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Miss or Mrs? / The Haunted Hotel / The Guilty River
The three novellas gathered here - Miss or Mrs? (1871), The Haunted Hotel (1878), and The Guilty River (1886) - demonstrate Collins's ability to construct a gripping situation and create an atmosphere of mystery and menace. Fast-paced and psychologically absorbing, all proceed through a series of dramatic scenes to a climax that in one case at least is literally explosive. These stories, varied in setting and tone, demonstrate Collins's plot-making skill at its most succinct and intricate. Featuring excellent critical apparatus, this edition also includes Collins's original prefaces.
For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
400 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 1886
About the author
Wilkie Collins
2,250 books3,136 followersWilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright, best known for The Woman in White (1860), an early sensation novel, and The Moonstone (1868), a pioneering work of detective fiction. Born to landscape painter William Collins and Harriet Geddes, he spent part of his childhood in Italy and France, learning both languages. Initially working as a tea merchant, he later studied law, though he never practiced. His literary career began with Antonina (1850), and a meeting with Charles Dickens in 1851 proved pivotal. The two became close friends and collaborators, with Collins contributing to Dickens' journals and co-writing dramatic works.
Collins' success peaked in the 1860s with novels that combined suspense with social critique, including No Name (1862), Armadale (1864), and The Moonstone, which established key elements of the modern detective story. His personal life was unconventional—he openly opposed marriage and lived with Caroline Graves and her daughter for much of his life, while also maintaining a separate relationship with Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.
Plagued by gout, Collins became addicted to laudanum, which affected both his health and later works. Despite declining quality in his writing, he remained a respected figure, mentoring younger authors and advocating for writers' rights. He died in 1889 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. His legacy endures through his influential novels, which laid the groundwork for both sensation fiction and detective literature.
Collins' success peaked in the 1860s with novels that combined suspense with social critique, including No Name (1862), Armadale (1864), and The Moonstone, which established key elements of the modern detective story. His personal life was unconventional—he openly opposed marriage and lived with Caroline Graves and her daughter for much of his life, while also maintaining a separate relationship with Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.
Plagued by gout, Collins became addicted to laudanum, which affected both his health and later works. Despite declining quality in his writing, he remained a respected figure, mentoring younger authors and advocating for writers' rights. He died in 1889 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. His legacy endures through his influential novels, which laid the groundwork for both sensation fiction and detective literature.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 21, 2017
Miss or Mrs?
A thriller/sensational story: Richard Turlington falls in love with his best friend Sir Joseph's daughter, Natalie. Natalie is in love with her cousin and close friend, Launce. Turlington is accustomed to getting what he wants. The secret lovers devise a scheme to prevent Turlington from getting what he wants in this case. The story moves forward at a decent pace, and the characters are developed well enough to make their actions and motives clear and consistent. The ending is a bit anticlimactic, but the conflict is resolved, and the resolution is justified by earlier events. Overall, I give this story three stars because it was interesting but not great.
The Haunted Hotel
The Countess Narona (what a great name!), with her pale skin and black eyes, visits a London doctor and asks him if she's crazy. He examines her and tells her that he thinks she's perfectly healthy and sane. He wonders why she fears otherwise. She tells him that she is to be married to a man who had been engaged to Agnes Lockwood but broke his engagement with her to propose to the Countess instead. For some reason, though she wasn't aware of his prior engagement to Agnes, the Countess feels a terrible dread and rising feeling of impending doom when she meets Agnes for the first time. This is why she fears for her mental stability--Agnes was perfectly forgiving and civil, so the Countess can't explain her sense of foreboding. Events follow that explain that sense of foreboding perfectly. This story is suspenseful and intriguing. I particularly like Agnes and her cousin Henry. I enjoyed the scenes that take place in Venice, where the titular hotel is located. Collins did a wonderful job at turning the setting into a character in itself. The explanation of the mystery is revealed in an interesting and creative way. The resolution is perfect. I give this story four stars because I liked the characters, the story, the mystery, and the plot.
The Guilty River
Gerard Roylake returns home to his family's estate in England after years of schooling in Germany. His father has passed away, and he is the new landlord of half the town he lives in. On his first night home, rather than accompanying his stepmother on her dreadful social excursion, Roylake takes a walk along the stream that he hasn't seen since he was a child. He is looking for moths, a hobby that he had formed years ago, but he becomes distracted when he meets Cristel, an old childhood friend and the miller's daughter. That same night, he meets the Lodger staying with Cristel and her father. The Lodger is beautiful--Roylake thinks he could have been a woman if he didn't have the strength of a man in his mouth and jaw. But the Lodger is also bitter about his progressive deafness, the result of a long illness about a year ago. Once Roylake is reacquainted with Cristel and newly acquainted with the Lodger, the story moves forward from there. Unlike the first two novellas, this one is written in the first-person. I enjoy Roylake's narrative and his observations and thoughts. He writes as an older man looking back on himself at twenty, so there is some self-criticism in his reflections and some disbelief in how naive he was at the time of the events. Also, talk about turning the setting into a character! The story opens with a description of the features of Gerard Roylake's land, particularly the Loke, the titular river, whose name is said to be as ugly and distasteful as the waters themselves. Throughout this story, descriptions of the setting add to the atmosphere and drama of the plot. I give this story four stars because of its narrative, the plot, the characters, and the resolution, which is also clever and creative.
Just a warning: The Lodger's deafness is not cultural. He doesn't sign because he is newly deaf, and he is very bitter about his hearing loss. He won't even use a horn (an early hearing aid) to amplify sound. Therefore, there are disparaging remarks about deafness, mostly from the Lodger himself. Some people may find the pity offered to the man merely because of his deafness as offensive, but I found that it is consistent with human nature and that Collins' narrator was no different than many people still are today when they don't understand the experiences of others. Some people also may find the characterization of a deaf man as the villain to be offensive. However, he claims to be an evil man by inheritance, not because of his hearing loss. His hearing loss is important to the story--the long illness and the loss that follows are turning points for the man, who was a successful doctor beforehand but whose vanity and self-absorption, rather than his deafness, are his downfalls.
