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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What would you believe when hidden treasure, ancient secrets and deadly deception disturb the quiet English countryside?
In The Black Abbot, Edgar Wallace brings hidden wealth and a sense of menace into a rural mystery. The promise of treasure gives danger a powerful lure. Yet the puzzle asks you to look beyond what people want and question what they let others see.
Deception sits at the heart of this brisk, old-fashioned mystery. Secrets make appearances hard to trust, and fear can turn attention away from practical motives. Wallace keeps the focus on suspense: who is lying, who only seems to be, and what might lie beneath a frightening surface.
What you’ll discover
- Quiet country, dark secrets Enter an English countryside where rural quiet provides the backdrop for secrets and menace.
- The lure of treasure Explore how the promise of hidden wealth gives people reasons to conceal their motives.
- Appearances worth questioning Weigh what people reveal against what they may prefer to keep out of sight.
- A brisk unfolding puzzle Follow a mystery that puts pace and suspense ahead of slow, searching character studies.
- Fear and deception Look beneath the menace and consider how frightening appearances can serve a practical purpose.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like country house mysteries, treasure hunts, shadowy figures in ruins at night, and a clever detective and a steady hero working against schemers.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Harry fears what he denies
- Dick keeps his love silent
- Arthur needs the marriage to happen
- Gilder turns debt into a threat
- Dick quietly brings in help
- The danger becomes openly violent
- Money exposes what people value
- Leslie faces a bargain of duty
- Steadiness stands against fear and greed
Who’s who
- Dick AlfordThe earl's younger half-brother, who runs the Chelford estate, guards its secrets and loves Leslie Gwyn without saying so.
- Harry Alford, Earl of ChelfordA pale, nervous scholar who fears death and hunts for a lost treasure and a flask of life water.
- Leslie GwynArthur's quick, honest sister, engaged to the earl, who wants to know whether she has any money and whom she truly loves.
- Arthur GwynA vain London solicitor deep in debt who needs a rich marriage for his sister or a treasure to save himself.
- Fabrian GilderArthur's stern head clerk, secretly a rich bookmaker, who wants Leslie as his wife and the Chelford gold as well.
- Mary WennerThe earl's former secretary, talkative and shrewd, who claims to know where the Chelford treasure is hidden.
- Sergeant PuttlerA long-armed Scotland Yard detective and churchwarden who is sent to Fossaway Manor to watch over the family.
- ThomasA footman and former convict who spies on his master and steals whenever he can.
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The Black Abbot
by Edgar Wallace · 1926
A nervous earl seeks Spanish gold as a hooded ghost haunts his Sussex manor and his brother tries to protect everyone.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“An end to fear!”
In short
What would you do if your old family house had a ghost, a lost fortune in gold, and a brother terrified of death? That is the problem facing Dick Alford, second son of the Earl of Chelford, in The Black Abbot.
The Black Abbot at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 55 min4 h 40 min fast, 7 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 84,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1926by Edgar Wallace
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Haunted Manor and a Fearful Earl
The story opens in the library of Fossaway Manor in Sussex. Harry Alford, the eighteenth Earl of Chelford, sits under a lamp, sorting banknotes and studying a German book.
A footman named Thomas lingers by the door. Harry has overheard him gossiping about the Black Abbot, the ghost of a monk said to have been murdered seven hundred years ago on the orders of an earlier Chelford. Harry flies into a rage and threatens to dismiss any servant who speaks of it. He calls the haunting a trick played by village louts.
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Which edition is right for me
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Details
- First published
- 1926
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wallace, Edgar. The Black Abbot. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-black-abbot.
Wallace, E. (2026). The black abbot. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-black-abbot (Original work published 1926)
Wallace, Edgar. The Black Abbot. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-black-abbot.
@book{wallace2026black,
author = {Wallace, Edgar},
title = {The Black Abbot},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-black-abbot},
note = {First published 1926}
}
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What is The Black Abbot about?
It follows Dick Alford, who manages a Sussex estate for his nervous brother, the Earl of Chelford. A ghostly monk, a legendary treasure of Spanish gold and several schemers disturb the household as Leslie Gwyn is drawn into the danger.
Who is the Black Abbot?
According to legend he is the ghost of a monk murdered centuries ago on the order of an earlier Chelford. In the story many people claim to have seen him, and the question of who is behind the hood runs through the whole book.
Who wrote The Black Abbot and when?
Edgar Wallace wrote it, and it belongs to the mid-1920s. Wallace was an English author of fast thrillers and mysteries, and this book shows his style of short chapters with a surprise at the end of each.
The author
Edgar Wallace
1875–1932 · British crime writer
Edgar Wallace was a hugely prolific British writer of thrillers and crime fiction who later co-created the story for King Kong. The Adventures of Heine follows Heine, a German secret agent, through a series of comic misadventures in Britain during the First World War.
“An end to fear!”
More by Edgar Wallace
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