Story summary
Streszczenie książki Człowiek, który wiedział
- 8 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
Millionaire John Minute fears a violent death, and a little man who knows everything takes the case.
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Człowiek, który wiedział — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 8 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 3 h 20 min2 h 40 min fast, 4 h slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 48 100
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Średni longer sentences, everyday words
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1918by Edgar Wallace
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Człowiek, który wiedział in short
The Man Who Knew follows a feared millionaire, his secretary, his nephew and a ward who stands between them. Minute's money attracts a forger, a blackmailing policeman and a detective who has filed everything about everyone. A bank fraud leads to a night of gunshots and a long trial.
What Człowiek, który wiedział is about
What does a man do when a witch doctor tells him he will die by violence, and the police tell him there is nothing to investigate? In The Man Who Knew, Edgar Wallace puts a rich, hated millionaire named John Minute in exactly that spot. He lives behind bolted doors at Weald Lodge in Sussex, with a pale young secretary who boils strange liquids in a laboratory.
Then a little man in a silk hat walks into the story and seems to know every secret anyone has. Wallace wrote this Edwardian mystery of forged checks, murder and false faces. You meet the people, follow the money, and sit through a murder trial.
Dla kogo. You will enjoy this book if you like classic puzzles with forgers, disguises and courtroom scenes, and a sleuth who collects facts like stamps.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A rich man fears a violent death
John Minute is a millionaire from Rhodesia who lives at Weald Lodge in Sussex. He is gruff, rumpled and suspicious of every stranger. His secretary, Jasper Cole, works in an old billiard room full of glass stills, test tubes and a microscope. The book opens there, with Jasper in a mask watching a dark liquid boil.
Over a silent dinner, Minute says he holds half a million shares in a mine for himself and half for May Nuttall, his dead friend's daughter. He wants Jasper to marry her. He waves off his nephew Frank Merrill as a rascal. He also pays Sergeant Smith, a local policeman, every week to keep trouble quiet, and he will not say what the trouble is.
Then comes the fear. In Zululand, he says, two witch doctors told him he would die by violence. Late that night Jasper burns a letter he slipped from the evening mail before his employer could see it.
Everyone at Weald Lodge hides something, and the richest man is the most afraid.
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A bullied girl and a secret plan
The scene moves to King's Cross in London.
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A dead stranger and the man who knows
On a warm July evening in Gray Square, a neatly dressed manservant lies dead on the pavement.
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Secret rooms, a bank and an index
May Nuttall runs a mission in the East End.
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A forger writes a fortune away
Rex Holland steps from a new car outside a country cottage.
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Sergeant Smith calls and a wedding fails
On a wet June evening, Sergeant Smith grumbles to Constable Wiseman about old John Minute.
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A night of shots and a long trial
The narrator gives the murder night to the minute.
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A double, a letter and a kidnapping
After the trial, Frank travels through Europe.
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Names, money and who deserves trust
Identity runs through the book.
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How Wallace tells a puzzle for the ear
Wallace tells the story in short scenes, usually ending on a small shock.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- John Minute A rough, rich Rhodesian millionaire who fears a violent death, hides his past and wants to arrange the marriages of those around him.
- Jasper Cole His pale, clever secretary and amateur chemist, who keeps a laboratory, a locked room in the East End and many private plans.
- Frank Merrill John Minute's cheerful nephew and heir, a bank accountant who wants to marry May and be free of his uncle's control.
- May Nuttall A young woman and mission worker, ward of John Minute, who must choose between two men she cannot fully read.
- Saul Arthur Mann A small private investigator with an enormous index of facts, known as the Man Who Knows, who wants the truth and the whole story.
- Constable Wiseman A proud Sussex policeman who believes he is wiser than the Yard and is sure of what he saw.
- Sergeant Smith A hard-drinking policeman with a Rhodesian past who lives off John Minute's weekly payments and wants a larger share.
- Rex Holland A polished stranger with a large bank balance and no known past, whose checks look exactly like John Minute's.
How it ends (spoiler)
Jasper Cole tells Mann and May that John Minute was his father, and that his sister Marguerite is the girl Frank married under a false claim. He says Frank, who forged checks as Rex Holland, shot Minute after a trick with a lost ticket. Jasper gives him twenty-four hours to leave England. Frank, cornered, says it is not worth going on and collapses. He is dead. Constable Wiseman says he knew.
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Pytania o Człowiek, który wiedział
What is The Man Who Knew by Edgar Wallace about?
It is an Edwardian mystery about a rich, feared millionaire named John Minute, his secretary, his nephew and his ward. A bank fraud and a night of gunshots at his Sussex home deepen a mystery already involving the Man Who Knows.
Who is Saul Arthur Mann in The Man Who Knew?
He is a small, untidy private investigator who keeps vast files of facts about people and places. Scotland Yard trusts him, and the police call him the Man Who Knows because he seems to hold answers before anyone asks.
Who is Rex Holland in the book?
Rex Holland is the name of an elegant stranger who opens a large bank account and writes checks in John Minute's handwriting. Who he really is lies at the heart of the mystery and drives the investigation.
Is The Man Who Knew based on a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction. The narrator says it was built from trial reports, case files and a diary, which gives it the feel of a real case. Wallace's mystery was published in 1918, before his death in 1932.
Is The Man Who Knew easy to follow?
Yes, in the sense that the chapters are short, the clues are clearly placed, and the people are easy to tell apart. The plain, brisk style and exact times for the murder night make the plot simple to follow by ear.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Wallace, Edgar. The Man Who Knew. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-knew.
Wallace, E. (2026). The man who knew. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-knew (Original work published 1918)
Wallace, Edgar. The Man Who Knew. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-knew.
@book{wallace2026man,
author = {Wallace, Edgar},
title = {The Man Who Knew},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-knew},
note = {First published 1918}
}
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