Resumen
Resumen de La sotana negra
Para quién es
For readers who enjoy Victorian plots with moral weight, suspense and sharp studies of character, especially stories of love, faith and divided loyalty.
De qué trata este libro
The Black Robe is a novel by Wilkie Collins, published in 1881. Collins was already known for The Woman in White and The Moonstone, and here he turns his skill at suspense to a different kind of secret. The black robe of the title is the dress of a Roman Catholic priest, and the book asks what happens when a priest sets out to win a rich and troubled man for his Church.
The story centres on Lewis Romayne, an English gentleman who carries a heavy burden of conscience, and on the people who gather around him. One is a clever Jesuit with a plan. Another is the young woman who loves Romayne. A third is a priest of a very different temper. Collins wrote in the years when Britain argued fiercely about Rome, and he uses that argument to drive a plot of persuasion, pressure and divided loyalty. You get a tale of love and faith that works like a mystery. Let us begin with the place and the man at the heart of it.
En este resumen
- 1A rich man carries a hidden burdenFree
- 2A Jesuit sees his chance
- 3Love enters through Stella
- 4A second priest tests the first
- 5What the story is really about
- 6How Collins builds the suspense
Idea clave 1 de 6
A rich man carries a hidden burden
The novel begins with Lewis Romayne, an educated and sensitive Englishman who is wealthy and who owns an old estate called Vange Abbey. The abbey was once Church property, taken from the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century and later passed into private hands. That history matters, because it makes the house more than a home. It becomes a prize in a long quarrel between two faiths.
Romayne himself is not at peace. Collins presents him as a man wounded by something in his past, a matter of conscience that weighs on him and shapes his moods. He is intelligent, but he is also easy to unsettle. A man in that state looks for comfort, and the book is interested in who offers it and at what price.
Romayne is not a villain or a fool. He is a thoughtful man who wants relief and who does not quite know how to find it alone. That makes him open to anyone who speaks to his need with confidence and kindness.
The opening also sets the scene of English society in the period. There are friends who care for him, drawing rooms where his troubles are discussed, and a growing sense that something is being arranged around him. A reader soon feels that Romayne is the centre of a quiet contest, though he does not yet see it himself.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about La sotana negra
What is The Black Robe by Wilkie Collins about?
It tells of Lewis Romayne, a troubled English landowner, and a Jesuit priest who tries to win him and his abbey for the Church. His wife and a second, more honest priest complicate the contest for his conscience.
What does the black robe mean in the title?
It refers to the dress of a Roman Catholic priest. Collins uses it as a symbol of clerical influence, and the novel asks what lies behind that robe in different men.
When was The Black Robe written and published?
Wilkie Collins published it in 1881. It is a work of fiction, but it draws on real Victorian arguments and fears about Catholic conversion and the Jesuits.
Is The Black Robe anti-Catholic?
It shows one priest as a schemer. Yet Collins also gives another priest real goodness, so the book is more mixed than a plain attack.
Is The Black Robe hard to read?
No. The prose is clear and the scenes move quickly. The plot is easy to follow and built for suspense.