Summary
Summary of The Black Abbot
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Harry wants more than hidden gold
At Fossaway Manor, Harry Alford forbids his servants to speak of the Black Abbot, yet he believes in the ghost himself. An old family diary offers another source of hope and fear: hidden Spanish gold and a flask of Life Water said to wake the dead.
Harry wants the flask more than the fortune because he fears death. His practical half-brother Dick doubts the whole story, but Harry insists he is approaching the answer to a secret generations have failed to uncover.
Key idea 2
Dick loves his brother's fiancée
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Key idea 3
Arthur's debts pull treasure into reach
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Key idea 4
Gilder turns debt into a weapon
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Key idea 5
The ghost brings danger closer
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Key idea 6
Puttler finds a threat to Leslie
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Key idea 7
The vault frustrates Gilder's search
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Key idea 8
Leslie faces a bargain for Arthur
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Key idea 9
Hidden pressures drive the mystery
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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 ghost stories, hidden treasure and old English country houses will find plenty here, along with fans of clever detectives, quick chapters and a quiet love story.
What this book is
The Black Abbot is a mystery novel by Edgar Wallace, who died in 1932 after writing a very large number of thrillers. It is set in the Sussex countryside at Fossaway Manor, where a ghost in a monk's habit has begun to walk again and where, according to legend, a fortune in Spanish gold lies hidden. The book gives you a ghost story, a treasure hunt and a crime story in one.
At its centre is Dick Alford, the earl's practical younger half-brother, who does not believe in ghosts but cannot ignore what happens around him. Beside him stand Leslie Gwyn, a girl engaged to the wrong brother, and a Scotland Yard sergeant who looks like a chimpanzee and thinks like a chess player. Against them move a vain lawyer, his sinister head clerk and a former secretary with a nose for gold.
You will hear how a bookish earl, a bookmaker and a pair of schemers come to meet among the same ruined stones, and why the people around the manor are drawn one by one into danger. Let us begin with the earl himself and the library where he guards his fears.
In this summary
- 1A haunted house and a frightened earlFree
- 2A second son falls for his brother's fiancée
- 3Arthur Gwyn lives on money that is gone
- 4Gilder is the bookmaker who ruined Arthur
- 5A ghost at the Abbey and a knife in the dark
- 6Scotland Yard sends a man who looks like a monkey
- 7Gilder searches the vault beneath the Abbey
- 8Ruin, a forced bargain and a cowled figure
- 9What the story is about and how it is told
Key point 1 of 9
A haunted house and a frightened earl
Fossaway Manor stands in Sussex above the village of Chelfordbury, and the book opens in its shadowy library. Harry Alford, the eighteenth Earl of Chelford, works there under green-shaded lamps among black-letter books from Germany. He is thin, pale and not yet thirty. Over the fireplace hangs a portrait of his dead mother, whose dark eyes he shares.
Harry has just forbidden his servants to mention the Black Abbot. By the old story, the Abbot of Chelfordbury was murdered seven hundred years ago on the second earl's orders, and his ghost has walked ever since. Lately the figure is seen again, and a London paper prints the news. Harry tells reporters it is a village prank, yet he believes in the ghost as firmly as he denies it.
The footman Thomas hears everything and writes to someone with a close interest in the manor. He once served three years in prison for theft, and no one in the house knows it. The butler, the grocer and the village inn all trade tales of the Abbot, and each telling grows darker.
Then comes the treasure. An Elizabethan ancestor kept a diary in faded green ink. It tells how Sir Walter Hythe brought home a thousand gold ingots, each of thirty-five pounds, taken from two Spanish ships, along with a crystal flask of Life Water said to wake the dead. The earl meant to hide it all in a secret place. His entry breaks off in the middle of a sentence about his loyalty to Queen Mary.
Harry cares little for gold. He wants the flask, because he lives in fear of death. His half-brother Dick thinks an elixir is nonsense and suspects the Queen took the gold long ago. Four hundred years of Chelfords have searched without success, yet Harry insists he is halfway to the answer.
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
Why does Harry want the hidden flask?
Right. “He wants the flask, because he lives in fear of death.”Not quite. “He wants the flask, because he lives in fear of death.”
How does Gilder use Arthur's debts against him?
Right. “He intends to marry Leslie Gwyn, and he will cancel the debts if Arthur agrees.”Not quite. “He intends to marry Leslie Gwyn, and he will cancel the debts if Arthur agrees.”
What does Puttler conclude after the shooting on the lawn?
Right. “Puttler is only grazed, and he says calmly that the bullet was meant for Leslie Gwyn.”Not quite. “Puttler is only grazed, and he says calmly that the bullet was meant for Leslie Gwyn.”
Questions about The Black Abbot
What is The Black Abbot about?
It follows the Chelford family at Fossaway Manor in Sussex, where a ghost in a monk's habit appears while several people hunt a hidden Elizabethan fortune. Dick Alford and a Scotland Yard detective try to protect the household from a growing series of crimes.
Who is the Black Abbot in the book?
The Black Abbot is a figure in a black monk's habit said to be the ghost of an abbot murdered seven hundred years ago. Dick Alford and others believe it is a human wearing a disguise, and finding who wears it drives the mystery.
What is the Chelford treasure?
It is a thousand gold ingots of thirty-five pounds each, brought from Spanish ships in Elizabethan times and hidden on the estate. Harry also seeks a crystal flask of Life Water. Four hundred years of searches have found neither.
Is The Black Abbot a true story?
No, it is fiction by Edgar Wallace, who died in 1932. Its Sussex village, Fossaway Manor and the Chelford family are invented, though the setting draws on real English history, such as the Tudor court and the ruined abbeys that many counties still have.
Is The Black Abbot easy to read?
Yes is not needed here: the book has short chapters, lively dialogue and a clear plot that moves quickly from scene to scene. Its humorous side characters, strong sense of place and frequent cliffhangers make it easy to follow and enjoyable to hear.
