6 h 33 minAudiobook16 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
What can a hidden identity conceal—and what might guilt reveal?
Andrew Lang’s The Mark of Cain is a brisk Victorian mystery of crime, secrets and suspicion. Deception, identity and justice shape its questions. What can appearances tell us? What might they hide? This is a tale for readers who enjoy uncertainty without the weight of a long, slow novel.
The title draws on the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis. According to that text, Cain kills his brother and receives a mark from God. That reference brings the idea of visible guilt into focus, inviting you to consider hidden identity and the difficult question of how justice is earned.
What you’ll discover
- Secrets and suspicion Enter a Victorian mystery where crime and deception make appearances a source of doubt.
- The question of identity Explore the tension between what can be seen and what a hidden identity conceals.
- A title with weight Consider how the Genesis reference brings guilt and recognition into the book’s central questions.
- Justice beyond appearances Follow a mystery that places justice alongside the unsettling possibilities of deception and hidden identity.
- A brisk Victorian tale Enjoy a sharp story that offers the lighter side of Victorian fiction without a lingering pace.
Who will love it
Readers who love Victorian crime, clever clue-hunting, witty narrators and odd inventors. If you enjoy London fog, riverside pubs, Oxford dons and a villain who gets what he deserves, this book is for you.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A card game exposes a cheat
- A dead man in the snow
- Margaret at Miss Marlett's school
- The forged telegram and the vanished girl
- A doctor says the death was murder
- Cranley's plan and the poisoned oranges
- A trusting widow and a trap in Paris
- A night of knives, wheels and wings
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Robert MaitlandA shy, rich Oxford Fellow who runs a riverside pub as a charity and guards a ward whose father has died.
- Frank BartonA big, cheerful, clever doctor in Chelsea and author of a book on tattooing, who spots a cheat and doubts a verdict.
- Thomas CranleyA smooth, middle-aged gentleman with a bad name, who will do anything to protect his own interests.
- Margaret ShieldsA bright, brown-eyed schoolgirl, daughter of a tattooer, who longs to earn her own living and be independent.
- Mrs. St. John DeloraineA kind, impulsive widow who runs the Bunhouse for wild young women and trusts everyone, however unwisely.
- Mrs. GullickThe landlady of the Hit or Miss, loyal to Maitland and fond of her daughter Eliza, the little actress.
- Eliza GullickA small pantomime performer who wears a bear costume at home and swears she saw a huge bird on the roof.
- William WinterA thin, battered inventor who tests a flying machine at night on waste ground behind the pub.
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- Audiobook
- 6 h 33 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 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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Il marchio di Caino
by Andrew Lang · 1886
A schoolgirl vanishes in a fog of forged telegrams, and a tattooer's body turns up in a cartload of London snow.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Mark of Cain is a mystery novel by Andrew Lang, a Scottish writer best known for his folklore, poetry and essays. Here he turns to crime fiction set in the London of his own day, with a poisoner, a missing schoolgirl, a riverside pub and an Oxford scholar who wants to be useful and cannot quite manage it.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A card game exposes a cheat
The book opens in the Strangers Room of the Olympic Club, where Robert Maitland of St. Gatien's College, Oxford, is hosting a dinner he does not enjoy. He is a pale, serious man who does everything from duty, and he cannot wait for his twenty guests to go home. His old school friend Frank Barton sits down beside him. Barton is a big, fair, cheerful doctor who studied in Vienna and Paris, who has written a learned book on tattooing and chooses to practise among the poor of Chelsea.
Barton asks about one guest in particular, the Honourable Thomas Cranley. Cranley is a middle-aged man with a jester's face, a huge cat's-eye pin and a habit of surrounding himself with undergraduates. Barton knows he has left a university, a regiment and half the clubs of Europe under a cloud. Maitland knows only that Cranley tells good stories about the South Seas, and that Bielby, his college adviser, has told him to meet all sorts of people.
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What is The Mark of Cain by Andrew Lang about?
It is a Victorian mystery about a rich Oxford Fellow, his doctor friend and a vanished schoolgirl. A tattooer is found dead in a cart of snow, and a charming rogue appears to be behind a plot involving a forged telegram.
Who are the main characters in The Mark of Cain?
Robert Maitland is the shy Oxford philanthropist and guardian. Frank Barton is the doctor who spots the crime. Thomas Cranley is the villain. Margaret Shields is the girl at the centre. Mrs. St. John Deloraine is the trusting widow.
What does the mark of Cain mean in the book?
The title points to a mark on a person's body that stands for guilt and for tribal identity. A scholar in the book connects such marks to the story of Cain, and tattoos are the central clue of the plot.
The author
Andrew Lang
1844–1912 · Scottish poet and folklorist
Andrew Lang was a Scottish writer born in Selkirk in 1844. He lived in London and died in Banchory in 1912. He wrote poetry, novels, literary criticism, and works on folklore. He edited The Blue Fairy Book, published in 1889, and other fairy-book collections, including The Violet Fairy Book in 1901.
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