Summary
Summary of Skull-Face
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A broken soldier draws unwanted attention
Stephen Costigan is an American living in the haze of hashish at the Temple of Dreams in London's Limehouse docks. The fighting at Argonne has broken his mind, and the den offers an escape from what he remembers. Then he dreams of a yellow death's head with burning eyes and a lovely girl behind it.
The vision is real. A hidden master has plans for Costigan, while John Gordon hunts that master across London. Costigan's escape from memory is becoming an entry into someone else's scheme.
Key idea 2
A cure creates a hidden debt
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Key idea 3
The master reveals his true chains
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Key idea 4
Love gives rebellion a personal stake
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Key idea 5
An intended victim becomes the turning point
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Key idea 6
The raid exposes a wider conspiracy
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Key idea 7
The hunt reaches toward an ancient mystery
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Key idea 8
A rescue leads beneath the city
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Key idea 9
The central struggle is for self-rule
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
Readers who enjoy shadowy Edwardian cities, secret passages, masked villains and fast action will feel at home here, as will fans of weird tales, spy hunts and the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s.
What this book is
Skull-Face is a pulp thriller by Robert E. Howard, who died in 1936. It is set in the fog and gaslight of London's Limehouse docks, in the years after the First World War. The story is told by Stephen Costigan, an American whose mind was broken by the fighting at Argonne and who now drifts through the haze of hashish in an opium den called the Temple of Dreams.
Then a dream shows him a yellow death's head with burning eyes, and over its shoulder the face of a lovely girl. The dream is real. A hidden master wants Costigan for his own purposes, and a man named John Gordon is hunting that master across London. You get chases, secret tunnels, disguises and a creeping sense of dread, all moving at a quick pace. The first key point takes you into the den itself, where a hand reaches out of the dark with an offer.
In this summary
- 1A dream of a skull in LimehouseFree
- 2The master behind the lacquer screen
- 3A spy, a leper and a fist
- 4The skull-faced man and his chains
- 5Zuleika, Kathulos and a secret plan
- 6A gorilla suit and a night of waiting
- 7The stroke of five
- 8Mummies, an ocean legend and Soho 48
- 9Voodoo on the rooftops
Key point 1 of 9
A dream of a skull in Limehouse
The book opens inside a hashish dream. Costigan sees a hideous yellow skull with living eyes and clawed, mummy-like hands. A rusty voice says he is a strong brute who might be useful, and tells someone to keep him supplied with the drug. For one instant, over the skull's shoulder, he glimpses a girl with red lips and a cloud of hair.
When he wakes on a mat in Yun Shatu's Temple of Dreams, the dream will not fade. He remembers the day his money ran out. Hassim, the huge Black doorman, threw him into the gutter, and a girl with dark eyes and a gentle voice lifted him up, paid the doorman and led him back inside.
The chapter also tells how Costigan got here. He is an educated American, and the horror of the Argonne battle ruined his nerves. Hashish was the only thing that could drown the red memories. Now the girl's face has stirred something in him, a faint wish to be a man again.
He has no idea yet that the dream and the girl are joined to a larger plot. Howard uses this slow opening to set the mood, with smoke, bunks, sleeping addicts and a sailor droning orders in his sleep, before the story turns toward its first real offer.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
How does the Master control Costigan after apparently curing him?
Right. “The amber wine held a drug far stronger than hashish, and Costigan has been kept alive and strong only by that daily elixir.”Not quite. “The amber wine held a drug far stronger than hashish, and Costigan has been kept alive and strong only by that daily elixir.”
How does Zuleika help Costigan resist Kathulos?
Right. “Outside, Zuleika waits in a doorway and presses a small gold flask into his hand.”Not quite. “Outside, Zuleika waits in a doorway and presses a small gold flask into his hand.”
What is the central personal struggle beneath Costigan's adventure?
Right. “What you keep from it is a hard-driving adventure with a clear heart: a man fights to win back his own will.”Not quite. “What you keep from it is a hard-driving adventure with a clear heart: a man fights to win back his own will.”
Questions about Skull-Face
What is Skull-Face about?
It follows Stephen Costigan, a hashish addict in London's Limehouse, who is cured and then enslaved by a skull-faced sorcerer named Kathulos. With the help of a girl and an agent named Gordon, he fights to stop a plan for world domination.
Who is Kathulos in Skull-Face?
Kathulos is the Master of the Scorpion society, a living skull-faced man who claims to come from Egypt. He uses drugs, hypnosis and spies to spread a plot against the white races.
When was Skull-Face written and where did it first appear?
Robert E. Howard wrote it in the 1920s, and it appeared in Weird Tales magazine. It belongs to the pulp tradition of masked villains and secret societies, and it reflects the attitudes of its time.
Is Skull-Face a good read for fans of Sax Rohmer or Fu Manchu?
Yes, it works in that tradition, with a sinister Eastern mastermind, opium dens, secret passages and a brave agent. It moves fast, with short chapters, clear action and a lively first-person voice that draws you on.
What does the scorpion mark on Costigan's hand mean?
It is the sign of the Master and his Scorpion society. It lets his followers recognize Costigan as one of their own, and Costigan later uses it to bluff his way into the lair at Soho 48.
