Some novels – Volume 1
()
About this ebook
Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist and playwright. Born in London, Collins was raised in England, Italy, and France by William Collins, a renowned landscape painter, and his wife Harriet Geddes. After working for a short time as a tea merchant, he published Antonina (1850), his literary debut. He quickly became known as a leading author of sensation novels, a popular genre now recognized as a forerunner to detective fiction. Encouraged on by the success of his early work, Collins made a name for himself on the London literary scene. He soon befriended Charles Dickens, forming a strong bond grounded in friendship and mentorship that would last several decades. His novels The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868) are considered pioneering examples of mystery and detective fiction, and enabled Collins to become financially secure. Toward the end of the 1860s, at the height of his career, Collins began to suffer from numerous illnesses, including gout and opium addiction, which contributed to his decline as a writer. Beyond his literary work, Collins is seen as an early advocate for marriage reform, criticizing the institution and living a radically open romantic lifestyle.
Read more from Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHide And Seek Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Highwayman and Mr. Dickens: An Account of the Strange Events of the Medusa Murders Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Queen of Hearts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Name Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Law and the Lady Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Haunted Hotel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dead Secret: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hoydens and Mr. Dickens: The Strange Affair of the Feminist Phantom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGothic Classics: 60+ Books in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dons and Mr. Dickens: The Strange Case of the Oxford Christmas Plot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Black Robe Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Victorian Mystery Megapack: 27 Classic Mystery Tales Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A House to Let Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTRICK OR TREAT Boxed Set: 200+ Eerie Tales from the Greatest Storytellers: Horror Classics, Mysterious Cases, Gothic Novels, Monster Tales & Supernatural Stories: Sweeney Todd, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Frankenstein, The Vampire, Dracula, Sleepy Hollow, From Beyond… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBasil Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/530 Mystery & Investigation masterpieces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greatest Books of All Time Vol. 5 (Dream Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Mystery and Detective masterpieces you have to read before you die vol: 1 (Book Center) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Name Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Some novels – Volume 1
Related ebooks
Little Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMan and Wife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLittle Novels (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Little Novels by Wilkie Collins - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Zant and the Ghost ('The Ghost's Touch') (Fantasy and Horror Classics) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Colonial Upstart Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Openings in the Old Trail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World's Greatest Books — Volume 06 — Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRobin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Openings in the Old Trail & Other Stories: “If, of all words of tongue and pen, The saddest are, 'It might have been" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuarding a Notorious Lady Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Turn Of The Screw(Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Letter of the Contract Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShaming the Speed Limit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhere Dead Men Meet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alien Species Intervention Books 1-3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Earl's Reluctant Proposal: A Regency Historical Romance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Baby, Species Intervention #6609 Book One Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Lady of Hever and the Dukes of Lancaster Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Night of the Solstice Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shades of Midnight: The Shades Trilogy, #1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5There & Back Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife's Little Ironies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Waltzing Widow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Story-Tell Lib Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of the Argonauts & Other Stories: “If, of all words of tongue and pen, The saddest are, 'It might have been" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs a Man Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Black Adonis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Master of Silence: A Romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDenzil Quarrier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad (The Samuel Butler Prose Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lathe Of Heaven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged) (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Some novels – Volume 1
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Some novels – Volume 1 - Wilkie Collins
MANUSCRIPT
MRS. ZANT AND THE GHOST
I.
THE course of this narrative describes the return of a disembodied spirit to earth, and leads the reader on new and strange ground.
Not in the obscurity of midnight, but in the searching light of day, did the supernatural influence assert itself. Neither revealed by a vision, nor announced by a voice, it reached mortal knowledge through the sense which is least easily self-deceived: the sense that feels.
The record of this event will of necessity produce conflicting impressions. It will raise, in some minds, the doubt which reason asserts; it will invigorate, in other minds, the hope which faith justifies; and it will leave the terrible question of the destinies of man, where centuries of vain investigation have left it--in the dark.
Having only undertaken in the present narrative to lead the way along a succession of events, the writer declines to follow modern examples by thrusting himself and his opinions on the public view. He returns to the shadow from which he has emerged, and leaves the opposing forces of incredulity and belief to fight the old battle over again, on the old ground.
II.
THE events happened soon after the first thirty years of the present century had come to an end.
On a fine morning, early in the month of April, a gentleman of middle age (named Rayburn) took his little daughter Lucy out for a walk in the woodland pleasure-ground of Western London, called Kensington Gardens.
The few friends whom he possessed reported of Mr. Rayburn (not unkindly) that he was a reserved and solitary man. He might have been more accurately described as a widower devoted to his only surviving child.
Although he was not more than forty years of age, the one pleasure which made life enjoyable to Lucy's father was offered by Lucy herself.
Playing with her ball, the child ran on to the southern limit of the Gardens, at that part of it which still remains nearest to the old Palace of Kensington. Observing close at hand one of those spacious covered seats, called in England alcoves,
Mr. Rayburn was reminded that he had the morning's newspaper in his pocket, and that he might do well to rest and read. At that early hour the place was a solitude.
Go on playing, my dear,
he said; but take care to keep where I can see you.
Lucy tossed up her ball; and Lucy's father opened his newspaper. He had not been reading for more than ten minutes, when he felt a familiar little hand laid on his knee.
Tired of playing?
he inquired--with his eyes still on the newspaper. I'm frightened, papa.
He looked up directly. The child's pale face startled him. He took her on his knee and kissed her.
You oughtn't to be frightened, Lucy, when I am with you,
he said, gently. What is it?
He looked out of the alcove as he spoke, and saw a little dog among the trees. Is it the dog?
he asked.
Lucy answered:
It's not the dog--it's the lady.
The lady was not visible from the alcove.
Has she said anything to you?
Mr. Rayburn inquired. No.
What has she done to frighten you?
The child put her arms round her father's neck.
Whisper, papa,
she said; I'm afraid of her hearing us. I think she's mad.
Why do you think so, Lucy?
She came near to me. I thought she was going to say something. She seemed to be ill.
Well? And what then?
She looked at me.
There, Lucy found herself at a loss how to express what she had to say next-
-and took refuge in silence.
Nothing very wonderful, so far,
her father suggested.
"Yes, papa--but she didn't seem to see