everyday Paris in view Meet clerks, landladies and shopkeepers whose daily lives give the mystery its texture.
- Detective fiction taking shape Explore a mystery by Gaboriau, a pioneer who helps establish the pattern of police fiction.
Who will love it
For readers who love careful detective work, the streets of nineteenth-century Paris and mysteries built from small clues and hidden secrets, and anyone curious about where crime fiction began.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A crime begins in an ordinary street
- A detective trusts small clues
- Everyone has something to hide
- How Gaboriau shaped the crime story
Who’s who
- MéchinetA working Paris police agent who solves the case through patience, close observation and careful questions.
- The old manA quiet resident of Batignolles whose ordinary life becomes the center of the mystery.
- The neighborsPeople of the district who gossip, guess and sometimes hide their own small secrets from the police.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Le Petit Vieillard de Batignolles
by Émile Gaboriau · 1876
A crime disturbs a Paris street, and Méchinet must follow small clues through neighbors' secrets to uncover the truth.
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In short
The Little Old Man of Batignolles is a detective novel by Émile Gaboriau, the French writer who helped shape the crime story as readers know it. It appeared in 1876, three years after his death.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A crime begins in an ordinary street
Gaboriau opens his story in Batignolles, a district of Paris that was once a village outside the city walls. It is a place of modest homes, small incomes and neighbors who know one another's business. This is not a palace or a grand estate. The mystery grows from a plain life that nobody thought worth noticing.
The old man of the title is the kind of person a street takes for granted. He keeps to himself and follows his routines. When trouble comes to him, his neighbors are shocked, and they begin to talk. Gaboriau shows how quickly gossip, guesses and half-truths pile up around a crime.
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What is The Little Old Man of Batignolles about?
It is a detective novel set in Paris. A crime touches a quiet old man in the district of Batignolles, and a police agent named Méchinet investigates through patient observation and reasoning.
Who wrote The Little Old Man of Batignolles and when?
Émile Gaboriau wrote it. It was published in 1876, after his death in 1873, and belongs to his tradition of French police novels.
Who is Méchinet?
Méchinet is the police agent who investigates the case. He is a working professional rather than a gentleman amateur, and he relies on small clues and steady effort.
The author
Émile Gaboriau
1832–1873 · French detective novelist
Émile Gaboriau (1832–1873) was a French writer born in Saujon, France. He later lived in Paris, where he died. He wrote novels and stories, including detective fiction featuring Monsieur Lecoq. The Lerouge Case appeared in 1866, followed by The Mystery of Orcival in 1867 and Monsieur Lecoq in 1868.
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