The Haunted Hotel
Book Review of The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins ( Victorian mystery novel )
Agatha Christie’s puzzle thriller And Then There Were None includes elements of the gothic novel, the mysterious atmosphere that the author skillfully constructs pulling the viewer into a suspenseful thriller and an exciting investigation of a psychoanalyst. This tale by Wilkie Collins was released in 1878; the book is a synthesis of a Victorian mystery and supernatural horror that would still be interesting to readers today. Collins who is famous for detective stories applies the same tactic in this story probably to make the readers hold their breath at every page of the story.
The first setting is London where wonderful and rich Countess Narona crosses the way of handsome and successful Lord Montbarry. Even though the beautiful lady that they see at the table has an awful demeanor as described by George, Lord Montbarry in ways learns to be spellbound by the witch. Not long after the wedding, Lord Montbarry together with the Countess set off to Venice where they take a dark-looking palace to live in. The atmosphere is also quite bleak and Collins paints the palace in dark gloomy descriptions.
One of the compelling features of this novel is that Venice from many aspects serves as an essential setting. As in old Italian Gothic films, the field of vision is mysterious and frightening due to the canals, very narrow streets, and fog. With great subtlety, Collins brings the spirit of Venice into his novel to make it look like some main character. Sometimes reader feels the stunning cold and dampness of the producing palace following the characters through the dark corridors which seem to conceal some stories of their own.
Probably the most decisive for the interaction of the characters and the audience becomes the last event of the novel which is Lord Montbarry’s unusually quick death in mysterious circumstances. Whispers start that there is something wrong, and one of the characters fingers the Countess as having had something to do with it. When the death happens more mysteriously, fear increases when the palace turns into a hotel. This newly renovated hotel becomes the setting where several family members ofisbury decide to spend their holiday Therefore, when shooting a horror film, it is important to have a worthy location, and this palace seems to have it all as the ghosts seem to attack only those who chose to stay there.
Beneath‘s superficies, Collins masterfully weaves a highly intricate relationship between the personalities and feelings of his character. Everyone has his or her agendas and hidden agendas, the reader is never quite sure who is or isn’t a villain. The return of the common character of Agnes Lockwood, Lord Montbarry’s former fiancée, and the birth of her child who is also someone is tragic yet she marks determination. Those who awoke the next morning would be unrecognizable – they’d be transformed into something different and horrifying – but Agnes’s journey through grief and her strange bond with the hotel provide a psychological angle to the narrative.
Collins’s ability to combine mystery and horror is what distinguishes The Haunted Hotel. Deal supernatural devices are used but are put in appropriate places and do make suspense without exaggeration. In the same way that Collins structured other Victorian-era narratives, one does not receive definitive answers to whether the horrors come from ghosts or con Jobs.
The language used by Collins closely resembles that found in Victorian literature, making his stories accessible to a wide range of readers, even those who are new to his works. To maintain a good pace and hold readers’ interest, Collins keeps chapters relatively short, limiting the amount of content covered in each one.
All in all, I could say that The Haunted Hotel is a nice book for those who have a flair for conventional mystery, and horror novels with an overtone of supernatural. Primarily its setting, the mysterious characters, and the plot make it every reader’s favorite timeless ghost story. Moreover, if you are new to Victorian literature or eager to read a gothic novel filled with mysteries and suspense, it’s worth pursuing.
