The Sign of the Seven SinsWilliam Le QueuxOmniClassics · Literature
The Sign of the Seven Sins
William Le QueuxA young woman's attempt to escape an unhappy love draws her into the seductive, secretive world of Monte Carlo.
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About the book
Carmela Rosselli travels to Europe with her cousin and guardian Ulrica, hoping that new surroundings will relieve the pain of an earlier attachment. On the Riviera they join a fashionable society in which gambling, flirtation, and displays of wealth are difficult to separate. Carmela's first successes at roulette make the casino briefly attractive, even as her companions describe the ruin concealed behind its elegance. The extraordinary luck of Reggie, a millionaire's son, deepens her fascination and opens a story of hidden motives and increasingly puzzling circumstances. Le Queux gives the adventure a first-person narrator who wants to explain herself while retaining a private reservation. The resulting suspense joins questions about money and deception to Carmela's uncertainty about the people closest to her.
- Gambling and temptation
- Confidence and deception
- Private grief
Why read it
Carmela's divided response to Monte Carlo lets the luxurious setting function as both attraction and source of unease.
English J. B. Lippincott edition dated 1901, with the 1900 copyright