Summary
Summary of Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories
Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 6 h 30 min5 h 10 min fast, 7 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 92,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A mystery begins when facts clash
A woman returns from a ball, looks into her mirror and discovers that the diamond necklace she borrowed is gone. Her husband, a poor clerk, must face the question of how to pay for it. A small scene suddenly opens onto a hidden fear.
Julian Hawthorne brings together tales from many lands around this kind of disturbance. A puzzle appears, someone watches, and the facts stop fitting what people believe. Mystery begins in that gap between an ordinary moment and its unexpected meaning.
Key idea 2
Looking rich carries a hidden cost
Mathilde Loisel feels that her modest home denies her the luxury she deserves.
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Key idea 3
Suspicion is not the same as proof
The magistrate de Vargnes receives a strange visitor who wants his cold blue eyes to be remembered.
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Key idea 4
The unknown gives fear its force
In Ghosts, a father says his dead wife appears in a churchyard and demands that he leave everything to the Jesuits.
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Key idea 5
An unseen threat unsettles the mind
The diary in The Horla begins with affection for a house beside the Seine.
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Key idea 6
Patient watching reveals what others miss
Christian, a poor painter in Nuremberg, notices a pattern of deaths among guests in an inn's Green Room.
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Key idea 7
Urgent danger makes escape look tempting
Castanier forges a banker's signature, intending to flee with stolen money and his young mistress.
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Key idea 8
Reading clues can bring punishment
Zadig studies plants and animals closely enough to describe the queen's dog and the king's horse without seeing either.
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Key idea 9
Small details can change a whole life
Crimes, trials, ghosts and bargains with power take different forms, but they share a concern with what people think they know.
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Go deeper: the whole of Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories
About 6 h 40 min to read.Start freeWho it’s for
Readers who like short stories with a sting, ghost tales told by firelight, clever judges and sleuths, and a trip through many countries and centuries. It suits anyone curious how the mystery tale began.
What this book is
A woman looks into her mirror after a ball and finds her neck bare. The diamond necklace she borrowed is gone, and her husband must now decide how a poor clerk can pay for it. That is the first tale in this collection, and it shows what the whole book offers: a short scene, a hidden fear and a turn you do not expect.
Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories was put together by the editor Julian Hawthorne. It gathers about twenty pieces from many lands, by Maupassant, Balzac, Voltaire, Alarcon, Apuleius and others. What links them is a puzzle, a watcher and a moment when the facts do not fit what everyone believed.
In this summary
- 1A borrowed necklace costs a poor couple everythingFree
- 2Suspicion can fool a clever mind
- 3Fear works best on what we cannot see
- 4A last night can hold a heavy secret
- 5A diary records a mind losing its footing
- 6Strange tales that mock belief and wonder
- 7Two German tales about watching and waiting
- 8Bargains with power and a mother's long wait
- 9A wise man is punished for reading clues
- 10Courts, crimes and ghosts from Spain to Rome
Key point 1 of 10
A borrowed necklace costs a poor couple everything
In The Necklace, the pretty Mathilde Loisel is married to a minor official. She feels she was born for luxury and suffers over her shabby walls, worn chairs and ugly curtains. Her husband is happy with a plain pot of stew.
One evening he brings home an invitation to a ball at the Ministry. She weeps over having nothing to wear, so he gives her four hundred francs, the sum he was saving for a hunting gun. Then she needs jewels, and she borrows a diamond necklace from her rich friend Madame Forestier. At the ball she is prettier than every other woman, and she dances until four in the morning.
At home she looks in the mirror and the necklace is gone. Her husband searches the streets and finds nothing. They buy a matching necklace for thirty-six thousand francs and borrow half the price from lenders. One night of vanity becomes a debt that will rule their lives. The wish to look rich can cost far more than being poor.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Check yourself
What does Mathilde's lost necklace turn her evening of luxury into?
Right. “One night of vanity becomes a debt that will rule their lives.”Not quite. “One night of vanity becomes a debt that will rule their lives.”
What remains uncertain about the threat in The Horla?
Right. “The story never says whether the threat is a being or a sickness.”Not quite. “The story never says whether the threat is a being or a sickness.”
How does Zadig describe animals he has not seen?
Right. “Without seeing either, he describes the queen's dog and the king's horse from tracks in the sand and dust on the trees.”Not quite. “Without seeing either, he describes the queen's dog and the king's horse from tracks in the sand and dust on the trees.”
Go deeper: the whole of Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories
About 6 h 40 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 92,400 words
- Reading timeAbout 6 h 30 min
Questions about Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories
What is Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories about?
It is a collection of about twenty mystery, ghost and detective tales from many countries and ages. They include The Necklace, The Horla, Melmoth Reconciled, Zadig the Babylonian, The Nail and a ghost letter by Pliny the Younger.
Who wrote the stories in this book?
Julian Hawthorne edited the volume. The authors include Guy de Maupassant, Honoré de Balzac, Voltaire, Erckmann-Chatrian, Villiers de l'Isle Adam, Pierre Mille, Pedro de Alarcon, Luigi Capuana, Apuleius and Pliny the Younger.
Why is Zadig counted as a detective story?
Zadig reads small clues, such as paw prints and dust on leaves, to describe an animal he never saw. The editor's preface says this made Voltaire an early author of the detective tale, though his aim was satire.
Are the stories true?
Most are fiction, written between ancient times and the nineteenth century. Pliny's letter is a real letter that retells ghost stories he heard, and The Horla is a made-up diary that reflects the author's own fears.
Is it easy to read one story at a time?
The collection brings together detective stories and tales of mystery and horror, with selections such as Fear and The Nail.
Cite this edition
Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/library-of-the-worlds-best-mystery-and-detective-stories.
Library of the world's best mystery and detective stories. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/library-of-the-worlds-best-mystery-and-detective-stories
Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/library-of-the-worlds-best-mystery-and-detective-stories.
@book{anonymous2026library,
title = {Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/library-of-the-worlds-best-mystery-and-detective-stories}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
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