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

Walter Hartright, another man who is both visual artist and storyteller. Like Hartright, who Notes
possesses the textual body of Anne Catherick, whose story he relates, the artist textually possesses
the body of Faulkner, whose story he relates to the reader. The artist also possesses the physical
body of Faulkner because he is painting him and manipulating the man so that he will give the
artist a natural expression.
When he has finished telling his story, about a time in his youth when he was almost killed in
a gaming house in Paris, Faulkner starts in his chair because while he has been telling his story,
he has forgotten he has been sitting for his portrait. He thinks he has been the worst model the
artist has ever had. The artist replies: “On the contrary, you have been the best…I have been
painting your expression and while telling your story you have unconsciously shown me the
natural expression I wanted”. The storytelling process frees Faulkner from a controlled emotional
state to an uncontrolled one, where he can assume his natural expression.
The artist is an early form of Walter Hartright. Both exert control over others by relating tales.
By becoming storytellers, they both assume a position of authority, which they do not experience
in their everyday lives as middle class artists. The storyteller is of the utmost importance to
Collins. He expresses himself through characters like Walter Hartright and the artist in
“A Terribly Strange Bed.” These artist figures embody the artist in Collins himself. He was an
artist who used words instead of paint to create a compelling portrait of human character. He
reflected the nineteenth century’s age of information, by writing novels where documents play
a crucial role in the telling of the story. He used these documents, whether they were narratives,
letters, plays or court documents, to manipulate the gender roles of his characters. Characters
like Marian Halcombe and Valeria Woodville defy assumptions of the time that women were
naturally passive, unable to take action for them. Artist figures like Walter Hartright and the
portrait painter in “A Terribly Strange Bed” perform traditionally feminine, expressive tasks,
such as attentively listening to others and collecting information. Collins’s fictional world
shows a potential for a greater equality between men and women. Personal documents, whether
journals, letters, or plays, give their creators power, regardless of whether the writer is male or
female. Another unique contribution of Collins is that by setting his stories in England, Collins
was able to successfully update the gothic novel and create a new form of literature, the sensation
novel. The sensation novel stresses the importance of personal narrative, that increases the
intensity of the story. Although Collins did not ultimately fulfil the promise, he showed in his
most successful work, The Woman in White. His storytelling legacy lives on and can be appreciated
in the 21st century.

9.6 Critical Reception

Collins has been called “the father of the English detective novel” and many critics have observed
that his principal strength lies in his expert manoeuvring of characters through complex plots.
Indeed, he is credited with having influenced Dickens in this area. While Collins has sometimes
been criticized for his weak characters, scholars have acknowledged that he nevertheless provided
the prototypes for many stock characters that were to people subsequent detective fiction.
Sergeant Cuff of The Moonstone exhibits characteristics that have shown up in later generations
of fictional detectives, and Count Fosco of The Woman in White is recognised as the model for the
devilishly charming villain. Commentators have also noted that many devices that seem today
to be tired clichés—from mistaken identities to cursed jewels—were introduced by Collins.
In addition to assessments of Collins’s influence on detective fiction, many modern critics have
begun the process of examining issues of gender and culture in his gothic and sensation novels,
noting the way Collins departed from the traditions of popular fiction to create an insightful
and subtly critical portrait of Victorian society in his works.

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