I highly recommend this collection of three Collins novellas. Collins himself states that these are "Stories in outline" because they are so short, but his writing doesn't suffer from being condensed for serialization. He's still a gifted author and an early master of mystery, suspense, and sensationalism.
A thriller/sensational story: Richard Turlington falls in love with his best friend Sir Joseph's daughter, Natalie. Natalie is in love with her cousin and close friend, Launce. Turlington is accustomed to getting what he wants. The secret lovers devise a scheme to prevent Turlington from getting what he wants in this case. The story moves forward at a decent pace, and the characters are developed well enough to make their actions and motives clear and consistent. The ending is a bit anticlimactic, but the conflict is resolved, and the resolution is justified by earlier events. Overall, I give this story three stars because it was interesting but not great.
The Haunted Hotel
The Countess Narona (what a great name!), with her pale skin and black eyes, visits a London doctor and asks him if she's crazy. He examines her and tells her that he thinks she's perfectly healthy and sane. He wonders why she fears otherwise. She tells him that she is to be married to a man who had been engaged to Agnes Lockwood but broke his engagement with her to propose to the Countess instead. For some reason, though she wasn't aware of his prior engagement to Agnes, the Countess feels a terrible dread and rising feeling of impending doom when she meets Agnes for the first time. This is why she fears for her mental stability--Agnes was perfectly forgiving and civil, so the Countess can't explain her sense of foreboding. Events follow that explain that sense of foreboding perfectly. This story is suspenseful and intriguing. I particularly like Agnes and her cousin Henry. I enjoyed the scenes that take place in Venice, where the titular hotel is located. Collins did a wonderful job at turning the setting into a character in itself. The explanation of the mystery is revealed in an interesting and creative way. The resolution is perfect. I give this story four stars because I liked the characters, the story, the mystery, and the plot.
The Guilty River
Gerard Roylake returns home to his family's estate in England after years of schooling in Germany. His father has passed away, and he is the new landlord of half the town he lives in. On his first night home, rather than accompanying his stepmother on her dreadful social excursion, Roylake takes a walk along the stream that he hasn't seen since he was a child. He is looking for moths, a hobby that he had formed years ago, but he becomes distracted when he meets Cristel, an old childhood friend and the miller's daughter. That same night, he meets the Lodger staying with Cristel and her father. The Lodger is beautiful--Roylake thinks he could have been a woman if he didn't have the strength of a man in his mouth and jaw. But the Lodger is also bitter about his progressive deafness, the result of a long illness about a year ago. Once Roylake is reacquainted with Cristel and newly acquainted with the Lodger, the story moves forward from there. Unlike the first two novellas, this one is written in the first-person. I enjoy Roylake's narrative and his observations and thoughts. He writes as an older man looking back on himself at twenty, so there is some self-criticism in his reflections and some disbelief in how naive he was at the time of the events. Also, talk about turning the setting into a character! The story opens with a description of the features of Gerard Roylake's land, particularly the Loke, the titular river, whose name is said to be as ugly and distasteful as the waters themselves. Throughout this story, descriptions of the setting add to the atmosphere and drama of the plot. I give this story four stars because of its narrative, the plot, the characters, and the resolution, which is also clever and creative.
Just a warning: The Lodger's deafness is not cultural. He doesn't sign because he is newly deaf, and he is very bitter about his hearing loss. He won't even use a horn (an early hearing aid) to amplify sound. Therefore, there are disparaging remarks about deafness, mostly from the Lodger himself. Some people may find the pity offered to the man merely because of his deafness as offensive, but I found that it is consistent with human nature and that Collins' narrator was no different than many people still are today when they don't understand the experiences of others. Some people also may find the characterization of a deaf man as the villain to be offensive. However, he claims to be an evil man by inheritance, not because of his hearing loss. His hearing loss is important to the story--the long illness and the loss that follows are turning points for the man, who was a successful doctor beforehand but whose vanity and self-absorption, rather than his deafness, are his downfalls.
I highly recommend this collection of three Collins novellas. Collins himself states that these are "Stories in outline" because they are so short, but his writing doesn't suffer from being condensed for serialization. He's still a gifted author and an early master of mystery, suspense, and sensationalism.
June 6, 2012
3.5 Stars
This was my first time reading Wilkie Collins. It’s something I’ve intended to do for years and simply never got round to, so when one of my groups suggested we do a group read of The Haunted Hotel I dusted my copy off and eagerly got down to it. Although not quite what I was expecting and far from perfect as either a ghost story or a murder mystery, I enjoyed the story so much that instead of picking up another book I went straight back to page 1 and got started on the other novellas in this collection. And while I would love to say they didn’t disappoint, the truth is that the last one did. However, each story had some strong things going for it, and each well worth the read, especially if you’re a fan of gothic literature.
The first story in this book, Miss or Mrs? is the most grounded and mundane. The atmosphere and threat come not from a sinister setting or some supernatural force, but a brutally human antagonist. Richard Turlington is your typical nasty, controlling, older man who plans to marry a girl in her teens and has an unpleasantly strong influence over her father to make it happen. To be honest there is nothing particularly interesting about him – he’s heavily hinted to be a very bad guy from the first chapter and then goes on to prove himself a very bad guy. Quelle surprise! What was interesting was the heroine – Natalie is fifteen years old and mixed race (mostly of white extraction but with visible signs of her ‘Negro blood and French blood‘). There are some unfortunate implications that it is this non-white blood that makes her sexually mature at such an early age but, for the most part, her appearance is described without unpleasant fetishisation, as both beautiful and desirable. Tall, dark, athletic, and a little bit booby, she’s about as far as I can imagine from the stereotypical Victorian ‘damsel in distress’. And she’s got a likable personality too, I wasn’t shouting at her not to be an idiot at any point – she doesn’t love Turlington, she has no intention of marrying him and defies his commands to stop seeing her friends, but at the same time she’s a fifteen year old nervous at the thought of escaping by eloping with the man she does love and abandoning her father and that conflict was well played out. She actually read like a (mature) teenager rather than either an adult or a child, as often happens. A modern audience does need to take in account the time period when considering the hero however, cause whatever way you look at it and however much he may love her, he’s still a man in his twenties getting it on with his fifteen year old cousin (strangely enough at fifteen I would have been less bothered by the age than the ‘cousin’ thing while now at 23 it’s the other way round).
