The Mystery of the Yellow Room

The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908)
by Gaston Leroux, translated by Anonymous

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The Mystery of the Yellow Room: Extraordinary Adventures of Joseph Rouletabille, Reporter (in French Le mystère de la chambre jaune) is one of the first locked room mystery crime fiction novels. It was first published in France in the literary supplement of L'illustration from September 1907 to November 1907, then as a one volume book in 1908. It is the first novel starring fictional detective Joseph Rouletabille.

The story concerns a complex and seemingly impossible crime in which the criminal appears to disappear from a locked room. Such is the mechanical and logistic complexity of the puzzle that Leroux provides the reader with detailed and precise diagrams and floorplans illustrating the scene of the crime. Further impossible problems emerge as the story progresses towards a dramatic denouement. The emphasis of the story is firmly on the intellectual challenge to the reader, who will almost certainly be hard pressed to unravel every detail of the situation.

Gaston Leroux121925The Mystery of the Yellow Room1908Anonymous

THE MYSTERY

OF

THE YELLOW ROOM

The Mystery

of

The Yellow Room

Extraordinary Adventures of
Joseph Rouletabille,
Reporter

By
Gaston LeRoux

NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1908

By Brentano's

MADE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I	In which we Begin not to Understand	1
II	In which Joseph Rouletabille Appears for the First Time	13
III	"A Man has Passed Like a Shadow Through the Blinds"	22
IV	"In the Bosom of Wild Nature"	35
V	In which Joseph Rouletabille Makes a Remark to Monsieur Robert Darzac which Produces its Little Effect	41
VI	In the Heart of the Oak Grove	48
VII	In which Rouletabille Sets out on an Expedition under the Bed	64
VIII	The Examining Magistrate Questions Mademoiselle Stangerson	76
IX	Reporter and Detective	85
X	"We shall have to eat Red Meat—Now"	96
XI	In which Frédéric Larsan Explains how the Murderer was Able to get out of The Yellow Room	106
XII	Frédéric Larsan's Cane	133
XIII	"The Presbytery has Lost Nothing of its Charm, nor the Garden its Brightness"	140
XIV	"I Expect the Assassin this Evening"	156
XV	The Trap	165
XVI	Strange Phenomenon of the Dissociation of Matter	180
XVII	The Inexplicable Gallery	184
XVIII	Rouletabille Has Drawn a Circle Between the Two Bumps on his Forehead	194
XIX	Rouletabille Invites me to Breakfast at the Donjon Inn	197
XX	An Act of Mademoiselle Stangerson	213
XXI	On the Watch	219
XXII	The Incredible Body	230
XXIII	The Double Scent	235
XXIV	Rouletabille Knows the Two Halves of the Murderer	239
XXV	Rouletabille Goes on a Journey	249
XXVI	In which Joseph Rouletabille is Awaited with Impatience	251
XXVII	In which Joseph Rouletabille Appears in all his Glory	261
XXVIII	In which it is Proved That one does not Always Think of Everything	295
XXIX	The Mystery of Mademoiselle Stangerson	300

This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1908, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1927, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 96 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1908, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1927, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 96 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse