6 h 40 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 40 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the still water hides a force that makes love itself unsafe?
In Eleanor M. Ingram’s The Thing from the Lake, a lake holds the promise of something darker than its quiet surface suggests. The setting feels alive, and forbidden love brings its own danger. This Gothic supernatural tale draws romance into a world of hidden powers, where fear tests the bond between two people drawn together.
At the heart of the story, two worlds press against each other. One is the familiar world of homes, manners and reason; the other is darker and harder to grasp. Ingram builds suspense by revealing a little and holding something back. Rumour and atmosphere deepen the uncertainty, leaving love caught in a struggle beyond the ordinary.
What you’ll discover
- A lake full of unease Enter a setting that seems alive, where still water carries the promise of hidden danger.
- Love under threat Follow a forbidden attraction tested by fear and the dark forces surrounding it.
- Two worlds in conflict Explore the uneasy boundary between familiar daily life and a darker supernatural world.
- Suspense through suggestion Feel uncertainty grow as hints, rumour and atmosphere leave room for dread.
- Romance meets Gothic horror Discover a tale where the pull of love shares the page with supernatural menace.
Who will love it
For readers who love old houses with secrets, voices in the dark and romances that grow without a single glimpse of a face. Fans of early twentieth century ghost stories and gentle humour will feel at home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A house that begs to be bought
- A braid, a knife and a tale
- Phillida's secret marriage
- A sunny house and a returning dark
- The pomander and the lake
- Searching the countryside for a name
- Love that grows in the dark
- The book that waits in the bookcase
- What the story is really about
Who’s who
- Roger LockeA lame, solitary New York composer who buys the farm on impulse and finds himself fighting for a woman he has never seen.
- Desire MichellA hidden woman who visits Roger only in the dark, warns him of danger, and begs him to leave while he can.
- Phillida VereRoger's shy young cousin, once an anxious student, now a happy wife who wants only to run a home with her husband.
- Ethan VereA slow-spoken Maine farm boy and navy veteran, once a cabaret skater, who wants to make the farm pay and keep his wife.
- Aunt Caroline KnoxPhillida's domineering mother, proud of her family tree and scornful of Roger's profession, who expects her daughter to make her proud.
- Mrs. HillThe neighboring farmer's wife, a sharp-eyed gossip who knows every story in the district and shares the history of the Michell family.
- BagheeraA battered brindled cat who adopts the household and refuses to enter Roger's room, as if he knows what visits it.
- The ThingAn unseen, hateful presence that haunts Roger's nights and claims that Desire belongs to it.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 40 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 17 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 cosa del lago
by Eleanor M. Ingram · 1921
A composer buys a lakeside farm in Connecticut, and a voice in the dark begins to warn him of a Thing at his window.
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In short
The Thing from the Lake is a supernatural romance by Eleanor M. Ingram, an American novelist who died in 1921.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A house that begs to be bought
The story opens in a gray spring rain. Roger Locke, a city man with plenty of money from musical comedies, sits in his car outside a boxlike farmhouse in Connecticut. A real-estate agent calls it a bargain, with maples, an orchard and a five-acre lake. Roger feels at once that the house is crying out for rescue, and he decides to buy it before he has even gone inside.
The house is partly furnished. In a large north bedroom stands an old rosewood bed with carved pineapples on its posts, and Roger claims the room at first sight. From its window he sees the lake, which is really a shallow marsh because the old dam is down. He dislikes it with a strength that surprises him. The agent promises that a rebuilt dam will make it a pretty lake, and Roger says they will try.
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What is The Thing from the Lake about?
A New York composer buys a Connecticut farm and is visited at night by a mysterious woman who warns him of a monstrous presence at his window. He chooses to stay and fight, while love grows in the dark.
Who is Desire Michell in The Thing from the Lake?
She is the voice that speaks to Roger in the dark, a woman of old learning who shares a name with a witch from the family's past. Who she truly is unfolds as the story goes on.
Who wrote The Thing from the Lake and when?
Eleanor M. Ingram wrote it, and it is set in the years after the First World War. She died in 1921. It is a work of fiction, though it uses real older sources and literary allusions.
The author
Eleanor M. Ingram
1886–1921 · American novelist
Eleanor M. Ingram was an American author who lived from 1886 to 1921. She lived in the United States and wrote novels in English during the early twentieth century. Her books included The Thing from the Lake, which was published in 1921, the year she died.
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