4 h 56 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 56 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the greatest threat to love is a force you cannot see?
In The New Terror, Gaston Leroux brings love under the shadow of psychic obsession and unseen forces. This Gothic tale draws its fear from hidden things and strong feelings. Affection is at risk, and suspense grows from the sense that ordinary life holds something darker beneath its surface.
Leroux writes in a French tradition of serial suspense, crime puzzles and tales of the strange. Here, mood matters as much as plot. Obsession, stolen hearts and threatened love give the story its unsettling pull, inviting you to watch for what remains concealed and feel the danger in what you cannot explain.
What you’ll discover
- Love under threat Discover a Gothic tale where affection offers no shelter from fear or obsession.
- The dread beneath Sense the darkness beneath ordinary life, where hidden things make safety feel uncertain.
- Forces beyond sight Explore the fear of unseen powers that threaten the bonds between people.
- Strong feelings turn dangerous Follow the uneasy meeting of love and obsession at the heart of this tale.
- Mood as much as mystery Read for the gathering unease as well as the pull of suspense.
Who will love it
Readers who love ghostly love stories, Gothic houses and moonlit parks, and who enjoy a narrator who explains his strange case to the reader. Fans of French tales of mystery will find three of them here.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A childhood promise and a puzzling portrait
- A shadow at the gate, then a wedding gift
- The portrait is cold on the wedding night
- Two nights, a golden chamber and a skiff
- Rome, Venice and a lit window
- What the stories are about, and two shorter tales
Who’s who
- HectorA sporty, plain-spoken young man who has waited all his life to marry his cousin and who has to face a world he cannot see.
- CordéliaHector's cousin and bride, a gifted painter and musician who loves the unseen and is drawn into a strange bond with another man.
- PatrickA pale English painter with burning, catlike eyes who paints the aura and claims a union of minds with Cordélia.
- Dr. ThurelAn elderly physician from Rouen who explains trances and wandering minds in plain language and offers Hector a treatment.
- SurdonHector's loyal, tight-lipped servant, who follows Patrick through Venice and brings back news that Hector fears to hear.
- Captain MichelA one-armed old sailor in Toulon who finally agrees to tell four teasing friends the awful story of one night in his past.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 4 h 56 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 9 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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Read and hear The New Terror in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The New Terror
On his wedding night, Hector watches his bride turn to stone while her mind walks a moonlit park with a rival.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The New Terror is a collection by Gaston Leroux, the French novelist and journalist. It centres on a novella told by a man named Hector, and it adds two short tales, A Terrible Tale and The Gold Axe.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A childhood promise and a puzzling portrait
Hector and Cordélia are first cousins, and their families have all but promised them to each other since infancy. He is big, freckled and fond of every sport, and he is lazy in class. She is slender and green-eyed, with an Italian mother, and she paints, draws and plays music with ease. She also fears nothing, and she leads him on horseback wherever she likes.
The parents will not allow an early marriage. They send Hector to America, then to his military service, then to America again, to study at a technical institute where sport counts for as much as engineering. His parents die in an influenza epidemic while he is away. His uncle, Cordélia's father, takes over his business affairs, and Hector decides to live on his income.
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What is The New Terror by Gaston Leroux about?
It follows Hector, a sporty young man, on his wedding night, when a rival's portrait of his bride draws her mind away from him. The book also holds two shorter tales of strange gatherings and hidden secrets.
Who is Patrick in The New Terror?
Patrick is an English painter who gives Cordélia painting lessons and paints her portrait. He believes in a union of minds and claims a spiritual bond with her that reaches across great distances.
What do the O and the polygon mean in The New Terror?
Dr. Thurel borrows these terms from the writer Grasset. The O is the deliberate, thinking self. The polygon is the automatic self that can act on its own when the O is distracted or under another's influence.
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.
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