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The Haunted Hotel
The Haunted Hotel

Paperback
Author: Wilkie Collins
Publisher: Borgo Press
Release Date: 2002-05-01
ISBN-10: 1587156903
ISBN-13: 9781587156908
List Price: $19.95
Average Customer Rating:
Score = 4.0 Score = 4.0 Score = 4.0 Score = 4.0 Score = 4.0
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Our Review: To use our price comparison to get the cheapest price, please click on the "Find the Cheapest Price" button located above for The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins (ISBN-10: 1587156903, ISBN-13: 9781587156908).

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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Summary:
Is there no explanation of the mystery of The Haunted Hotel? Is The Haunted Hotel the tale of a haunting -- or the tale of a crime? The ghost of Lord Montberry haunts the Palace Hotel in Venice --- or does it? Montberry's beautiful-yet-terrifying wife, the Countess Narona, and her erstwhile brother are the center of the terror that fills the Palace Hotel. Are their malefactions at the root of the haunting -- or is there something darker, something much more unknowable at work?

Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: Score = 4.0 Score = 4.0 Score = 4.0 Score = 4.0 Score = 4.0

Saccharine Gothicism
 Customer Rating:  Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3
When I purchased this book I was hoping for a "detective" novel, as Wilkie Collins is considered the father of the English detective novel. His novel "The Moonstone" is his most famous for this reason. However, the storyline to "The Haunted Hotel" sounded more interesting to me than "The Moonstone" so I bought it instead.

If you're hoping to read a detective novel, don't buy this. There isn't an ounce of detection, logic or even an understanding of human nature in this work. Nor is there any significant character development of any kind. On the other hand, if you like Gothic literature and don't care a jot about character development, buy the novel and godspeed. This IS a page turner, but almost everything about this novel is so predictably facile that it almost doesn't bear reading.

My advice is that if you want something serious, steer clear of this one. If you need a brain candy alternative to TV, this is probably a good bet.

Subtitled: A Mystery of Modern Venice - 1860 vintage
 Customer Rating:  Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5
Reading a novel by Wilkie Collins requires substantial time, but my investment is usually well rewarded. His lesser known novel, The Haunted Hotel, is uncharacteristically short, and is an easy way to become acquainted with Wilkie Collins. The Haunted Hotel offers a fast moving, tight plot that maintains the reader's interest. It is a mystery story, a ghost story, and an early psychological thriller, all melded smoothly together.

The story begins in London, but later moves to the modern Venice of 1860. The dark, wet waterways and aging palaces provide an ideal setting for a mysterious death and a possibly related disappearance. Suspicion there is, but evidence is sparse. A threatening apparition indirectly hints at further clues.

The psychology component revolves around the Countess Narona, one of the most memorable characters created by Collins. The seemingly amoral Countess foresees, or believes she foresees, her eventual punishment and doom for previous evils. Her obsession leads her step by step toward the very retribution that she hopes to avoid.

The Haunted Hotel - A Mystery of Modern Venice was first published in 1879. I recommend buying the inexpensive Dover edition (ISBN 0486243338). Dover also reprints other books by Wilkie Collins, including The Moonstone, The Lady in White, The Dead Secret, Basil, No Name, and others. Through these works Wilkie Collins is credited with having popularized the classic detective mystery story.

perhaps the best Collins's later works?
 Customer Rating:  Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4
Wilkie Collins writing career spanned some 30 years (1850-1880). During the last ten years his writing skills declined due to poor health and opium addiction; some of his later novels are really bad (semi-theatrical melodramas). Surprisingly 'The Haunted Hotel', one of the last works by Wilkie Collins, is a rather nice, compact ghost story. Fans of Wilkie Collins will be pleased.

The story is about, um.., a haunted hotel. Several characters, mostly squabbling aristocrats, return to the Venetian home (now hotel) of a deceased colleague (..a rather nasty fellow). The past comes to haunt these guests in rather metaphysical ways. It's all a bit silly, of course. But the decent prose and characterizations save 'The Haunted Hotel' from being some camp ghost story.

Bottom line: certainly not a classic but enjoyable nonetheless.


...
 Customer Rating:  Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4
...This little volume contains enough suspense, fog, and familial twists-and-turns to satisfy any modern mystery fan (if one overlooks the inherent sexism that dates this book)...not to mention the delicious sense of voyeurism in peeking in on this group of gentle Englishfolk. Read it and remember when mystery writers could actually write.

True Collins Style.
 Customer Rating:  Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5
If you are a Wilkie Collins fan, well then, add this title to your list. I have. A story filled with suspenses and mystery. It keeps you turning the pages until the end. Who killed the count or did anyone? What happened to the courier? Is the countess mad? Told partly by letters and differing characters' perspective it is typical of Collins' narrative style. He takes the readers to a most stupendous climax in Venice. It is a ghost story, a fun read, like watching an old black and white movie. Recommeded!

























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