Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Ein Haus zu vermieten
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who like cosy puzzles, sharp comic voices and short tales gathered inside one clever frame, with a touch of Victorian London fog and plenty of warm-hearted feeling.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
A House to Let is a framed collection of linked pieces by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Anne Procter. Each writer adds a section, and together they build one puzzle. An elderly lady called Sophonisba moves from Tunbridge Wells to London rooms for a rest cure. Across the street stands a dirty, shuttered house that never finds a tenant.
She tells the story herself, in a brisk and funny voice, and she cannot stop thinking about that house. Two rivals help her investigate. One is her fussy old admirer Jabez Jarber, who brings her stories and a poem about earlier occupants. The other is her loyal, stubborn servant Trottle, who prefers hard facts. In this summary you meet the people, follow each search and see how the pieces fit together. The first step is the lady herself and the eye she sees at a shutter.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A lady cannot stop watching an empty houseFree
- 2Two rivals bring stories to the tea table
- 3A showman and a dwarf go into Society
- 4A poem tells of a sister's sacrifice
- 5Trottle tries the front door himself
- 6Voices, themes and the craft of the frame
Punkt 1 von 6
A lady cannot stop watching an empty house
The tale opens in Tunbridge Wells, where Sophonisba has lived for nearly ten years. Her doctor, Towers, and her servant Trottle agree she needs a change of air. Trottle goes to London and returns with news of suitable rooms. The only flaw lies outside them. The lodging looks across the street at a House to Let, and as Trottle warns, nobody knows why it never lets.
Sophonisba takes the rooms anyway. She travels by carriage and settles in with her maid, Peggy Flobbins. Trottle stays behind for a month, partly because she suspects him of being a philanderer, as she calls it. On the fifth of November she looks across the way through her glasses. Boys are dragging their Guy figures through the fog, and one rests on the doorstep of the empty house.
Then she sees something that she cannot explain. In a low corner of a first floor window, at a hole in a shutter, a secret eye shines and vanishes. She tries to copy the effect with her firelight and the flaws in the glass, and she cannot. From that hour the house fills her head by day and haunts her dreams by night.
She learns little from tradespeople. Some say the house has been empty six years, some eight, some ten. Her old sorrows rise as well, for she tells of her brother Charley, his baby who did not live, and her own love of children. By the end of the month she is in one of her states, and she badly needs a plan. The eye shines again on a wet Sunday while she reads her prayers.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Questions about Ein Haus zu vermieten
What is A House to Let about?
It is about an elderly lady in London who cannot stop wondering why the house across the street never finds a tenant. Her friend and her servant gather tales and facts about its past, and the mystery is slowly pieced together.
Who wrote A House to Let?
Four writers shared it. Charles Dickens framed the tale, Elizabeth Gaskell wrote The Manchester Marriage, Adelaide Anne Procter wrote the poem, and Wilkie Collins supplied Trottle's Report. Together they form one linked Christmas story.
Is A House to Let a true story?
No, it is fiction. It was written for a Victorian Christmas number and set in the London of that day. Its characters, house and mystery are all invented, though streets and customs of the time are described realistically.
Is A House to Let easy to read?
It is approachable because it moves in short, self-contained pieces. The narrator speaks in a lively comic voice, and each tale, from the Manchester story to the showman patter and the poem, has a clear shape.
Who are Jarber and Trottle?
Jarber is Sophonisba's small, fussy admirer who collects stories as discoveries. Trottle is her opinionated servant, who prefers facts and dates. The two compete to solve the mystery, which supplies much of the book's humor.