Overall though it was an enjoyable story. The legal intricacies and hypocrisies of the law that Collins uses were an interesting way to go about trying to solve the conflict and the clandestine marriage, at least, was directly taken from an incident in Collins’ own life which always adds another layer of interest. The contrast and relationship between Natalie and her best friend, who married for a title and money and now regrets it, was a nice example of female friendship (even if their conversations, by necessity of length, all revolved around men) and the comic banter between Natalie’s father and her aunt constantly interrupting each other was well played and not too exaggerated. In the end, however, Miss or Mrs? turned out to be one of those awkward-length stories where an ending that would be absolutely fine in a shorter story just feels rushed and not-quite-right once you’ve spent this much time getting to know the characters. It’s a danger with the novella form, and one that’s hard to avoid, but I just felt a little…cheated I guess with how quickly everything resolved itself at the end.
The Haunted Hotel is, I believe, the best known of these three novellas – and not without reason. As I said before, it’s not at all what I was expecting going in and it’s not ‘perfect’ as either a ghost story, murder mystery, or relationship drama and occasionally the three threads don’t always mesh well together, but it’s a very enjoyable read and certainly not without merit. Here I confess I found the opposite problem to Miss or Mrs? and found the plot far more interesting than the characters. Agnes is alright I suppose, her refusal to blame the ‘other woman’ for her fiancée leaving her is definitely admirable – since the other woman didn’t know he was engaged I’d have had much less sympathy with Agnes if she had blamed her. And her conflicted feeling after he dies mysteriously shortly after his wedding are believable and well portrayed. But eeeeugh, Henry. I just can’t stand men who go by the theory ‘if I ask her enough she’ll say yes eventually’. No! If you keep pressuring a girl who’s not interested all you do is make her uncomfortable. In fairness this was actually well portrayed and other characters did tell him off for his timing, but he still gets the girl in the end. The one character I really liked though was the villainess of the piece – the strangely pale and beautiful Countess Narona who snatched Lord Montbarry away from Agnes by being way more interesting but a lot less nice. A victim of numerous scandals, you’re never sure quite how much she deserves and quite how much of it is malicious gossip that in turn drives her even further away from societal norms and into more scandal.
But onto the plot. I was very surprised to that almost the whole first half of the novel is set in England, rather than Venice and that the Hotel barely features until the latter chapters. The early stuff sets up the characters, the relationships, and the mystery – Lord Montbarry’s death in a Venetian palace while on his honeymoon – but the supernatural gothic stuff I was expecting doesn’t show up at all until the last half. Which results in a slightly disjointed story and me wondering quite why the supernatural stuff was included at all. Don’t get me wrong the idea of a dead man’s relatives staying in the room where he died and each experiencing supernatural visions, odours, or dreams that hint at his death being a concealed murder is a powerful idea. As a plot for a ghost story I like it, it just doesn’t quite work with there being such a very long and mundane set up to it. It feels a bit awkward and out of place, especially when all the clues needed are already there to work out what happened. I’ll give Collins a little credit here and say that the familiar murder-mystery trope used here probably wasn’t as overused in 1878 as it is now in 2012, and that Victorian audiences probably hadn’t been quite so exposed to it, but I still managed to solve the murder within a paragraph of the first real clue appearing – well before any ghostly activity at all.
I was a little disappointed too that not much had been done with Venice itself. It’s such a beautiful, unique, and almost intrinsically gothic city that I wanted to see it getting a bit more love – but the hotel might as well have been anywhere else in the world for all the use that was made of the setting of the city itself. We get lots on the Venetian architecture within the former palace, but very little of the rest of Venice, not even just to add to the already creepy atmosphere. Buuut, that’s just my love of Venice speaking I guess. It’s a compelling story, even if you do get to the conclusion before the characters. It also leaves you with plenty of interesting questions, particularly about the Countess, whilst wrapping the plot itself up quite nicely. Is the Baron really her brother as she claims? Or her lover as is strongly implied by everything else in the story? Personally I think definitely the second, but quite possibly both. Is her folly self-inflicted or spurred on by some supernatural force? Her premonition that Agnes would destroy her genuine? or merely self-fulfilling paranoia?
And now, The Guilty River, the weak link of the book. And it started so well too, a sympathetic protagonist, a sympathetic antagonist, a feisty love interest but then… Eugh, the protagonist lost my sympathy when he refused to condemn the antagonist’s threatening and scary behaviour towards the love interest. When the girl who you fancy’s father says ‘my lodger threatened to kill anyone who tries to take my girl away from him’ the appropriate response is not to think the father must have wound him up into saying something silly. When a girl makes it clear she finds a man’s advances uncomfortable and threatening you don’t feel sympathy for the guy and admire his patience and devotion against adversity. You just don’t. And I don’t care that he’s a pacifist and not the jealous type – you don’t need to be an overprotective jerk to realise that that behavior is totally out of line and not something to sympathise with. It shows a basic lack of respect for the girl that had me hoping that neither of them got her.
And the antagonist – obviously I lost sympathy with him too for this behavior. Suddenly losing your hearing might excuse you from being incredibly depressed and a dick to people for a while but it does not excuse you from sexual harassment. And then the ‘its in the blood’ excuse. Oh of course, you’re a villain because your father abandoned a girl, your uncle cheated at dice and your grandfather was a murderer! Clearly the descent into villainy was almost predetermined! Yeah – not buying it.
