Showing results by author "Wilkie Collins" in All Categories

From the author of novels like The Moonstone and The Woman in White, Caprisha Page masterfully narrates the short story Mrs. Zant and the Ghost, the tale of a widower and his daughter as they encounter a mysterious woman in a London park. This chance encounter leads to them along a path that involves lost love, murder, (possibly) a ghost, and a fairly vicious love triangle. Is there a ghost? Can Mrs. Zant be saved? Or is it all merely madness?

On the night before their execution during the French Revolution, twenty-one condemned prisoners and their friends are permitted a last banquet before their trip to the guillotine on the morrow. While they feast and jest on their last night alive, they begin to speculate about the hour of the execution the next day. Only one prisoner, Duprat, is quiet on the subject. His friend Marginy questions him on the subject, and Duprat asserts than he knows the exact time at which he will die on the next day.

A haunting collection of unforgettable tales by great classic authors.

This is heralded as the very first mystery novel. Collins, in his great work, created the guidelines for the genre as we know it today: a fabulous diamond stolen, everyone in the house is suspected, three mysterious Indians sworn to protect the jewel at all costs, the upstairs/downstairs tension from the servants, and a brilliant detective who is eccentrically fond of roses.

A brilliant and humorous short story by Wilkie Collins, in which an elderly lady, whose Victorian sensibilities on morals and propriety are finely honed, finds herself living next door to Major Namby, the ultimate neighbour from hell.

A timeless collection of classic short stories by some of the master storytellers of the world. Old Iron by Stacy Aumonier, Odour of Chrysanthemums by D. H. Lawrence, The Idiot by Arnold Bennett, Miss Harriet by Guy de Maupassant, Red Hanrahan by W. B. Yeats, The Doll's House by Katherine Mansfield, The Devil's Spectacles by Wilkie Collins, The Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde, Miss Bracegirdle does her Duty by Stacy Aumonier, The Piece of String by Guy de Maupassant, Glad Ghosts by D. H. Lawrence.

A treasure trove of short classic stories by some of the greatest storytellers in the world: 1.Mademoiselle Fifi by Guy de Maupassant 2.The Test by W. W. Jacobs 3.Miss Brill by Katharine Mansfield 4.England, my England by D. H. Lawrence 5.The Dead Hand by Wilkie Collins 6.The Stalled Ox by Saki 7.Red Hanrahan by W. B. Yeats 8.My Uncle Jules by Guy de Maupassant 9.A Love Knot by W. W. Jacobs 10.The Odour of Chrysanthemums by D. H. Lawrence 11.Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe

When Arthur Holliday arrives at Doncaster during race week, he is unable to find a hotel room free. His search for a bed for the night leads him to a dubious hostelry, The Two Robins, where he is offered a bed in a shared room at a handsome price of five shillings. The landlord assures Arthur that his room-mate is sleeping soundly and will in no way disturb him. A quick examination of the sleeping man confirms that he is indeed very quiet. Too quiet!

The Devil's Spectacles is perhaps Wilkie Collins' most unusual and bizarre tale. It tells the story of Alfred, a young landed gentleman who is given by Septimus Notman, a sailor on his deathbed, a pair of unusual spectacles. These, Septimus had received from the Devil in person, under most unusual circumstances. The spectacles have strange supernatural powers, enabling the wearer to see the thoughts and emotions of others around him.

The Weird Circle, featuring tales of terror and horror, aired from 1943-1947, mainly on the Mutual radio network. This episode was originally broadcast on October 3, 1943.

“Wake up! Wake up, there! Murder!” A hostler spits out these vehement words while he turbulently sleeps. He is haunted by a phantasm. It is a phantasm with a droop in the left eye, long flaxen hair, and a long buckhorn clasp knife.

A winning streak at a downmarket gambling den in Paris leads to a lavish drinking spree. The offer of coffee to help sober up is not all that it first seems. Our protagonist finds himself in a strange bed for the night in a house of thieves and murderers. And it turns out to be a very strange bed indeed... a bed cunningly designed with murder in mind. A spine-chilling tale... especially if you listen at bedtime.

A fabulous yellow diamond becomes the dangerous inheritance of Rachel Verinder. Outside her Yorkshire country house watch the Hindu priests who have waited for many years to reclaim their ancient talisman, looted from the holy city of Somnauth. When the Moonstone disappears, the case looks simple, but in mid-Victorian England no one is what they seem, and nothing can be taken for granted.

Wilke Collins was the author of two of the greatest mysteries ever written, The Moonstone and The Woman in White. However, like Poe before him and Conan Doyle after, he shifted easily from rational domains to the 'superrational'. Like them, he often preferred to indulge his occult predilection, a lifelong indulgence.

On Christmas Eve, a party of friends descends on a purportedly haunted country retreat, charged with the task of discovering evidence of the supernatural. Sequestered in their rooms for the holiday, the friends reconvene on Twelfth Night at a great feast and share their stories of spectral encounters.

A scintillating collection of tales with unexpected endings.

This collection of classic crime short fiction includes: "Bluebeard's Bathtub" by Margery Allingham; "Who Killed Zebedee?" by Wilkie Collins; "An Alpine Divorce" by Robert Barr; and "The Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

A dark and humid night on a London highway… a ghostly woman asking directions… and the reader is away on a tale of deceit, murder, madness, stolen identities and scheming cads, elaborate plots and outrageous coincidences, in the company of some of the most extraordinary characters in fiction. Hailed as a classic the moment it was written in 1859, The Woman in White uses a dozen different narrators to tell the tale of a man’s determination to save the woman he loves....

When Walter Hartright encounters the "solitary figure of a woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments" on a lonely road, he is haunted by her. He falls in love with his employer's niece, Laura, because she resembles the mysterious woman. Laura, however, is betrothed to the evil Sir Percival, who wishes to marry her for her money. The woman in white, it turns out, is Anne Catherick, who was confined in an asylum by the evil Sir Percival because she knew a devastating secret about him.

Wilkie Collins was an early master of the mystery and detective story and the first English novelist to write in this genre. "Blow Up with the Brig" is a short story written in 1859, just a year before he wrote his famous novel The Woman in White.