Victorians! discussion

Hello, and welcome to our reading of The Haunted Hotel! This will be my first reading of this novel and I look forward to sharing it with you. I'm a fan of Wilkie Collins and of anything haunted, so it looks very promising to me. I'm opening this thread for us to start off with some background discussion of the author and the book (no spoilers, please).

Here is a link to an interesting account of Collins' life. It has some interesting facts that I was unaware of, such as his physical appearance and his extremely unconventional living arrangements.

Wilkie Collins - A Short Biography

If you have any information or comments to add, please do so!

The reading schedule will be as follows:

9/1 - 9/5 -- Ch. I-IV
9/6 - 9/12 -- Ch. V-VIII
9/13 - 9/19 -- Ch. IX-XII
9/20 - 9/26 -- Ch. XIII-XVI
9/27 - 10/3 -- Ch. XVII-XX
10/4 - 10/10 -- Ch. XXI-XXIV
10/11 - 10/17 -- Ch. XXV-XXVIII

We are reading four chapters a week with less than 50 pages per week. I hope this schedule makes it possible for people to join in and be able to keep up with the reading. Our discussion of the first four chapters will begin next Tuesday! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Thank you, Cindy. That biographical link was a good summary to get us started. I am assuming he lived in London. It is implied by place names but never stated outright.

Lucia wrote: "Thanks for the link, Cindy. Very informative. I found some interesting cues about Collins's life and the themes he deals with. I probably won't be able to join in the discussion till mid September,..."

I was very surprised by some of the facts I learned--he was definitely an unusual person! Just join in when you can. Like I said, it's a pretty laid-back reading schedule, which is great when so many of us are dealing with going back to school and the continuing challenges posed by the virus.

Brian wrote: "Thank you, Cindy. That biographical link was a good summary to get us started. I am assuming he lived in London. It is implied by place names but never stated outright."

Yes, Brian, I believe that is true. It does say he also traveled extensively but considered London his home.

Here is a link to the
Wilkie Collins Society. This has some more information about him and also provides links to articles of literary criticism and theory about his works, as well as periodical newsletters issued by the society.

I’ve not read Wilkie Collins before so I’m looking forward to this. I also haven’t really read a lot of ghost stories, so doubly excited.

Although appearing as a minor character, Wilkie Collins appears in the 2013 movie, ‘The Invisible Woman’ which describes the love affair between Charles Dickens and Nelly Tiernan. The screenplay is based on the book of the same name The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin. Wilkie Collins’ close relationship with Dickens and his anti establishment lifestyle is featured in the movie. More details can be found here :-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inv...

Brenda wrote: "I’ve not read Wilkie Collins before so I’m looking forward to this. I also haven’t really read a lot of ghost stories, so doubly excited."

I hope you enjoy his writing! The first time I read anything by him (which was Armadale, I went into it knowing that he had been a close friend of Dickens and for some reason, that led me to expect his writing style to be similar. It's not! I love Dickens but greatly admire the characterization that Wilkie accomplishes--especially his strong female characters. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as we read.

Trev wrote: "Although appearing as a minor character, Wilkie Collins appears in the 2013 movie, ‘The Invisible Woman’ which describes the love affair between Charles Dickens and Nelly Tiernan. The screenplay is..."

Thank you for sharing that link, Trev! I have never heard of this film but definitely want to see it now. It sounds very compelling.

I read this several years ago and found it to be a delightfully creepy sensation novel. Its much more gothic than more famous Collins novels like Armadale, The Woman in White, No Name, and The Moonstone, so be prepared to leave a light on once you try to put it down & get some sleep.

Oh boy Renee! Lol.

I do relish my sleep, but I will give it a go. However I’m not keen on that type of anxiety, so I may leave it gets too disturbing. I am intrigued tho.

I read this book earlier this year it’s good like other works of Collins and it’s not very scary at least not the illogical scary which knocks us senseless lol.

I will read it with you, I have already read The Woman in White and Armadale and speaking about ghost stories Henry James's The turn of the Screw that was rather scary.

Thanks Nidhi. I sound like a whimp, eh??? Lol.

Brenda, you are not alone, I am a self-certified chicken hearted person, I have taken oath never to read Stephen King or to watch movies based on his books. But I have read Dracula and Frankenstein, and liked them both, they are good literature not horror.
For me , Victorians have not written anything which we cannot enjoy. Happy Reading 😊

I am looking forward to reading this book with the group.

I will read this too.

I've already read this one, but look forward to reading people's comments.

Great! It sounds like we've got a good group going! I'll post the first week's discussion starter tomorrow. I look forward to a great discussion with you all!

I will join in at some point. I've wanted to read this for a very long time.

Piyangie wrote: "I will join in at some point. I've wanted to read this for a very long time."

Please do! The more the merrier! :)

I just borrowed the audiobook yesterday, so I'll be joining you too :)

Iza, great idea with an audio. I admit I was struggling with a paper copy and was ready to put it down, but I’ve switched to audio.

Hi all---I'm a long-time lurker and will be jumping in for the first time. Ready for a creepy read :)

Michelle wrote: "Hi all---I'm a long-time lurker and will be jumping in for the first time. Ready for a creepy read :)"

Welcome, Michelle! We are reading pretty slowly, so hopefully you will have no trouble getting caught up. Take your time! :)