Story summary
Samenvatting van Het mysterie van Four-Pools
- 8 min. leestijd
- 8 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A New York reporter and a lawyer hunt a ghost, a stolen fortune in bonds and a killer in Virginia.
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Het mysterie van Four-Pools in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 3 h 50 min3 h fast, 4 h 35 min slow
- Lengte
- 54.600 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1908by Jean Webster
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Het mysterie van Four-Pools in short
Arnold Crosby goes to Four-Pools to rest his nerves and finds a haunted plantation instead. A ghost steals chickens, a safe is emptied of bonds, and a proud old Colonel is found dead in Luray Cave. His son Radnor goes to jail, and Arnold cannot find the truth by guessing, until Terry Patten arrives.
What Het mysterie van Four-Pools is about
What do you do when a ghost steals the Sunday chicken? Then the family safe is emptied, and soon after, a body lies at the bottom of a cave pool.
The Four-Pools Mystery, by Jean Webster, who also wrote Daddy-Long-Legs, is a detective story on a Shenandoah Valley horse farm. A New York lawyer tells it, a man who came south only to rest his nerves.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who enjoy country-house puzzles with solid clues, a possibly real ghost, and a witty reporter who solves crimes for fun will love this book.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A reporter with no manners befriends a lawyer
Arnold Crosby, who tells the story, is a New York lawyer worn thin by a forgery case. He meets Terry Patten, a reporter for the Post-Dispatch, when Terry walks into his office uninvited. Within fifteen minutes Terry knows most of Arnold's business and is offering advice. Arnold is furious, then flattered. By the end of the case the two are friends.
When a crime baffles the police, he solves it himself and prints the details.
Arnold ends the case close to a nervous breakdown. His doctor suggests fishing on Cape Cod. Terry laughs and says the best rest is a counterirritant, a fresh problem to chew on. Instead of fishing, Arnold remembers an open invitation from his great-uncle, Colonel Gaylord, who keeps a stock farm called Four-Pools in the Shenandoah Valley. The doctor loves the plan, because a farm means fresh air and no excitement.
The book begins by pairing a cautious lawyer with a reckless reporter, and everything that follows depends on how much they need each other.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
Arnold finds a changed house and a bitter family
Arnold travels south on a rattling train, trying to recall the plantation of his boyhood.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
A ghost begins stealing the supper
On Arnold's first night, the roast chicken never arrives.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
Radnor plays ghost, and Polly keeps score
Arnold spends his first days riding the valley with Radnor and finds that the young man does most of the real work.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
The safe is robbed on a night of screams
Horrible screams drag Arnold out of sleep one night.
- 6Begin gratis met lezen
A detective accuses Radnor and gets paid to leave
The detective who arrives is a young man named Clancy, welcomed with a flood of Southern hospitality.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
A family outing to a cave ends in tragedy
A month into Arnold's stay, the quarrel between father and son sharpens.
- 8Begin gratis met lezen
A proud man's temper and a reporter's method
One question runs under the whole story: what does it cost to rule people by force?
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Arnold Crosby A tired New York lawyer and the narrator, who visits his great-uncle to rest and ends up defending his cousin.
- Terry Patten A cheeky, brilliant Post-Dispatch reporter who solves crimes for a living and wants the truth for the paper.
- Radnor Gaylord The Colonel's younger son, warm and hot-tempered, who keeps a secret to protect someone else and wants to marry Polly.
- Colonel Gaylord The proud, stern master of Four-Pools, who rules his family and servants by temper and cannot forgive.
- Polly Mathers A spoiled, charming neighbor of nineteen who plays two suitors against each other and hides what she knows.
- Cat-Eye Mose The Colonel's loyal, odd servant with yellow eyes, a hunter who carries snakes and follows his master like a dog.
- Jim Mattison The county sheriff and Radnor's rival for Polly, ready to believe the worst of his opponent.
- Solomon The old butler, a gifted storyteller whose gossip about the ghost holds more truth than he lets on.
How it ends (spoiler)
The second ghost is a tramp the Colonel once whipped, who had been hiding in the spring-hole and the cave. He killed the Colonel in revenge, and Mose, who saw it, was found alive in the cave, half starved. Radnor is cleared, Polly asks him to marry her, and Jeff, the first ghost, is later given his share of the estate. The murderer is never caught.
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Vragen over Het mysterie van Four-Pools
What is The Four-Pools Mystery about?
It follows Arnold Crosby, a New York lawyer who visits his Virginia relatives and finds a haunted plantation, a robbery and a murder in a cave. Reporter Terry Patten arrives to untangle the clues and clear the Colonel's son.
Who is Terry Patten?
Terry Patten is a cheerful, impudent reporter for the New York Post-Dispatch who solves crimes the police cannot. He does it with sharp questions, an eye for small details and a habit of making himself at home everywhere.
Who is Cat-Eye Mose?
Mose is the Colonel's servant, born on the plantation, with yellow eyes that narrow in the light like a cat's. He hunts snakes, knows the cave well and follows his master everywhere, and the neighbors disagree about what he is capable of.
Who wrote The Four-Pools Mystery and when?
Jean Webster wrote it, and the story is set in the early twentieth century in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. She is also the author of Daddy-Long-Legs. It is fiction, though it mentions real places such as Luray Cave.
Is The Four-Pools Mystery easy to read?
The chapters are short and headed like newspaper stories, the dialogue is lively and the clues are laid out fairly. Arnold's honest, self-mocking voice and Terry's quick humor make it easy to follow and enjoyable.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Webster, Jean. The Four-Pools Mystery. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-four-pools-mystery.
Webster, J. (2026). The Four-Pools mystery. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-four-pools-mystery (Original work published 1908)
Webster, Jean. The Four-Pools Mystery. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-four-pools-mystery.
@book{webster2026fourpools,
author = {Webster, Jean},
title = {The Four-Pools Mystery},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-four-pools-mystery},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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