Despite a wonderfully realised setting, some humourous fish-out-of-water moments with the protagonist trying to get to grips with Victorian high society, and an interesting storyline, the characters just bothered me too much to rate this one any higher than a 3 star. The only character I felt genuine concern for in this tale of murder and jealousy was the loyal, evil-detecting, dog.
Overall though I think there’s something to appreciate in each of the stories. Although it took me a while to get through the last story I am glad I read the whole book instead of just stopping after The Haunted Hotel. Wilkie Collins writing is much more accessible than I had expected and am now really looking forward to reading The Woman in White for another group next month.
This was my first time reading Wilkie Collins. It’s something I’ve intended to do for years and simply never got round to, so when one of my groups suggested we do a group read of The Haunted Hotel I dusted my copy off and eagerly got down to it. Although not quite what I was expecting and far from perfect as either a ghost story or a murder mystery, I enjoyed the story so much that instead of picking up another book I went straight back to page 1 and got started on the other novellas in this collection. And while I would love to say they didn’t disappoint, the truth is that the last one did. However, each story had some strong things going for it, and each well worth the read, especially if you’re a fan of gothic literature.
The first story in this book, Miss or Mrs? is the most grounded and mundane. The atmosphere and threat come not from a sinister setting or some supernatural force, but a brutally human antagonist. Richard Turlington is your typical nasty, controlling, older man who plans to marry a girl in her teens and has an unpleasantly strong influence over her father to make it happen. To be honest there is nothing particularly interesting about him – he’s heavily hinted to be a very bad guy from the first chapter and then goes on to prove himself a very bad guy. Quelle surprise! What was interesting was the heroine – Natalie is fifteen years old and mixed race (mostly of white extraction but with visible signs of her ‘Negro blood and French blood‘). There are some unfortunate implications that it is this non-white blood that makes her sexually mature at such an early age but, for the most part, her appearance is described without unpleasant fetishisation, as both beautiful and desirable. Tall, dark, athletic, and a little bit booby, she’s about as far as I can imagine from the stereotypical Victorian ‘damsel in distress’. And she’s got a likable personality too, I wasn’t shouting at her not to be an idiot at any point – she doesn’t love Turlington, she has no intention of marrying him and defies his commands to stop seeing her friends, but at the same time she’s a fifteen year old nervous at the thought of escaping by eloping with the man she does love and abandoning her father and that conflict was well played out. She actually read like a (mature) teenager rather than either an adult or a child, as often happens. A modern audience does need to take in account the time period when considering the hero however, cause whatever way you look at it and however much he may love her, he’s still a man in his twenties getting it on with his fifteen year old cousin (strangely enough at fifteen I would have been less bothered by the age than the ‘cousin’ thing while now at 23 it’s the other way round).
Overall though it was an enjoyable story. The legal intricacies and hypocrisies of the law that Collins uses were an interesting way to go about trying to solve the conflict and the clandestine marriage, at least, was directly taken from an incident in Collins’ own life which always adds another layer of interest. The contrast and relationship between Natalie and her best friend, who married for a title and money and now regrets it, was a nice example of female friendship (even if their conversations, by necessity of length, all revolved around men) and the comic banter between Natalie’s father and her aunt constantly interrupting each other was well played and not too exaggerated. In the end, however, Miss or Mrs? turned out to be one of those awkward-length stories where an ending that would be absolutely fine in a shorter story just feels rushed and not-quite-right once you’ve spent this much time getting to know the characters. It’s a danger with the novella form, and one that’s hard to avoid, but I just felt a little…cheated I guess with how quickly everything resolved itself at the end.
The Haunted Hotel is, I believe, the best known of these three novellas – and not without reason. As I said before, it’s not at all what I was expecting going in and it’s not ‘perfect’ as either a ghost story, murder mystery, or relationship drama and occasionally the three threads don’t always mesh well together, but it’s a very enjoyable read and certainly not without merit. Here I confess I found the opposite problem to Miss or Mrs? and found the plot far more interesting than the characters. Agnes is alright I suppose, her refusal to blame the ‘other woman’ for her fiancée leaving her is definitely admirable – since the other woman didn’t know he was engaged I’d have had much less sympathy with Agnes if she had blamed her. And her conflicted feeling after he dies mysteriously shortly after his wedding are believable and well portrayed. But eeeeugh, Henry. I just can’t stand men who go by the theory ‘if I ask her enough she’ll say yes eventually’. No! If you keep pressuring a girl who’s not interested all you do is make her uncomfortable. In fairness this was actually well portrayed and other characters did tell him off for his timing, but he still gets the girl in the end. The one character I really liked though was the villainess of the piece – the strangely pale and beautiful Countess Narona who snatched Lord Montbarry away from Agnes by being way more interesting but a lot less nice. A victim of numerous scandals, you’re never sure quite how much she deserves and quite how much of it is malicious gossip that in turn drives her even further away from societal norms and into more scandal.
But onto the plot. I was very surprised to that almost the whole first half of the novel is set in England, rather than Venice and that the Hotel barely features until the latter chapters. The early stuff sets up the characters, the relationships, and the mystery – Lord Montbarry’s death in a Venetian palace while on his honeymoon – but the supernatural gothic stuff I was expecting doesn’t show up at all until the last half. Which results in a slightly disjointed story and me wondering quite why the supernatural stuff was included at all. Don’t get me wrong the idea of a dead man’s relatives staying in the room where he died and each experiencing supernatural visions, odours, or dreams that hint at his death being a concealed murder is a powerful idea. As a plot for a ghost story I like it, it just doesn’t quite work with there being such a very long and mundane set up to it. It feels a bit awkward and out of place, especially when all the clues needed are already there to work out what happened. I’ll give Collins a little credit here and say that the familiar murder-mystery trope used here probably wasn’t as overused in 1878 as it is now in 2012, and that Victorian audiences probably hadn’t been quite so exposed to it, but I still managed to solve the murder within a paragraph of the first real clue appearing – well before any ghostly activity at all.
