Summary
Summary of The Mark of Cain
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A card game reveals Cranley's character
Robert Maitland hosts a club dinner out of duty rather than pleasure. His cheerful doctor friend, Frank Barton, is more alert to the danger among the guests: Thomas Cranley, a charming man with a troubled reputation. When Cranley draws young men into a card game, Barton watches closely and exposes his cheating.
The disgrace does not make Cranley repent. Alone afterward, he finds a newspaper advertisement that suggests a fresh opportunity. His response establishes the threat behind the comedy: he wants another chance, not a better character.
Key idea 2
A death draws Maitland into danger
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Key idea 3
A forged message carries Margaret away
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Key idea 4
Barton sees murder behind the accident
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Key idea 5
Cranley hides Margaret behind a disguise
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Key idea 6
A false clue sends Maitland abroad
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Key idea 7
Barton follows clues and answers cries
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Key idea 8
Kindness needs judgment to protect others
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Key idea 9
Small objects connect the separate mysteries
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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 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 this book is
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.
The story begins with a dinner at a gentlemen's club and a card game that goes wrong. It moves to a dead man found in a cartload of snow, to a girls' school where a forged telegram does its work, and on to a Paris police station where an innocent man is treated as a criminal. Lang tells it with dry humour, quoting poets and joking about Oxford, charity and the manners of the age, while the plot underneath is steady and dark.
You get a mystery with a clear line of clues, a villain who is easy to hate, and two friends who could hardly be less alike. One is a shy philanthropist, the other a cheerful doctor. Let us begin with the club dinner, where a stranger shows his true nature over a pack of cards.
In this summary
- 1A card game exposes a cheatFree
- 2A dead man in the snow
- 3Margaret at Miss Marlett's school
- 4The forged telegram and the vanished girl
- 5A doctor says the death was murder
- 6Cranley's plan and the poisoned oranges
- 7A trusting widow and a trap in Paris
- 8A night of knives, wheels and wings
- 9What the story is about and how it is told
Key point 1 of 9
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.
Cranley leads some of the young guests to a club called the Cockpit, where baccarat is played, and he explains the game with a cheerful list of the ways cheats work. Then he opens a bank himself. A rich young man named Martin loses heavily and writes cheque after cheque. Barton goes along to watch, and he notices something about the silver cigarette case lying by Cranley's hand.
He borrows the case and asks for a moment to read the Arabic word on it. Cranley, uneasy, hands it over and then keeps dealing. His luck turns, and then he spills a little brandy on the leather before him. Barton catches both his wrists just as Martin challenges the whole bank, and asks the young men to hold cards over the puddle and look.
The trick is plain to everyone in the room, and Cranley staggers out white and shaking, with a hand pressed to his heart. In the empty reading room he picks up a newspaper and finds something in the advertisements that makes him sit up. He cuts it out and says he will star in the game of life, meaning he will buy himself a new life like a player at pool. This single scene shows you a coward who feels no shame, a doctor who sees through him, and a plot already moving.
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 Barton reject the explanation that Shields died from drunken exposure?
Right. “He tells Maitland that Shields was murdered.”Not quite. “He tells Maitland that Shields was murdered.”
Why does Cranley place the advertisement about the bearskin coat?
Right. “He does not know that Cranley placed the notice to send him out of London.”Not quite. “He does not know that Cranley placed the notice to send him out of London.”
What does the story suggest about good intentions?
Right. “The book laughs at their good intentions while liking them, and it shows that kindness without judgment can do harm.”Not quite. “The book laughs at their good intentions while liking them, and it shows that kindness without judgment can do harm.”
Questions about The Mark of Cain
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.
When was The Mark of Cain written and is it a true story?
Andrew Lang wrote it as a work of fiction in the late Victorian period, using the London, Oxford and Paris of his own day. The characters and the plot are invented, though the settings and the tattooing lore feel real.
Is The Mark of Cain easy to read?
The story moves along through short chapters with lively scenes, clear dialogue and a witty narrator. The plot is easy to follow, and the humour keeps the pace light.
