Before You Begin

Before you begin.

A glass partition lets Mr. Sampson, a retired life-assurance manager, observe the people who enter his old office. He has spent years watching faces and manner, and he begins with a warning: a first impression may be true, yet still be explained away. In Hunted Down, he invites us to study the uneasy space between what a person shows and what others choose to believe.

Charles Dickens sets this short detective story among the business rooms, private chambers and seaside streets of Victorian England. Sampson tells it after the events, weighing his memories as he speaks. Follow the objects he notices, the words he hears, and the moments when a confident explanation no longer quite fits. The pleasure of the tale lies in watching small details gather meaning.

This illustrated edition opens with a gallery of the people and places in the story. As you read, its scenes and recap plates unlock at their points in the narrative, preserving the mystery ahead.

Turn the page and look through Sampson’s glass.