I was a little disappointed too that not much had been done with Venice itself. It’s such a beautiful, unique, and almost intrinsically gothic city that I wanted to see it getting a bit more love – but the hotel might as well have been anywhere else in the world for all the use that was made of the setting of the city itself. We get lots on the Venetian architecture within the former palace, but very little of the rest of Venice, not even just to add to the already creepy atmosphere. Buuut, that’s just my love of Venice speaking I guess. It’s a compelling story, even if you do get to the conclusion before the characters. It also leaves you with plenty of interesting questions, particularly about the Countess, whilst wrapping the plot itself up quite nicely. Is the Baron really her brother as she claims? Or her lover as is strongly implied by everything else in the story? Personally I think definitely the second, but quite possibly both. Is her folly self-inflicted or spurred on by some supernatural force? Her premonition that Agnes would destroy her genuine? or merely self-fulfilling paranoia?
And now, The Guilty River, the weak link of the book. And it started so well too, a sympathetic protagonist, a sympathetic antagonist, a feisty love interest but then… Eugh, the protagonist lost my sympathy when he refused to condemn the antagonist’s threatening and scary behaviour towards the love interest. When the girl who you fancy’s father says ‘my lodger threatened to kill anyone who tries to take my girl away from him’ the appropriate response is not to think the father must have wound him up into saying something silly. When a girl makes it clear she finds a man’s advances uncomfortable and threatening you don’t feel sympathy for the guy and admire his patience and devotion against adversity. You just don’t. And I don’t care that he’s a pacifist and not the jealous type – you don’t need to be an overprotective jerk to realise that that behavior is totally out of line and not something to sympathise with. It shows a basic lack of respect for the girl that had me hoping that neither of them got her.
And the antagonist – obviously I lost sympathy with him too for this behavior. Suddenly losing your hearing might excuse you from being incredibly depressed and a dick to people for a while but it does not excuse you from sexual harassment. And then the ‘its in the blood’ excuse. Oh of course, you’re a villain because your father abandoned a girl, your uncle cheated at dice and your grandfather was a murderer! Clearly the descent into villainy was almost predetermined! Yeah – not buying it.
Despite a wonderfully realised setting, some humourous fish-out-of-water moments with the protagonist trying to get to grips with Victorian high society, and an interesting storyline, the characters just bothered me too much to rate this one any higher than a 3 star. The only character I felt genuine concern for in this tale of murder and jealousy was the loyal, evil-detecting, dog.
Overall though I think there’s something to appreciate in each of the stories. Although it took me a while to get through the last story I am glad I read the whole book instead of just stopping after The Haunted Hotel. Wilkie Collins writing is much more accessible than I had expected and am now really looking forward to reading The Woman in White for another group next month.
August 20, 2026
Wilkie Collins will always be remembered as the friend of Charles Dickens whose works did not equal those of the great master. Having said that, there are many, especially those who are not too keen on Dickens, who would rather read a Wilkie Collins thriller than almost anything by Charles Dickens. Overall though, it is true that Collins is the lesser writer.
I say this as someone who is a great admirer of the best Collins works. I simply love The Moonstone, Armadale and The Woman in White, and enjoy other works by Collins too. The achievements of Collins are extraordinary, and he deserves to be read by future generations.
What is it that makes Dickens the better writer? It is not the fact that Collins frequently resorts to the same plot devices and characters across his fiction. Dickens does that too, and this only makes his works more fascinating, as we see the same motifs, themes and plot developments, and can reflect that these must mean something to Dickens.
It is not that Collins was a prolific writer, favouring quantity or quality, since Dickens wrote a large number of words as well. It is not even that Collins wrote for money, since Dickens was mindful of the commercial appeal of his books.
I think it is a matter of scope. Collins considers some serious themes in his works, but they are essentially melodramatic thrillers. Dickens incorporates elements of melodrama and the thriller story in his works, but his books are so much more – they are comedies, with carefully-drawn characters; they contain tragic and sentimental events; best of all, they contain political and social commentary. The humanist outrage in Dickens is what gives his works their most distinct and loveable voice.
The three stories in this volume suffer further from being novellas. Collins works better on a larger palette. The novella has a habit of ending too soon. Yet this point is also a matter of praise for Collins. The novellas are slightly dissatisfying, because we want more.
Every story here has many points of interest. ‘Miss or Mrs?’ introduces the standard lover whom we will see in all three stories. He is pleasant enough, and his kindness makes him allies, and wins him the woman, even if he is rather persistent and insistent in pressuring her.
For this story, the tension lies in a rival for his affections. While Natalie Graybrooke, a heroine of mixed race (this is another Collins trope – he is interested in people who lie outside conventional society) is in love with Launcelot Linzie, this relationship is threatened by Richard Turlington, a sullen businessman who hopes to marry Natalie to escape bankruptcy.
This leads the plot through numerous twists involving a clandestine marriage and an attempted murder. This is thanks to the foolish behaviour of Natalie’s father who is pushing a marriage to Turlington for his own ends, while she marries elsewhere. Selfish fathers often feature in the works of Collins, as do irregular relationship arrangements, reflecting the chaos in Collins’ own life.
The longest work in this selection is ‘The Haunted Hotel’. Countess Narona is another woman of foreign extraction and irregular relationships. She travels Europe with her ‘brother’ the Baron, who may or may not be really her lover. She marries Lord Montbarry, causing him to break off his engagement with the morally steadfast heroine Agnes Lockwood.
This prompts feelings of guilt in the Countess, who becomes convinced that Agnes will eventually be her undoing. This certainly seems possible, though we should note that Agnes often seems to stand in the way of any justice for Montbarry (who dies in mysterious circumstances soon after the marriage), since it is Agnes who seems to oppose early enquiries into the circumstances.
Finally it comes down to ghostly happenings in the house where the murder took place, which is now a hotel run by Montbarry’s brother. All the characters converge on the hotel and have supernatural experiences of varying clarity, with Agnes of course seeing the ghost most clearly.
