The Man With The Black Feather

The Man with the Black Feather is an adventure novel about a mysterious young man with a double life. Excerpt: "I WAS passing through the waiting-room of the Morning Journal on a certain evening last year when my attention was drawn to a man seated in a corner. He was dressed in black and his appearance was that of the deepest dejection."

The Man With the Black Feather (1909) is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. Originally a journalist, Leroux turned to fiction after reading the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, The Phantom of the Opera, has become legendary through several adaptations for film, theater, and television, including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s celebrated 1886 Broadway musical of the same name. Walking into his office one morning, a journalist discovers a stranger waiting there for him. Holding an ornate wooden box, he reveals himself to be the executor of M. Théophraste Longuet, a deceased manufacturer and a former acquaintance of the journalist. Suspicious at first, the journalist accepts the box, opening it to reveal the voluminous memoirs of Longuet. Within their pages, presumably unread by anyone else, Longuet describes his discovery of documents revealing that he is, in fact, the reincarnation of infamous French highwayman Louis Dominique Cartouche, a vigilante figure who haunted the roads of 18th century France in order to steal from the rich and give their wealth to the poor. Skeptical, the journalist reads the memoirs, which lead him to the legendary “Treasure of Cartouche,” virtually ensuring the accuracy of Longuet’s claims. Assured of their worth to the public, the journalist convinces his editors to release their discovery to the world. The Man With the Black Feather, which is also known by the title The Double Life, is a mystery novel by Gaston Leroux, one of the leading French detective writers of his generation. Like much of Leroux’s work, the novel is partly based on historical events—Cartouche was an actual figure whose campaign of thievery and charity came to an abrupt end with his brutal public execution in 1721. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Gaston Leroux’s The Man With the Black Feather is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.

"One evening last year I perceived in the waiting-room of my newspaper, Le Matin, a man dressed in black, his face heavy with the darkest despair, whose dry, dead eyes seemed to receive the images of things like unmoving mirrors. He was seated; and there rested on his knees a sandalwood box inlaid with polished steel. An office-boy told me that he had sat there motionless, silent, awaiting my coming, for three mortal hours." (Extract) Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera, which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name. His novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room is also one of the most famous locked-room mysteries ever.

The Man with the Black Feather has been regarded as significant work throughout human history, and in order to ensure that this work is never lost, we have taken steps to ensure its preservation by republishing this book in a contemporary format for both current and future generations. This entire book has been retyped, redesigned, and reformatted. Since these books are not made from scanned copies, the text is readable and clear.

This eBook edition of "The Man with the Black Feather" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. "One evening last year I perceived in the waiting-room of my newspaper, Le Matin, a man dressed in black, his face heavy with the darkest despair, whose dry, dead eyes seemed to receive the images of things like unmoving mirrors. He was seated; and there rested on his knees a sandalwood box inlaid with polished steel. An office-boy told me that he had sat there motionless, silent, awaiting my coming, for three mortal hours." (Extract) Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera, which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name. His novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room is also one of the most famous locked-room mysteries ever.

Excerpt from The Man With the Black Feather One evening last year I perceived in the waiting-room of my newspaper, Le M atin, a man dressed in black, his face heavy with the darkest despair, whose dry, dead eyes seemed to receive the images of things like unmoving mirrors. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.