Penny Dreadful Presents ... The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice

by Wilkie Collins

Overview

"The startling contrast between the corpse-like pallor of her complexion and the overpowering life and light, the glittering metallic brightness in her large black eyes, held him literally spell-bound."

The ghost of Lord Montberry haunts the Palace Hotel in Venice --- or does it? Montberry's beautiful-yet-terrifying wife, the Countess Narona, and her erstwhile brother are the center of the terror that fills the Palace Hotel. Are their malefactions at the root of the haunting -- or is there something darker, something much more unknowable at work?

The Countess writes a ghost story in the form of a play which is in effect a confession of a murder by herself and her husband. The story, which might be fiction or may very well be the truth, tells a grisly tale of a body decapitated and disposed of by acid ...

Wilkie Collins's little known horror-ghost story of 1878 recalls his two prior triumphs 'The Woman in White' and 'The Moonstone' with its use of detective procedures and mystery-genre plot twists that made those two earlier novels so popular with Victorian readers.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149705375
Publisher:	Enhanced E-Books
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	936 KB

About the Author

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale, and No Name.

Collins was born into the family of painter William Collins in London. He received his early education at home from his mother. He then attended an academy and a private boarding school. He also traveled with his family to Italy and France, and learned the French and Italian languages. He served as a clerk in the firm of the tea merchants Antrobus & Co. His first novel Iolani, or Tahiti as It Was; a Romance, was rejected by publishers in 1845. His next novel, Antonina, was published in 1850. In 1851 he met Charles Dickens, and the two became close friends. A number of Collins's works were first published in Dickens's journals All the Year Round and Household Words. The two collaborated on several dramatic and fictional works, and some of Collins's plays were performed by Dickens's acting company.

Collins published his best known works in the 1860s, achieving financial stability and an international reputation. During this time he began suffering from gout, and developed an addiction to opium, which he took (in the form of laudanum) for pain. He continued to publish novels and other works throughout the 1870s and 80s, but the quality of his writing declined along with his health. He died in 1889.

Date of Birth:

December 8, 1824

Date of Death:

September 23, 1889

Place of Birth:

London, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Studied law at Lincoln¿s Inn, London