6 h 20 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if living forever means never escaping the bargain that keeps you alive?
Auriol Darcy cannot die, but his long life comes at a terrible price. Marked by the elixir of life, he stands between a strange gift and the dark bargain bound to it. In William Harrison Ainsworth’s Gothic novel, the promise of immortality becomes a question of what a human life is worth.
Cyprian Rougemont, a learned and sinister tempter, holds dark power over Auriol’s fate. Ethelind offers a different hope: love and the warmth of ordinary life. Around them, London’s fog, alleys and back rooms give the old legend a haunted setting. The story brings magic, guilt and longing together, asking what endless years can cost when human happiness remains at stake.
What you’ll discover
- A gift with a price Follow a man caught between the promise of endless life and the bargain behind it.
- A tempter who holds on Meet Cyprian Rougemont, whose sinister power binds the elixir to Auriol’s uncertain fate.
- London in the fog Enter alleys and back rooms where an ancient legend takes on a city’s haunted atmosphere.
- Love against endless years Discover Ethelind’s place in Auriol’s hopes, and the ordinary joys that make life precious.
- The weight of immortality Explore how love and guilt complicate the dream of a life that never ends.
Who will love it
For readers who love haunted houses, alchemists' laboratories, secret bargains and old London streets, and who enjoy a tale where dog thieves, barbers and devils share the same page.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dying alchemist's cup passes to his kinsman
- Two thieves find a secret worth a fortune
- An ancient dwarf is snatched by a black cloak
- Love grows in an iron merchant's yard
- Dogs, a barber and a very old valet
- The moon in its first quarter takes Ebba
- A bargain struck in 1800
- A rescue party prepares to face the unknown
- What the tale is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Auriol DarcyA young man who drinks the elixir of life and is bound by a pact to a tempter who claims a victim.
- Ebba ThorneycroftThe iron merchant's kind, fair daughter, who nurses Auriol and loves him despite every warning.
- Cyprian RougemontThe tall, pale man in the black cloak, a tempter with a taste for pacts, treasure and cruelty.
- Mr. ThorneycroftA stout, kind-hearted iron merchant who will risk everything to find his daughter.
- Old ParrA tiny, ancient dwarf who also drank the elixir, and who serves whichever master has him in his grip.
- GingerA cheerful dog thief who talks like a showman and plans to sell Auriol's pocketbook back to him.
- The Tinker and the SandmanTwo ruffians who attack Auriol, find his pocketbook and hope to profit from its secrets.
- ReeksA masked guide who leads the rescue into the haunted mansion and has his own purposes there.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 20 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Auriol; Or, the Elixir of Life
by William Harrison Ainsworth · 1844
A young man drinks a stolen elixir and learns that eternal life comes with a devil's bill, due every ten years.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What would you do with a life that never ends, if every ten years it sent you a bill? In this gothic tale by William Harrison Ainsworth, Auriol Darcy drinks an alchemist's elixir on the last night of the sixteenth century.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dying alchemist's cup passes to his kinsman
The story opens on the last night of 1600, with two hours left in the sixteenth century. Doctor Lamb, an old alchemist who lives in a house at the south end of London Bridge, has finished the elixir of life after fifty years of failure.
That same night a young man named Auriol Darcy tries to steal the severed heads of his father and grandfather from the gateway nearby. The gatekeeper wounds him, and Lamb has him carried in, since he is his own great-grandson. Lamb confesses that he once killed the rabbi who taught him the secret. As he lifts the phial, a pain strikes his heart and he cannot drink. Auriol snatches the phial and drains it, and the old man falls dead.
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What is Auriol; Or, the Elixir of Life about?
It follows Auriol Darcy, who drinks an alchemist's elixir in 1600 and lives into 1830. A tempter holds him to a pact that demands a woman victim every ten years, and he tries to save the girl he loves.
Who is the man in the black cloak?
He is Cyprian Rougemont, the tempter who holds Auriol to his bargain. Some characters, like the dwarf Old Parr, say he is the devil, and he does show uncanny powers and a love of cruelty.
What is the elixir of life?
It is a potion that Doctor Lamb makes after fifty years of alchemy. It heals wounds and stops ageing, but the rabbi who taught the secret warned that one hidden danger could still end a drinker's life.
More by William Harrison Ainsworth
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