File No. 113 cover

File No. 113

Rating 3.6
Word count
824K words
Chapters
83

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.File No. 113 by Emile GaboriauAuthor: Gaboriau, Emile, 1832-1873,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Apr 13, 2006

Editor's review

File No. 113 is one of the representative works of Émile Gaboriau, a pioneer of French detective fiction. Centered on a case-file number, it unfolds a complex case of theft and murder. Gaboriau excels at turning the investigative process into a solvable intellectual game: the contest among the police, the amateur detective, and the suspects advances layer by layer, and the planting and payoff of clues are carefully handled, offering inspiration for the later detective-fiction genre. This English edition is released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain eBook; it is easy to obtain and serves as a good sample for understanding the early forms of detective fiction. When reading, treat it as an experience of "solving the case by following the file," note how the author uses details to set up reversals, and read it alongside works by Poe and Conan Doyle to observe the evolution of detective fiction in the nineteenth century.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who enjoy classical detective fiction and want to trace the genre's origins
  • Readers interested in French literature and the social life of the nineteenth century
  • English learners who want to read the original at low cost via public-domain eBooks
  • Mystery fans who prefer strong deduction and intricately plotted clues

Not a good fit for

  • Readers seeking fast-paced, high-stimulus modern crime fiction
  • Readers unaccustomed to nineteenth-century narrative pacing and lengthy description
  • Readers with limited English proficiency who need a Chinese translation

Reading tips

  1. Read the opening case statement first and jot down character relationships and key clues for later deduction.
  2. Build a timeline of each stage of the investigation and observe how the author controls the pace of information disclosure.
  3. After finishing, read it alongside short stories by Poe or Conan Doyle and compare the differences in detective figures.
  4. For the public-domain eBook, pair it with an annotated edition or introductory materials to help understand the historical background and legal terminology.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers new to detective fiction?
Yes, but be prepared. It is an early detective novel, with a slower pace and more description than modern works. If you are willing to follow the file and deduce step by step, you can appreciate the pleasures of the genre's formative period; if you only want fast-paced case-solving, start with short detective stories.
Is this the Chinese or English edition?
According to the information, this is an English-language eBook released by Project Gutenberg, by the French author Gaboriau. The original is in French, and this version is an English translation, suitable for readers with some English reading ability; for reading in Chinese, you will need to find a Chinese translation separately.
What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?
Project Gutenberg was the first project to provide free eBooks. This book is one of its public-domain eBooks, freely available and convenient to read on electronic devices. The edition is text-based and usually lacks detailed notes; when you encounter historical background or legal terminology, you can look up reference materials yourself to aid understanding.

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About the author

Emile Gaboriau (1832–1873) was a French writer best known for his detective fiction. The collection contains 32 of his works, including the two-volume Monsieur Lecoq, Le crime d'Orcival, and L'affaire Lerouge. These works generally center on investigation and detection, with tightly linked plots that emphasize criminal reasoning and character portrayal, and they hold a certain place in the development of early detective fiction. His style is marked by suspense and logical deduction, often revealing the truth layer by layer through the eyes of a detective, and it has inspired later works in the same genre. Due to limited public information, details of his life and writing background remain unclear, and the present introduction relies mainly on the works themselves and general literary-historical knowledge.

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