Collins (1824 - 1889) was a fellow writer and business associate
of Charles Dickens and the author of novels such as No Name
and The
Moonstone. He also wrote stories for the magazine market.
The Biter Bit
(1858): A comic detective story that gives Collins a chance to smack two things
he liked to smack: overweening self-confidence and middle-class pretensions.
Probably the best story of the collection.
The Lady of
Glenwith Grange (1856): A sad story of a selfless older sister
taking care of her ungrateful younger sister. The Victorians liked stories with
imposters. Though impersonations were easier in days before modern
communications, they still seem unlikely to me. As he sometimes did in his
novels, Collins puts in a brief appearance of a disabled child.
Gabriel’s
Marriage (1853). This is story is okay, but the description of the storm on
the Brittany coast make this family
secret story exceptional.
Mad
Monkton (1855): Dickens turned this story down, thinking that it
wasn’t suitable for the family-friendly magazine Household Words. We heartily agree when we read this unflinching
account of a guy with monomania looking for his reprobate uncle’s unburied
corpse in Italy.
A Terribly
Strange Bed (1852): In a dodgy Parisian casino, a carefree young
gentleman doesn’t know when to quit while he’s ahead and thus finds himself in
trouble deep. Collins’ examination of the denizens of a gambling hell brought
to my mind a casino I once visited in Macau.
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