8 h 23 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 23 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A woman lies near death behind a door locked from within. The windows are barred. Where is her attacker?
At the Château du Glandier, Mathilde Stangerson survives an attack that seems impossible to explain. Her father, Professor Stangerson, is shaken, and the police have no answer. Into this troubled household comes Joseph Rouletabille, a teenage reporter who trusts reason above appearances. His friend Jean Sainclair, a young lawyer, follows him into a case that leaves him increasingly amazed.
In Gaston Leroux's The Mystery of the Yellow Room, footprints point in different directions, and servants, guests and neighbours seem to hide something. Celebrated detective Frédéric Larsan brings his own methods to the investigation. Rouletabille must test what the evidence really means—and you receive the clues alongside him, with every chance to challenge his thinking and form your own answer.
What you’ll discover
- An impossible room Examine a sealed crime scene where the simplest question seems to have no answer.
- A stubborn young mind Follow Rouletabille as he puts his faith in logic rather than police routine.
- Two rival methods Watch a sharp teenage reporter challenge a celebrated detective over the meaning of evidence.
- A household under suspicion Enter a gloomy forest estate where secrets make familiar faces hard to trust.
- Your own contest of wits Weigh the clues yourself and explore the gap between appearances and truth.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy puzzles with fair clues, sealed rooms, rival detectives, and a young hero who trusts his own reasoning.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A scream behind a bolted door
- A boy reporter takes up the case
- A secret phrase opens the château gates
- Inside the room that cannot be left
- Red meat, a Green Man and a reporter's gamble
- A cane, a double and a wrongly trusted friend
- A night watch, a drugged dinner and a death cry
- Reason is stronger than the evidence of the senses
- Secrets, silence and the cost of keeping them
- How Leroux tells the tale
Who’s who
- Joseph RouletabilleAn eighteen-year-old newspaper reporter with a gift for reasoning, who wants to solve the Glandier mystery and clear an innocent man.
- SainclairA young lawyer and Rouletabille's loyal friend, who tells the story and follows him through every step of the case.
- Mathilde StangersonA brilliant scientist and the victim of the attack, who hides what she knows to protect her father.
- Professor StangersonMathilde's father, a renowned physicist working on the Dissociation of Matter, who swears he cannot explain what happened.
- Robert DarzacA Sorbonne professor and Mathilde's long-faithful suitor, who refuses to account for his movements and becomes a suspect.
- Frédéric LarsanThe celebrated Sûreté detective, a master of footprints and method, who wants to prove his own theory of the crime.
- Daddy JacquesThe old family servant whose revolver and boots are found near the crime, and who is devoted to his mistress.
- Monsieur de MarquetThe examining magistrate, a playwright at heart, who loves a good mystery and fears its explanation.
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The Mystery of the Yellow Room
by Gaston Leroux · 1907
A woman screams behind a bolted door, yet no attacker is in the room when four people break in.
Medium level2–5 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
Four people throw themselves against a locked door while a young woman cries murder on the other side. The key is turned inside, a bolt holds the door, and the barred window stays shut.
The Mystery of the Yellow Room at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 40 min3 h 40 min fast, 5 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 66,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1907by Gaston Leroux
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 scream behind a bolted door
The story opens with newspaper reports of a crime at the Château du Glandier, near Paris. Professor Stangerson and his daughter Mathilde work in a pavilion at the far end of the park. On the night of October 24 to 25, 1892, someone tries to murder Mademoiselle Stangerson in her bedroom.
The old servant Daddy Jacques tells his tale. At midnight Mathilde locks her door and slides the bolt. Half an hour later a cry of murder rings out, followed by two revolver shots. The professor and Daddy Jacques hurl themselves at the door, but it will not give. The window bars are untouched and the shutters are fastened from within. When the door breaks, Mathilde lies wounded, and nobody is hiding in the room.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1907
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Leroux, Gaston. The Mystery of the Yellow Room. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mystery-of-the-yellow-room.
Leroux, G. (2026). The mystery of the yellow room. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mystery-of-the-yellow-room (Original work published 1907)
Leroux, Gaston. The Mystery of the Yellow Room. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mystery-of-the-yellow-room.
@book{leroux2026mystery,
author = {Leroux, Gaston},
title = {The Mystery of the Yellow Room},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mystery-of-the-yellow-room},
note = {First published 1907}
}
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What is The Mystery of the Yellow Room about?
It follows a young reporter, Joseph Rouletabille, who investigates an attack on Mathilde Stangerson inside a locked bedroom in a château near Paris. Nobody can explain how the attacker got out, and a famous detective works against him.
Who is Rouletabille?
Joseph Rouletabille is an eighteen-year-old reporter whose nickname refers to his round, ball-shaped head. He solves crimes by pure reason, and the story is told by his friend, the lawyer Sainclair, who follows him through the case.
What is a locked-room mystery?
It is a detective puzzle in which a crime happens in a space that seems sealed from the outside. The reader must work out how the culprit came and went. This novel is one of the best-known early examples.
The author
Gaston Leroux
1868–1927 · French mystery novelist
Gaston Leroux was a French author and journalist born in Paris in 1868. He wrote mystery novels, including The Mystery of the Yellow Room, published in 1907, and The Phantom of the Opera, serialized in 1909–1910. He later lived in Nice, where he died in 1927.
More by Gaston Leroux
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