The story is not exactly an Idiot Plot, one where the story only makes sense if all the characters act like idiots. However, it is true that the tale would not work if the characters did not act in ways that seem psychologically implausible.
We might just about accept the Countess returning to the scene of her crime, since she is driven by a self-fulfilling prophecy to bring about her own downfall at the hands of Agnes. But do we really believed that a brother of Montbarry would convert his death house into a hotel, or that a brother would agree in principle to stage a play written by the disreputable woman who married and may have killed his sibling?
Lastly, we have ‘The Guilty River’, a dream-like doom-laden tale which feels like an even darker version of ‘Miss or Mrs?’ Again we have a love triangle, complicated by a selfish father.
This time there are two societal outsiders. The protagonist and antagonist are strangely similar, except in moral character. Gerald Roylake returns from Germany to inherit his father’s estate, but cannot get used to shallow British society, as represented by his stepmother, with whom he is forced to live.
One day, Gerald is exploring the murky local river that lours unhealthily through the story. This takes him to the house of a miller, where he meets the miller’s attractive daughter, Cristel Toller. Her name also suggests European roots. An attraction soon grows between them, but this is complicated by the jealousy of the Tollers’ lodger.
We do not learn The Lodger’s name, but he is an outsider like Gerald. The Lodger’s handsomeness is offset by the fact that he has gone deaf, and become embittered with his experiences. Like Turlington he is determined to marry the woman he loves (Cristel) by fair means or foul, and not even stop short of murdering to get his own way.
While The Lodger is repellent, he is a more pitiful figure than the unrepentant Turlington. The Lodger hands Gerald a paper describing his early life, with a moving account of the loss of his hearing, even down to the point where he no longer has the comfort of hearing the birds sing. While this does not wholly redeem The Lodger, he does repent at the end.
The three stories here are melodramatic and contrived, and would have benefited from more time spent on ending them satisfactorily. This was perhaps not possible due to commercial and timing constraints.
Nonetheless, all three stories are exciting and well-paced, with a nice sense of grisly foreboding, even if the ending is likely to be happy. They all contain fascinating areas of interest at the periphery concerning the outsider status of the hero and the peculiar relationship arrangements between the main characters.
While none of the stories compare with the great longer novels, and are not even the best novellas I have ever read, they are still well worth a look for anyone who enjoys Victorian tales of sensationalism. With all their flaws, they are never boring and consistently intriguing and entertaining.
I say this as someone who is a great admirer of the best Collins works. I simply love The Moonstone, Armadale and The Woman in White, and enjoy other works by Collins too. The achievements of Collins are extraordinary, and he deserves to be read by future generations.
What is it that makes Dickens the better writer? It is not the fact that Collins frequently resorts to the same plot devices and characters across his fiction. Dickens does that too, and this only makes his works more fascinating, as we see the same motifs, themes and plot developments, and can reflect that these must mean something to Dickens.
It is not that Collins was a prolific writer, favouring quantity or quality, since Dickens wrote a large number of words as well. It is not even that Collins wrote for money, since Dickens was mindful of the commercial appeal of his books.
I think it is a matter of scope. Collins considers some serious themes in his works, but they are essentially melodramatic thrillers. Dickens incorporates elements of melodrama and the thriller story in his works, but his books are so much more – they are comedies, with carefully-drawn characters; they contain tragic and sentimental events; best of all, they contain political and social commentary. The humanist outrage in Dickens is what gives his works their most distinct and loveable voice.
The three stories in this volume suffer further from being novellas. Collins works better on a larger palette. The novella has a habit of ending too soon. Yet this point is also a matter of praise for Collins. The novellas are slightly dissatisfying, because we want more.
Every story here has many points of interest. ‘Miss or Mrs?’ introduces the standard lover whom we will see in all three stories. He is pleasant enough, and his kindness makes him allies, and wins him the woman, even if he is rather persistent and insistent in pressuring her.
For this story, the tension lies in a rival for his affections. While Natalie Graybrooke, a heroine of mixed race (this is another Collins trope – he is interested in people who lie outside conventional society) is in love with Launcelot Linzie, this relationship is threatened by Richard Turlington, a sullen businessman who hopes to marry Natalie to escape bankruptcy.
This leads the plot through numerous twists involving a clandestine marriage and an attempted murder. This is thanks to the foolish behaviour of Natalie’s father who is pushing a marriage to Turlington for his own ends, while she marries elsewhere. Selfish fathers often feature in the works of Collins, as do irregular relationship arrangements, reflecting the chaos in Collins’ own life.
The longest work in this selection is ‘The Haunted Hotel’. Countess Narona is another woman of foreign extraction and irregular relationships. She travels Europe with her ‘brother’ the Baron, who may or may not be really her lover. She marries Lord Montbarry, causing him to break off his engagement with the morally steadfast heroine Agnes Lockwood.
This prompts feelings of guilt in the Countess, who becomes convinced that Agnes will eventually be her undoing. This certainly seems possible, though we should note that Agnes often seems to stand in the way of any justice for Montbarry (who dies in mysterious circumstances soon after the marriage), since it is Agnes who seems to oppose early enquiries into the circumstances.
Finally it comes down to ghostly happenings in the house where the murder took place, which is now a hotel run by Montbarry’s brother. All the characters converge on the hotel and have supernatural experiences of varying clarity, with Agnes of course seeing the ghost most clearly.
The story is not exactly an Idiot Plot, one where the story only makes sense if all the characters act like idiots. However, it is true that the tale would not work if the characters did not act in ways that seem psychologically implausible.
We might just about accept the Countess returning to the scene of her crime, since she is driven by a self-fulfilling prophecy to bring about her own downfall at the hands of Agnes. But do we really believed that a brother of Montbarry would convert his death house into a hotel, or that a brother would agree in principle to stage a play written by the disreputable woman who married and may have killed his sibling?
Lastly, we have ‘The Guilty River’, a dream-like doom-laden tale which feels like an even darker version of ‘Miss or Mrs?’ Again we have a love triangle, complicated by a selfish father.
