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Audiobook edition · 6 h 40 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the still water hides a force that makes love itself unsafe?
In Eleanor M. Ingram’s The Thing from the Lake, a lake holds the promise of something darker than its quiet surface suggests. The setting feels alive, and forbidden love brings its own danger. This Gothic supernatural tale draws romance into a world of hidden powers, where fear tests the bond between two people drawn together.
At the heart of the story, two worlds press against each other. One is the familiar world of homes, manners and reason; the other is darker and harder to grasp. Ingram builds suspense by revealing a little and holding something back. Rumour and atmosphere deepen the uncertainty, leaving love caught in a struggle beyond the ordinary.
What you’ll discover
- A lake full of unease Enter a setting that seems alive, where still water carries the promise of hidden danger.
- Love under threat Follow a forbidden attraction tested by fear and the dark forces surrounding it.
- Two worlds in conflict Explore the uneasy boundary between familiar daily life and a darker supernatural world.
- Suspense through suggestion Feel uncertainty grow as hints, rumour and atmosphere leave room for dread.
- Romance meets Gothic horror Discover a tale where the pull of love shares the page with supernatural menace.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like ghost stories told by a witty narrator, love stories that grow in the dark, old books on magic, and warm family scenes beside a haunted lake.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A welcoming house hides a threat
- Beauty and dread arrive together
- Kindness makes room for a household
- A warning draws Roger closer
- Desire gives the danger a name
- The enemy offers forbidden knowledge
- An old account unsettles love
- Scent and darkness shape the story
- Love asks what Roger will risk
Who’s who
- Roger LockeA lame New York composer who buys a Connecticut farm and falls in love with a voice in the dark.
- Desire MichellA learned woman who visits Roger only at night, warns him away, and carries a family doom she will not explain.
- Phillida KnoxRoger's shy young cousin, worn down by her scholarly parents, who wants a home and a husband of her own.
- Ethan VerePhillida's husband, a New England countryman and former cabaret skater who wants to build a working farm.
- The ThingA hungry presence from beyond a Barrier that presses at Roger's window and wants him to give up the woman.
- Aunt Caroline KnoxRoger's proud, domineering aunt, who looks down on his music and expects her daughter to shine.
- Mrs. HillThe neighbor who knows all the local gossip and tells Roger about the Michell family.
- BagheeraThe battered brindled cat who adopts the household and senses danger before anyone else.
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The Thing from the Lake in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Thing from the Lake
by Eleanor M. Ingram · 1921
A composer sleeps in a bought farmhouse and wakes with a woman's braid sliding through his hand.
Easy read2–5 hours to read16 languages
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“The house cried out to me for help.”
In short
What would you do if a stranger's braid of hair slid through your fingers in the dark of your own bedroom? Roger Locke, a lame composer of popular music, has just bought an empty farmhouse in Connecticut.
The Thing from the Lake at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h3 h 10 min fast, 4 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 56,600 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1921by Eleanor M. Ingram
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 lonely composer buys a house that calls
The story opens on a wet spring day in Connecticut. Roger Locke, a city man who writes popular music, steps out of his car in front of a run-down farm. He says at once that his tale is not about a haunted house. He calls it a besieged house, surrounded by a midnight army of ghosts.
Roger knows none of that yet. All he feels is that the house wants to be lived in. Behind the house the ground slopes to a weedy hollow of water that the agent calls a lake.
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Details
- First published
- 1921
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 20 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Ingram, Eleanor M. The Thing from the Lake. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-thing-from-the-lake.
Ingram, E. M. (2026). The thing from the lake. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-thing-from-the-lake (Original work published 1921)
Ingram, Eleanor M. The Thing from the Lake. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-thing-from-the-lake.
@book{ingram2026thing,
author = {Ingram, Eleanor M.},
title = {The Thing from the Lake},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-thing-from-the-lake},
note = {First published 1921}
}
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What is The Thing from the Lake about?
It follows Roger Locke, a composer who buys a Connecticut farm and meets a mysterious woman who visits only at night. At the same time, a frightening presence haunts him. The story joins romance, ghost story and household comedy.
Who is Desire Michell?
Desire Michell is the woman who speaks to Roger in the dark of his bedroom. She is learned in alchemy and old lore, and she urges him to leave. She shares her name with a woman called a witch in an old book.
What does the Barrier mean in the book?
The Barrier is a great wall in Roger's visions that separates humans from darker beings. Desire says that an evil human will once broke through it. Roger meets the Thing at the Breach in that wall.
The author
Eleanor M. Ingram
1886–1921 · American novelist
Eleanor M. Ingram was an American author who lived from 1886 to 1921. She lived in the United States and wrote novels in English during the early twentieth century. Her books included The Thing from the Lake, which was published in 1921, the year she died.
“The house cried out to me for help.”
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