Mystery and Crime Leroux, Gaston: Le mystère de la chambre jaune. (French) v5 25 Sep 2009

[Jellby]

Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was a French journalist and detective fiction author. His contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in America. He's the author, among others of "The Phantom of the Opera"

"Le mystère de la chambre jaune" (The Mystery of the Yellow Room), published in 1907, is the first novel starring the journalist detective Joseph Rouletabille (although in the very first publication it was "Boitabille"). A woman has been attacked, almost killed in a locked room, with just a barred window, no chimney, and a single locked door... but there is no trace of the "murderer" found when the door is finally opened. From here we see how the young Rouletabille discovers by simple reasoning what's happening, while the rest of the characters struggle to understand how can people disappear or be in two places at the same time, how can dead a body be transformed into someone else... A classic of mystery literature.

There are several movies based on this book and, apparently, the original manuscript has been recently found.

The text comes from Wikisource, but it has been proofread, corrected and formatted. Two maps have been re-drawn following as closely as possible the original (the quality of the scans was too poor to keep them). For those wanting to read this in a web browser, I include an index.zip file: just unzip this and the .epub file in the same directory, and open index.html (and modify index.css if you like).

Any kind of feedbak is welcome.

EDIT (v2): Just fixed a couple of minor glitches.

EDIT (v3): Fixed the cover, some problems with the css and properly included the notes.

EDIT (v4): Minor formatting and metadata changes.

EDIT (v5): Updated to support the epub2pdf script, and pass epubcheck.

(previous download count: 99)

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[zelda_pinwheel]

aw, and you made an epub version !!!! my hero ! thank you jellby, you've made me very happy today. bonne année au fait !

[Jellby]

Once I have the corrected HTML, doing the ePUB version is simple (but it takes some time, nevetheless)

Pas de quoi, and have a good year too.

[Jellby]

Just fixed a couple of minor glitches. Uploaded v2.

[Jellby]

Well, this book was full of errors. The cover and the notes were not properly included in the file and the CSS was missing some colons (so it did not parse correctly). I think I've fixed it now. Uploaded v3.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I think I've fixed it now.

Those were exactly my plumber's famous last words before he vanished forever. Thanks for the upgrade, jellby. You're very conscientious! (my plumber's not)

[zelda_pinwheel]

thank you jellby for the corrected file.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Thanks for the upgrade, jellby. You're very conscientious!

I'm just a b***y nitpicker When I find an error in my files I just have to correct it.

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

thank you jellby for the corrected file.

My pleasure.

[Jellby]

Just minor changes in formatting and metadata to adapt it to the release of Le parfum de la dame en noir.