Showing results by author "Wilkie Collins" in All Categories

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.

Originally published as "The Duel in Herne Wood" in The Spirit of the Times, 22 December 1877. Captain Stanwick and Lionel Varleigh are old friends, but after falling out over their attentions to Bertha Laroche, they fight an illegal duel in Herne Wood. Stanwick wrongly thinks he has killed Varleigh and goes mad, killing himself with a razor when his supposed victim returns like an apparition from the dead.

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.

Settling himself in front of the station fire, a young policeman is little prepared for the account of bloody murder that will be relayed that night. For it seems that Mrs Crosscapel's lodging-house is a place of dark secrets and buried passions - emotions that will soon cloud even his own judgement. Who Killed Zebedee? is a brilliant and highly original tale of horror and the macabre..

Sixteen classic stories.

Do czego zdolna jest matka dla swojego dziecka? Madame Fontaine, wdowa po wybitnym chemiku, ma w sobie wystarczająco determinacji i przebiegłości, żeby doprowadzić do skutku plany matrymonialne młodej Minny, a każdemu, kto ośmieli się stanąć na jej drodze, grożą niebezpieczne konsekwencje. Lecz czy nie natrafiła przypadkiem na godnego siebie przeciwnika w osobie niejakiego Słomianego Jacka, byłego pensjonariusza zakładu dla obłąkanych? Dopiero w domu pogrzebowym okaże się, kto zatriumfuje – i kto ujdzie z życiem.

"La donna in bianco" è il capolavoro di Wilkie Collins, amico e collaboratore di Charles Dickens. Quest'opera è uno dei romanzi più apprezzati nella letteratura inglese, ed è entrato a far parte dei migliori cento romanzi gialli di tutti i tempi, classifica della Crime Writers Association. La particolare forma narrativa, la caleidoscopica presentazione della vicenda, ripresa dai diversi punti di vista dei protagonisti e dei testimoni degli avvenimenti delittuosi, rappresenta un unicum nel suo genere.

We love control. The ability to predict and organise our lives as we want them. As we desire them. It’s quite a shock, then, when phantoms, ghouls and ghosts play their part, too. They don’t play by our rules. Our welfare is not their concern. They will do as they wish. And they have very vivid imaginations - way beyond the dictionary definition: Phantom. Noun. Something apparently seen, heard or sensed but having no physical reality. An image that appears only in the mind; an illusion. A model, especially a transparent one, of the human body or of any of its parts.

Our greatest fears are of the unknown. Usually we think those fears are in front of us...or behind us. But perhaps the human body itself holds the greatest horror. What happens after death? Do our bodies have a new existence either in whole...or part? Will others seek to claim them and do unspeakable things? We don’t know. But our authors do. And they have the talents and wits to make these diabolical stories vehicles for horror, for terror, for the unimaginable.... 

An excellent ghost story; ancient prophecy and the unburied dead.