Edgar Poe, "The Golden Beetle": a summary

In this article we will talk about the plot of the story "The Golden Beetle". The brief content of the work will acquaint you with a man who, thanks to his ingenuity and belief in the validity of the old traditions, managed to regain lost wealth.

Forced seclusion

The main character of the story - William Legrand - is a descendant of an ancient aristocratic family. He is haunted by constant setbacks. In the end, he loses his fortune and plunges into poverty. To avoid ridicule, William leaves his native New Orleans and settles on a deserted island near the Atlantic coast. Legrand builds a hut in the thickets of the myrtle grove and lives in it together with a Negro Jupiter and a huge Newfoundland. Forced young man's solitude brightens reading and walking along the seacoast, during which he quenches his long-standing passion for entomology. He manages to collect a unique collection of rare insects. During the next promenade around the neighborhood, a golden beetle was caught. The summary of the work tells about what this rare find resulted from.

An unusual find

In the modest home of Legrand often comes his comrade - Narrator of the story. Once he found the inhabitants of the hut in high spirits. The master and servant, interrupting each other, told about the golden beetle. The narrator remarked that William considers his prey to be a happy omen and thinks that he will soon get rich. Servant Jupiter is very concerned about the behavior of the host. According to him, Legrand often leaves home and all the time he thinks something.

Strange behavior of Legrand

Soon the Narrator receives an invitation from William to come to him on a very important matter. The feverish style of the note makes him hurry. He comes to a friend that same day and finds Legrand extremely excited. The theme of the conversation is again the golden beetle. The summary of the story can not give an idea of how the Narrator was alarmed by the state of his friend. After all, he began to assert that the caught insect is really of pure gold! In addition, Legrand began to urge him to immediately move. According to William, something very interesting awaits them in the mountains on the mainland. The expedition will not take long, and by sunset, everyone will be at home again.

Journey to the mainland

Convinced of the friend's insanity, the Storyteller agrees to make this strange journey. About four hours friends go on the road. Servant Jupiter carries a shovel and a scythe, and Legrand - a golden beetle, tied to the end of a long cord. Having reached the cape, the travelers board a boat and reach it to the mainland. There they climb to the high bank and walk about two hours along the deserted, overgrown blackberry plateau. Finally, in the distance a tulip tree of enormous height appears. By order of the master, Jupiter clears the path to the plant, and then climbs on it, taking a beetle with him. Both the servant and the author of the story are absolutely convinced that Legrand is out of his mind. The summary of the story "The Golden Beetle" tells that they can not hold back tears from concern for the fate of Legrand.

Precious Prey

Suddenly, friends hear Jupiter's frightened cry: he saw a skull, nailed to the bough of a tree. This incident leads William to extraordinary delight. Legrand gives one more absurd order: to pass a cord with a beetle through the left eye socket of a human skull. Servant unquestioningly obeys the master, because with crazy is better not to argue. After this, Legrang hammers the peg to where the golden beetle has fallen. The brief content of the story will soon explain why he did this.

William begins to dig a hole near the clogged peg. The narrator begins to help him in this, confident that Legrand has overcome the common in the south mania of pantry. After an hour and a half their work is interrupted by the formidable barking of Newfoundland. The dog jumps into the pit and finds there two human skeletons. Another couple of strokes with a shovel - and friends see before them an iron ring peeping out from under the ground. The summary of the story "The Golden Beetle" brings us to the most interesting part of the narrative. The agitated companions soon get out of the pit a wooden trunk. In it treasure seekers find gold coins and jewelry. The return journey with heavy luggage on the shoulders was not easy. In the hut, the companions carefully examined and appreciated the treasure. According to the most conservative estimates, its cost was drawing on a half million dollars.

Mysterious parchment

Until the very end of the story, Edgar Poe intrigues his readers. The "Golden Beetle", the summary of which is presented in this article, only at the very end tells how Legrand learned about the hidden treasure. Seeing that the companions are burning with impatience, William began his story. It turns out that when he caught a golden beetle, he immediately bit him. On the shore Jupiter picked up a piece of paper and handed it over to the owner. William wrapped an insect in it. At home, he noticed that the fragment found was a scrap of parchment. Under the influence of heat, a skull appeared on it, which greatly interested the scientist. The summary of the story "The Golden Beetle" can give an idea of what an inquisitive mind Legran possessed, and how many correct conclusions he had to make in order to guess the contents of parchment. He began to heat the paper further and saw that the picture of a kid had appeared on it. After that, William no longer doubted that he had come across a map of the treasure buried by Captain Kidd on the Atlantic coast.

After that, Legrand saw figures that were exposed to the heat of the parchment. The scientist decided that this is a pirate cipher. Complex mental work allowed him to pick up the key to mysterious letters. In the end, he read a unintelligible text, in which strange names appeared: "good glass", "bishop's inn," "stool", "dead head" and so on.

The final solution

This is a complex chain of conclusions leads in his story Edgar Poe. The "Golden Beetle", the brief content of which will seem interesting to every lover of adventure, tells how William Legrand deciphered the enigmatic text on the parchment. From local residents, he learned that the "Devil's chair" and "Bishop's Inn" are figurative names of certain rocks and cliffs. A "good glass" is likely to be binoculars. Observing the neighborhood in this direction, Legrand noticed a tulip tree. After that, he no longer doubted that he would find a skull on it. When the Storyteller asked about the role of the golden beetle in this whole story, William laughed. He said that his friends had so much angered him with their distrust that he decided to teach them a lesson and repaid them with this little hoax.

Conclusion

We have very concisely explained the story of the story, gave it a very brief content. The "golden beetle" should be read long and thoroughly, not missing a single thread of the narrative. And then before you will open a wonderful world of adventure, which gave his readers Edgar Poe. Enjoy reading!