Other Fiction Collins, Wilkie: The Haunted Hotel (illustrated), v1, 8 June 2014

[AlexBell]

Wilkie Collins lived in London from 1824 to 1889, a period in which 'the inevitable self-assertion of wealth, so amiably deplored by the prosperous and the rich; [was] so bitterly familiar to the unfortunate and the poor.'

He was short, plump, and short sighted; despite his severe suffering from gout he was a traveller, bon vivant, journalist, satirist, essayist, novelist, dramatist, and social activist; and friend, collaborator, and rival of Charles Dickens. He became addicted to laudanum, and several of his characters praise it.

One of his characters says '... isn't it the original intention or purpose... of a work of fiction, to set out distinctly by telling a story? ... What I want is something that seizes hold of my interest... something that keeps me reading, reading, reading, in a breathless state to find out the end.

The Haunted Hotel first appeared in the Belgravia Magazine in 1878, eighteen years after The Woman in White. The author's addiction to laudanum was increasing, his health was deteroriating, and his popularity was waning. The gentle satire he showed in his earlier books is caustic in this book, and some of his comments on 'the lower classes' and women are scornful.

The main thread of the convoluted plot describes the horrible (though unintended) effects of the actions of a jilted fiancee on the husband's wife. The book is part horror story and part ghost story.

The source text for The Haunted Hotel was Project Gutenberg pg170-h.htm, checked against the Chatto and Windus 1892 edition. I have set letters and documents off as blockquotes with left aligned text, and have removed quotation marks within them unless the writer is quoting someone else. I have silently corrected typos, curled quotes, replaced italics and diacritics, made the eldest daughter's name consistent, and made minor changes to spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com.

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