Rouletabille chez le tsar

By Gaston Leroux

Book Overview

"BARINIA, the young stranger has arrived." "Where is he?" "Oh, he is waiting at the lodge." "I told you to show him to Natacha's sitting-room. Didn't you understand me, Ermolai?" "Pardon, Barinia, but the young stranger, when I asked to search him, as you directed, flatly refused to let me." "Did you explain to him that everybody is searched before being allowed to enter, that it is the order, and that even my mother herself has submitted to it?" "I told him all that, Barinia; and I told him about madame your mother." "What did he say to that?" "That he was not madame your mother. He acted angry." "Well, let him come in without being searched." "The Chief of Police won't like it." "Do as I say." Ermolai bowed and returned to the garden. The "barinia" left the veranda, where she had come for this conversation with the old servant of General Trebassof, her husband, and returned to the dining-room in the datcha des Iles, where the gay Councilor Ivan Petrovitch was regaling his amused associates with his latest exploit at Cubat's resort. They were a noisy company, and certainly the quietest among them was not the general, who nursed on a sofa the leg which still held him captive after the recent attack, that to his old coachman and his two piebald horses had proved fatal.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1507802366
• ISBN13: 9781507802366
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Finally, a clean, attractive edition.

The Secret of the Night, the third in Gaston Leroux's mysteries featuring the memorable reporter and amateur sleuth Joseph Rouletabille, is a marvelous read; however, until now, until I purchased this edition published by Aegypan, I couldn't find a decent version, as the copies I'd come across were seemingly pulled straight from the free-text available on the internet, and were, therefore, chock-full of mistakes. In many quarters this story isn't as highly-rated as its literary siblings, The Mystery of the Yellow Room, which is generally considered the first and the finest of the "locked-room" mysteries, and its sequel, The Perfume of the Lady in Black; but, in my opinion, The Secret of the Night is so much more than merely a worthy follow-up to its noted predecessors, it is in every way their equal. Like most of Boris Akunin's best-selling mysteries featuring Erast Fandorin, The Secret of the Night takes place in Tsarist Russia and includes plenty of interesting and intricate plot twists and action, enough to hook even the most jaded of readers. And in the person of the amazing Joseph Rouletabille, The Secret of the Night can boast of a detective every bit as admirable and perspicacious. Boris Akunin's inventive modern-day mysteries are extremely popular and rightly so (truth is, I read them just as fast they come to market!); but Gaston Leroux wrote his first, long ago, and just as well! Check them out for yourself and you'll see... The Mystery Of The Yellow Room: Extraordinary Adventures Of Joseph Rouletabille, Reporter The Perfume of the Lady in Black (Sequel to Mystery of the Yellow Room)

Secret Of The Night

Though not one of Leroux's best works, 'The Secret Of The Night,' is a stunning novel. I myself own one of the rare copies of 'Secret' as well as 'Myster of the Yellow Room,' and hopefully someday, 'Phantom.' In the book Leroux focuses upon a detective in Russia partly resembleing Inspector DuPon (Poe) and Sherlock Holmes (Conan Doyal). A 4 star book.