Victorians! discussion

Please use this thread to comment on the sectionS called Trottle’s Report & Let at Last.

Discussion questions will be forthcoming but feel free to begin ahead of schedule or at any time during the month.

Trottle's Report is good!

I like the ending!

Good to know! I’m always so glad when something that starts well holds out to the end.

I am pretty sure these two chapters were written by Wilkie Collins.

The last chapter was written by Wilkie and Collins, and Collins did write Trottle's Report.

I finished reading. I liked both these chapters. Trottle's Report had that mysterious touch which was iconic of Collins. The secret of the parentage business brought A Woman in White to my mind.

The ending was satisfactory. I always like happy endings. It is frustrating when you have to part with a book with a heavy heart after reading it for long.

Yes. They both needed someone to love and to appreciate their love.


What an evil man, though. Who thinks like that?

I am glad that Collins wrote Trottle's Report. It was my favourite part, and the ending was very satisfactory.

As I was reading through this story/stories, everything seemed to be digressing farther and farther from the point of the story. I liked the way everything finally converged at the end of the story. The poor little boy seemed to come straight out of a Dickens story.

I am glad it worked out well for him.

Hi all - this is my first post in the group! Thanks for choosing such an incredible “ghost story” for Christmas time. I so enjoyed the novel and didn’t allow myself to look up who wrote which parts until I was finished. While Trottle was doing his detective work, I was too! I thought his report was characteristically Collins, the mysterious elements all giving way to a logical, yet, sinister explanation; while the very ending was characteristic of Dickens’ sentimentality- orphans, and mad people locked in attics, saved by the love and goodness of a woman. I thought the character of Sophonisba was most interesting. At the end she was the frightened/fainting, soft, maternal (very angel-in-the-house), Victorian female, but throughout the novel she was also a spitfire, independent, intelligent, etc. I think we can thank the female co-authors for her complex characterization.
Thanks again for suggesting this book! I enjoyed the reading and the conversation!

I enjoyed this book as well, and would never have found it on my own. It was a real Christmas treat.

The whole story was a very enjoyable Christmas read.

Trottle’s report was almost a condensed mini novel in itself and, as others have said, typical of the extraordinary imagination of Wilkie Collins. Despite his successes and acclaim for ‘Woman in White’ and ‘The Moonstone,’ many of his other novels such as ‘No Name’ and ‘Armadale,’ deserve greater recognition.

The authors of the story did meet regularly in the literary circles of London life (although Elizabeth Gaskell lived in Manchester) but I wonder how the collaboration actually worked. Was there a ‘ brainstorming’ session or did they write individually, sharing their ideas by post as they were written? Some of them had collaborated previously on Christmas stories for the magazine and they were all to do it again the following year.

At the moment I am half way through reading the letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett (1845-46) which were often accompanied by drafts of each others’ poems. The drafts were then returned annotated with possible improvements. The mutual respect they had for each other grew into a romance but I find the comments they make on each other’s poetry even more fascinating.

Getting back to ‘A House To Let’ I can see why such stories would be so popular at this time of year. Despite the sadness of the first three chapters, the ending is uplifting in providing some hope for the future for those in need.

I'm almost done with this book but not quite finished with the ending. I'll go and read your comments when I am finished. I just wanted to say that chapter about the wife and the brother fooled me. I thought it would be by Emily Dickinson because of the rhyming style. Turns out that part was by Procter.

When I listened to the part about when Trotter found the little boy in the house I thought that was so creepy! The boy seemed happy even though he was living like a slave. Don't quite understand why he was being kept like he was. It seems he is in the way of someone's inheritance. I'm confused about whose inheritance though. Listening to the book, I had a few interruptions when my husband started talking to me. I went back and listened again a few times but didn't quite get clear on this. The creepy "young acting" old lady in the house...who is she and what does she have to do with the boy?

I think the old lady was the caretaker and was hired to look after the boy.

Thanks Rosemarie, Somehow that old woman seemed like there,was more to her than a hired caretaker. Now that I have finished the book, I think you are right. it was a good ending. I can see why it was chosen for the holiday season. The end theme of the child and nod to the child of the season was touching.

I am so glad the boy got a real home.