This time there are two societal outsiders. The protagonist and antagonist are strangely similar, except in moral character. Gerald Roylake returns from Germany to inherit his father’s estate, but cannot get used to shallow British society, as represented by his stepmother, with whom he is forced to live.
One day, Gerald is exploring the murky local river that lours unhealthily through the story. This takes him to the house of a miller, where he meets the miller’s attractive daughter, Cristel Toller. Her name also suggests European roots. An attraction soon grows between them, but this is complicated by the jealousy of the Tollers’ lodger.
We do not learn The Lodger’s name, but he is an outsider like Gerald. The Lodger’s handsomeness is offset by the fact that he has gone deaf, and become embittered with his experiences. Like Turlington he is determined to marry the woman he loves (Cristel) by fair means or foul, and not even stop short of murdering to get his own way.
While The Lodger is repellent, he is a more pitiful figure than the unrepentant Turlington. The Lodger hands Gerald a paper describing his early life, with a moving account of the loss of his hearing, even down to the point where he no longer has the comfort of hearing the birds sing. While this does not wholly redeem The Lodger, he does repent at the end.
The three stories here are melodramatic and contrived, and would have benefited from more time spent on ending them satisfactorily. This was perhaps not possible due to commercial and timing constraints.
Nonetheless, all three stories are exciting and well-paced, with a nice sense of grisly foreboding, even if the ending is likely to be happy. They all contain fascinating areas of interest at the periphery concerning the outsider status of the hero and the peculiar relationship arrangements between the main characters.
While none of the stories compare with the great longer novels, and are not even the best novellas I have ever read, they are still well worth a look for anyone who enjoys Victorian tales of sensationalism. With all their flaws, they are never boring and consistently intriguing and entertaining.
April 17, 2011
Five stars for these 3 novellas by Wilkie Collins, because they all showcase the author's great talent for creating mood, mystery, and suspense within a (relatively) compressed scope. Though the genre (short "sensation" fiction) has its limitations and predictable elements, there's no lack of interest and variety across these 3 works: Collins quickly establishes a distinctive tone in each (melodramatic, sinister, dreamy/nostalgic), keeps all manner of plot twists and turns coming - I'm was not surprised to discover, after reading these stories, that Collins wrote (successfully) for the stage - and transports the reader to and through many different different settings (at home and abroad, on land and sea, in town and in the country etc). We meet various styles of protagonists and villains (great stuff!) and though many readers would prefer more rounded characters, I think that within the scope of the novella, the characters are reasonably well fleshed out.
Recommended to fans of sensation fiction, and anyone who appreciates elegant prose, good observation of human nature, exploration of Victorian conventions/laws/society, and thrilling tales.
Recommended to fans of sensation fiction, and anyone who appreciates elegant prose, good observation of human nature, exploration of Victorian conventions/laws/society, and thrilling tales.
December 18, 2014
A grouping of three novellas by Wilkie Collins first published between 1871 and 1886, so I expected some differences in style as a result. To me, the strongest story was the first and the weakest was the last. Miss or Mrs? (1871) was short enough to force an impressive pace to the plot. The Haunted Hotel (1878) seemed long enough to qualify as a novel rather than a novella, but still kept up a well-paced plot, although I was not fully convinced about the motivation of some of the main characters. It was, at times, spectacularly macabre. The Guilty River (1886) rather plodding by comparison, but still an enjoyable read. Altogether classic Wilkie Collins.
October 28, 2016
Wilkie, himself, described these stories as "outlines".
They were not as compelling as his "full" novels and, since they were not meant to give great detail, sometimes felt "rushed" in regards to "loose ends".
Here are my ratings of each:
Miss or Mrs? 3 stars [ I think this would make a good teleplay--GO BBC!]
The Haunted Hotel 1.5 stars
The Guilty River 2 stars
Yes, I see this does not average out to 3 stars [ as indicated above], but, in the end, I could not make myself give my beloved and doted upon, Wilkie, a below average rating.
I was still entertained, just not, riveted.
They were not as compelling as his "full" novels and, since they were not meant to give great detail, sometimes felt "rushed" in regards to "loose ends".
Here are my ratings of each:
Miss or Mrs? 3 stars [ I think this would make a good teleplay--GO BBC!]
The Haunted Hotel 1.5 stars
The Guilty River 2 stars
Yes, I see this does not average out to 3 stars [ as indicated above], but, in the end, I could not make myself give my beloved and doted upon, Wilkie, a below average rating.
I was still entertained, just not, riveted.
April 18, 2021
Wilkie Collins never disappoints. I love his writing and his characters. There is always the page-turning thrill but a little chuckle at society as well. I love him! I wish he had as much literary credit as his bestie. These novellas were easy to read and quick too. I love Miss it Mrs. and The Haunted Hotel was incredible. The guilty river was a little odd and not too clear in plot events... perhaps he had taken too much opium when writing that one!! Anyway. Totally worth the read!
June 20, 2008
This collection of Wilkie Collins novellas was somewhat uneven. I am crazy about many of his books - The Moonstone, The Woman in White, and Armadale chief among them. I liked the title piece quite a bit...included many of Collins's signature touches. But the whole thing felt kind of rushed. The stories didn't have time to develop and were missing some of Collins's signature layers.
August 16, 2009
I love Wilkie Collins! Although not as good as "The Woman in White" or "The Moonstone," these short stories are great psychological thrillers/mysteries. Creepy, suspenseful, and each one so different from the last. Collins' writing style does take some adjusting to, but his books are fabulous reads for the mystery-lover.
March 12, 2008
Really liked the short novels. Still have to read the last one.
August 2, 2009
This was a fun book to read, my favorite of the short stories was the Haunted Hotel.
September 2, 2009
Thanks Jules! This was fabulous - I think I might have liked Guilty River even better than the Haunted Hotel.
July 23, 2013
Classic novel.
