Wilkie Collins: The Complete Short Stories (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Victorian mysteries, English Gothic chills, and classic detective puzzles from 19th-century EnglandBy Wilkie Collins
Length124h 32m
About this audiobook
Wilkie Collins: The Complete Short Stories gathers the shorter fiction of a writer central to Victorian popular literature, revealing the range behind his reputation as master of sensation. These tales move between mystery, domestic melodrama, Gothic unease, social satire, and psychological suspense, often turning on secrets, mistaken identities, legal injustice, and the instability of respectable appearances. Written with Collins's characteristic clarity, dramatic pacing, and ingenious plotting, the stories illuminate the same literary world that produced The Woman in White and The Moonstone. Collins (1824–1889), friend and sometime collaborator of Charles Dickens, was shaped by the serial marketplace, the theatre, and a lifelong fascination with law, medicine, and social marginality. His unconventional private life, chronic illness, and skepticism toward Victorian moral certainties helped sharpen his sympathy for women, outsiders, and the wrongly accused. These concerns repeatedly surface in his short fiction, where entertainment and critique are rarely separate. This collection is warmly recommended to readers of Victorian fiction, detective literature, and finely constructed narrative suspense. It offers both an accessible introduction to Collins's art and a rich supplement for those who know his novels, displaying his brilliance in compact, versatile form.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics
Length124 hrs 32 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateMay 21, 2015
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
2Introduction
3Author Biography
4Historical Context
5Synopsis (Selection)
Show all chaptersShow less
6After The Dark (pt. 1)
7After The Dark (pt. 2)
8After The Dark (pt. 3)
9After The Dark (pt. 4)
10After The Dark (pt. 5)
11After The Dark (pt. 6)
12After The Dark (pt. 7)
13The Ostler
14Mr. Wray's Cash Box (pt. 1)
15Mr. Wray's Cash Box (pt. 2)
16The Queen of Hearts (pt. 1)
17The Queen of Hearts (pt. 2)
18The Queen of Hearts (pt. 3)
19The Queen of Hearts (pt. 4)
20The Queen of Hearts (pt. 5)
21The Queen of Hearts (pt. 6)
22The Queen of Hearts (pt. 7)
23A House to Let (pt. 1)
24A House to Let (pt. 2)
25The Haunted House ("The Ghost in the Cupboard Room")
26My Miscellanies (pt. 1)
27My Miscellanies (pt. 2)
28My Miscellanies (pt. 3)
29My Miscellanies (pt. 4)
30My Miscellanies (pt. 5)
31My Miscellanies (pt. 6)
32My Miscellanies (pt. 7)
33No Thoroughfare (pt. 1)
34No Thoroughfare (pt. 2)
35No Thoroughfare (pt. 3)
36Miss or Mrs? (pt. 1)
37Miss or Mrs? (pt. 2)
38"Blow up with the Brig!"
39The Hidden Cash
40The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
41The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices (pt. 1)
42The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices (pt. 2)
43The Last Stage Coachman
44The Fatal Cradle
45The Frozen Deep
46The Captain's Last Love
47The Dead Hand
48The Devil's Spectacles
49The First Officer's Confession
50Farmer Fairweather
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