Angeline by Émile Zola. Short summary

5 seconds

The hero of the short story, impressed by the legend of young Angelina’s death, conducts his own investigation. He manages to get into the house where the girl’s ghost lives, and he actually sees Angelina.

1 minute

During a bicycle ride through the French countryside, the narrator notices an abandoned manor house. The dead windows, the shabby facade, the neglected garden, all look ominous. Obviously, no one has lived here for years.

In the local tavern, the narrator learns a legend about terrible events. Forty years ago, a stepmother murdered her twelve-year-old stepdaughter in the manor. To conceal the crime, the father and stepmother buried the girl in the cellar and left the house. Since then the ghost of young Angelina has been living there, scaring away potential customers.

There are other versions of the girl’s death — suicide, fatal illness. A year and a half later, the narrator visits the gloomy manor house again. But now it is a restored well-appointed house.

The narrator comes to visit the new owners. The guest, impressed by the legend, does indeed see Angelina. But it is not a ghost, but the owners’ daughter.