Edgar Wallace, Edgar Wallace, Edgar Wallace, Edgar Wallace

The Secret House (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A man stood irresolutely before the imposing portals of Cainbury House, a large office building let out to numerous small tenants, and harbouring, as the indicator on the tiled wall of the vestibule testified, some thirty different professions. The man was evidently poor, for his clothes were shabby and his boots were down at heel. He was as evidently a foreigner. His clean-shaven eagle face was sallow, his eyes were dark, his eyebrows black and straight.He passed up the few steps into the hall and stood thoughtfully before the indicator. Presently he found what he wanted. At the very top of the list and amongst the crowded denizens of the fifth floor was a slip inscribed:"THE GOSSIP'S CORNER"He took from his waistcoat pocket a newspaper cutting and compared the two then stepped briskly, almost jauntily, into the hall, as though all his doubts and uncertainties had vanished, and waited for the elevator. His coat was buttoned tightly, his collar was frayed, his shirt had seen the greater part of a week's service, the Derby hat on his head had undergone extensive renovations, and a close observer would have noticed that his gloves were odd ones.He walked into the lift and said, "Fifth floor," with a slight foreign accent.He was whirled up, the lift doors clanged open and the grimy finger of the elevator boy indicated the office. Again the man hesitated, examining the door carefully. The upper half was of toughened glass and bore the simple inscription:"THE GOSSIP'S CORNER.KNOCK."Obediently the stranger knocked and the door opened through an invisible agent, much to the man's surprise, though there was nothing more magical about the phenomenon than there is about any electrically controlled office door.He found himself in a room sparsely furnished with a table, a chair and a few copies of papers. An old school map of England hung on one wall and a Landseer engraving on the other. At the farthermost end of the room was another door, and to this he gravitated and again, after a moment's hesitation, he knocked."Come in," said a voice.He entered cautiously.The room was larger and was comfortably furnished. There were shaded electric lamps on either side of the big carved oak writing-table. One of the walls was covered with books, and the litter of proofs upon the table suggested that this was the sanctorum.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Edgar Wallace
• Erscheinungstermin: 7. April 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9788892590489
• Artikelnr.: 44812531

Autorenporträt

British author Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace lived from 1 April 1875 to 10 February 1932. Wallace, a 12-year-old illegitimate kid from London who was born into poverty, quit school. He joined the military at the age of 21. He covered the Second Boer War for Reuters and the Daily Mail. At the age of 46, he passed very abruptly from untreated diabetes while the first draught of King Kong (1933) was being written. It's been said that Wallace wrote one-fourth of all literature in England. His works have been adapted into more than 160 movies. He is famous for writing ""the colonial imagination,"" the J. G. Reeder detective novels, and The Green Archer serial in addition to his work on King Kong. The Economist referred to him as ""one of the most prolific thriller writers of [the 20th] century"" in 1997 despite the fact that the vast majority of his books are no longer in print in the UK but are still popular in Germany. He sold more than 50 million copies of his combined works in various editions. The Edgar Wallace Story, a 50-minute German television documentary, was produced in 1963 and starred his son Bryan Edgar Wallace.