The Haunted Hotel

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: ...This little volume contains enough suspense, fog, and familial twists-and-turns to satisfy any modern mystery fan (if one overlooks the inherent sexism that dates this book)...not to mention the delicious sense of voyeurism in peeking in on this group of gentle Englishfolk. Read it and remember when mystery writers could actually write.

Rating:
Summary: True Collins Style.
Review: If you are a Wilkie Collins fan, well then, add this title to your list. I have. A story filled with suspenses and mystery. It keeps you turning the pages until the end. Who killed the count or did anyone? What happened to the courier? Is the countess mad? Told partly by letters and differing characters' perspective it is typical of Collins' narrative style. He takes the readers to a most stupendous climax in Venice. It is a ghost story, a fun read, like watching an old black and white movie. Recommeded!

Rating:
Summary: Subtitled: A Mystery of Modern Venice - 1860 vintage
Review: Reading a novel by Wilkie Collins requires substantial time, but my investment is usually well rewarded. His lesser known novel, The Haunted Hotel, is uncharacteristically short, and is an easy way to become acquainted with Wilkie Collins. The Haunted Hotel offers a fast moving, tight plot that maintains the reader's interest. It is a mystery story, a ghost story, and an early psychological thriller, all melded smoothly together.

The story begins in London, but later moves to the modern Venice of 1860. The dark, wet waterways and aging palaces provide an ideal setting for a mysterious death and a possibly related disappearance. Suspicion there is, but evidence is sparse. A threatening apparition indirectly hints at further clues.

The psychology component revolves around the Countess Narona, one of the most memorable characters created by Collins. The seemingly amoral Countess foresees, or believes she foresees, her eventual punishment and doom for previous evils. Her obsession leads her step by step toward the very retribution that she hopes to avoid.

The Haunted Hotel - A Mystery of Modern Venice was first published in 1879. I recommend buying the inexpensive Dover edition (ISBN 0486243338). Dover also reprints other books by Wilkie Collins, including The Moonstone, The Lady in White, The Dead Secret, Basil, No Name, and others. Through these works Wilkie Collins is credited with having popularized the classic detective mystery story.

Rating:
Summary: perhaps the best Collins's later works?
Review: Wilkie Collins writing career spanned some 30 years (1850-1880). During the last ten years his writing skills declined due to poor health and opium addiction; some of his later novels are really bad (semi-theatrical melodramas). Surprisingly 'The Haunted Hotel', one of the last works by Wilkie Collins, is a rather nice, compact ghost story. Fans of Wilkie Collins will be pleased.

The story is about, um.., a haunted hotel. Several characters, mostly squabbling aristocrats, return to the Venetian home (now hotel) of a deceased colleague (..a rather nasty fellow). The past comes to haunt these guests in rather metaphysical ways. It's all a bit silly, of course. But the decent prose and characterizations save 'The Haunted Hotel' from being some camp ghost story.

Bottom line: certainly not a classic but enjoyable nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: perhaps the best Collins's later works?
Review: Wilkie Collins writing career spanned some 30 years (1850-1880). During the last ten years his writing skills declined due to poor health and opium addiction; some of his later novels are really bad (semi-theatrical melodramas). Surprisingly 'The Haunted Hotel', one of the last works by Wilkie Collins, is a rather nice, compact ghost story. Fans of Wilkie Collins will be pleased.

The story is about, um.., a haunted hotel. Several characters, mostly squabbling aristocrats, return to the Venetian home (now hotel) of a deceased colleague (..a rather nasty fellow). The past comes to haunt these guests in rather metaphysical ways. It's all a bit silly, of course. But the decent prose and characterizations save 'The Haunted Hotel' from being some camp ghost story.

Bottom line: certainly not a classic but enjoyable nonetheless.