Page 109 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Elective English—III Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 9: The Traveller's Story of a Terribly Strange Bed
by Wilkie Collins

CONTENTS

Objectives
Introduction
9.1 About the Author

9.1.1 Early Life
9.1.2 Early Writing Career
9.1.3 Later Years
9.2 Works
9.3 Writing Style

9.4 Wilkie Collins and the Form of the Novel
9.5 Conclusion
9.6 Critical Reception

9.7 The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed – Summary
9.8 The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed – Story
9.9 Summary
9.10 Keywords
9.11 Review Questions

9.12 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Describe the life and times of Wilkie Collins
Analyse works and writing style of Collins

Understand the themes and nature of ‘The Traveller's Story of a Terribly Strange Bed’

Introduction

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824–23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright,
and author of short stories. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone,
Armadale and No Name.
A skilful manipulator of intricate plots, Collins is remembered as a principal founder of English
detective fiction. Critics, although as popular in Collins’s day as the works of such Victorian
luminaries as Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Thackeray, frequently dismissed
his novels of intrigue and suspense, as sensationalist fiction. By the 20th century, Collins began
to receive recognition for his innovations in the detective genre, for his unconventional

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