The opening chapters need no account. A free account opens the whole text.
The Tortoise Shell Comb
Roylston Markham · 1923
A private's uneasy recollection carries us into a deserted chateau near Is-sur-Tille, where an old village story shadows a single closed bedroom. Roylston Markham's tale turns on the distance between what a witness remembers and what a room can prove.
Inside this edition
Every LitLab edition is illustrated from the text itself — the world of the book mapped, its people drawn, its scenes staged. 16 plates are open to everyone in this book; here are 8 of them.
Is-sur-Tille and the Unnamed Chateau
The Army and Navy Insane Asylum
How Their Stories MeetEight traced relationships connect witnesses, remembered figures, and the comb.
The Private, Captain Bott, the Visitor and the Hospital InternThe principal and supporting figures in the story.
The Company Around the Chateau TaleThe six principal figures whose memories, choices, and accounts shape the tale.
The Private — Profile
The Chateau at DuskThe private and Captain Bott enter the neglected house beneath the old bride legend.
The Comb ExplainedBack in the asylum office, the visitor presses the intern about the tortoise-shell comb.
This edition
- Title
- The Tortoise Shell Comb
- Author
- Roylston Markham
- First published
- 1923
- Illustrated plates
- 30 original artworks · 16 open to everyone
- Chapters
- 1 · about 1,945 words
- Reading time
- 8 min
- Language
- EN
- Formats
- Read online · EPUB and PDF download with a subscription
- Publisher
- LitLab — The Illustrated Classics
- On LitLab since
- September 2026
- Rights
- Text in the public domain. Illustrations and edition © LitLab.
Neighbours in the library
Chosen by what they share with The Tortoise Shell Comb — the same years.