Available free in eBook or Audiobook form:
Librivox.org
Gutenberg.org
Available free in eBook or Audiobook form:
Librivox.org
Gutenberg.org
December 24, 2014
Classicly creepy Wilkie!
July 21, 2016
The guilty river was beautiful. Besides Dickens, he is the only writer that can paint such a scene. The Haunted Hotel was a very good story.
February 20, 2025
Such melodrama!
This book contains three novellas. 'Miss or Mrs?' is the shortest and the lightest with a satisfyingly dastardly villain.
'The Haunted Hotel' concerns Lord Montbarry, who breaks off his engagement to the saintly Agnes to marry the disreputable Countess Narona. He then dies of bronchitis and his courier disappears. The Venetian palace he was renting at the time of his death is turned into a hotel and his entire family go and stay there one by one and discover it to be haunted. This is frankly too long, has too many characters, and suffers from a lack of structure. Agnes was also too feeble to be a satisfactory heroine. I did appreciate however the way Lord Montbarry, despite Agnes' devotion to him, turned out to have been a not very nice man!
'The Guilty River' was my least favourite of the three and also has little by way of narrative structure. It is narrated by Gerard, recently returned from an education abroad to settle on his estate after his father's death. I disliked Gerard throughout. He rediscovers a childhood friend in Christel, the miller's daughter, and falls in love with her despite the difference in their social status. Christel and her father have a lodger who is a 'beautiful' man. The Lodger (do we ever learn his name?) has recently become deaf and is feeling very sorry for himself about it. He is determined to marry Christel and forces kisses on her, much as Gerard does, to be honest. I found this whole story sordid and unpleasant and the actions of Christel and the miller mystifying.
This selection was obviously very 'Victorian' in its worldview, which was grating at times, especially the sweeping descriptions by Gerard and the (male) narrator about what (all) women are like.
Interesting, but I wouldn't read them again.
This book contains three novellas. 'Miss or Mrs?' is the shortest and the lightest with a satisfyingly dastardly villain.
'The Haunted Hotel' concerns Lord Montbarry, who breaks off his engagement to the saintly Agnes to marry the disreputable Countess Narona. He then dies of bronchitis and his courier disappears. The Venetian palace he was renting at the time of his death is turned into a hotel and his entire family go and stay there one by one and discover it to be haunted. This is frankly too long, has too many characters, and suffers from a lack of structure. Agnes was also too feeble to be a satisfactory heroine. I did appreciate however the way Lord Montbarry, despite Agnes' devotion to him, turned out to have been a not very nice man!
'The Guilty River' was my least favourite of the three and also has little by way of narrative structure. It is narrated by Gerard, recently returned from an education abroad to settle on his estate after his father's death. I disliked Gerard throughout. He rediscovers a childhood friend in Christel, the miller's daughter, and falls in love with her despite the difference in their social status. Christel and her father have a lodger who is a 'beautiful' man. The Lodger (do we ever learn his name?) has recently become deaf and is feeling very sorry for himself about it. He is determined to marry Christel and forces kisses on her, much as Gerard does, to be honest. I found this whole story sordid and unpleasant and the actions of Christel and the miller mystifying.
This selection was obviously very 'Victorian' in its worldview, which was grating at times, especially the sweeping descriptions by Gerard and the (male) narrator about what (all) women are like.
Interesting, but I wouldn't read them again.
September 26, 2025
This book contains three novels. Miss or Mrs is a tale of a love triangle between Richard turlington, natalie, and lance. In The Haunted Hotel Agness is looking into the mysterious death of her ex after their spouse gets a large sum of money. The Guilty River follows Gérard Roylake who returns to the families estate and meets up with an old friend.
In all the stories feel rushed and incomplete. There are loose ends, and the main plots of the stories don't mesh well together at times. The Haunted Hotel is a strange mix between a ghost story, murder mystery, and relationship drama. The characters feel almost one dimensional. I've been told that Wilkie Collins is a good writer multiple times, but this book doesn't seem to have the same charm I was described. The stories at their core is good. They have a good basis for sure. In a way these stories feel like an early draft of a larger fleshed out book. If you are okay with something that isn't totally complete and are looking for a shorter read these might be good for you.
In all the stories feel rushed and incomplete. There are loose ends, and the main plots of the stories don't mesh well together at times. The Haunted Hotel is a strange mix between a ghost story, murder mystery, and relationship drama. The characters feel almost one dimensional. I've been told that Wilkie Collins is a good writer multiple times, but this book doesn't seem to have the same charm I was described. The stories at their core is good. They have a good basis for sure. In a way these stories feel like an early draft of a larger fleshed out book. If you are okay with something that isn't totally complete and are looking for a shorter read these might be good for you.
December 21, 2023
I was very much looking forward to these creepy novella style stories as I love his The woman in white but I found these quite dull in comparison.
Miss or Mrs?
Told the tale of a thwarted love triangle between Richard Turlington, Natalie and Launce.
The haunted hotel tells the story of the Countess Narona who meets her suitors ex who fills her with an unaccountable dread and in The guilty river we hear of Gérard Roylake who returns to the family estate after many years in Germany.
There he meets an old childhood friend, Cristel who lives with her father the local Miller and their brooding deaf lodger.
The stories just seemed to sort of go nowhere and didn't have the strong narrative or presence of some of his novels.
Not his best work.
Miss or Mrs?
Told the tale of a thwarted love triangle between Richard Turlington, Natalie and Launce.
The haunted hotel tells the story of the Countess Narona who meets her suitors ex who fills her with an unaccountable dread and in The guilty river we hear of Gérard Roylake who returns to the family estate after many years in Germany.
There he meets an old childhood friend, Cristel who lives with her father the local Miller and their brooding deaf lodger.
The stories just seemed to sort of go nowhere and didn't have the strong narrative or presence of some of his novels.
Not his best work.
January 22, 2022
This is an Oxford Classic edition of three of Wilkie Colins' novelettes. I liked the first & third better than the middle one. The first was exciting! The third described the great difficulties of deafness for a person deafened in adulthood.
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