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Audiobook edition · 7 h 4 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Can a house remember what people want to forget?
In London, Doctor Wybrow receives a visitor who leaves him deeply uneasy: Countess Narona, a poised widow seeking a medical opinion. Lord Montbarry chooses her over Agnes Lockwood, the woman he once plans to marry. His family objects, but he follows his own wishes, leaving Agnes to bear the hurt.
The newly married couple travel to Venice, where light and water surround an old palace. Beneath that bright surface, suspicion gathers. In The Haunted Hotel, Wilkie Collins brings a ghost story together with a puzzle of love, greed and money. A room guests cannot bear to sleep in gives those fears a disturbing shape.
What you’ll discover
- An unsettling first encounter Watch Doctor Wybrow struggle with an unease his visitor gives him no clear reason to feel.
- A wounded heart Meet Agnes Lockwood, whose quiet dignity stands against Montbarry's disregard for her feelings.
- Venice in shadow Enter a world of water, light and old stone, where beauty offers little comfort.
- The pressure of money Follow the greed beneath the haunting, where property, wills and promises weigh on people's choices.
- Clues woven into dread Let each compact scene draw you deeper, adding a clue or darkening the mood.
Who will love it
For readers who love Victorian suspense, atmospheric settings and a plot that tightens page by page, and anyone who enjoys a classic ghost tale in a single sitting.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A doctor meets a woman who unsettles him
- A family is wounded and an engagement is broken
- The palace in Venice takes the story into shadow
- Money and suspicion are the real hauntings
- The haunted hotel brings the dread to a head
- A puzzle told with a ghost's patience
Who’s who
- Countess NaronaA poised foreign widow who becomes engaged to an English lord, and who unsettles those who meet her without ever giving them a reason.
- Lord MontbarryA middle-aged English nobleman who sets aside an earlier engagement and marries the Countess against his family's wishes.
- Baron RivarThe Countess's brother, a proud and watchful man who stays close to his sister's side and keeps apart from the English family.
- Agnes LockwoodA gentle, dignified young woman whom Montbarry once meant to marry, and who bears her hurt with quiet patience.
- Henry WestwickMontbarry's younger brother, a kind and straightforward man who stands by Agnes and grows fond of her.
- Doctor WybrowA respected London physician and family friend who meets the Countess and cannot shake his strong, unexplained unease about her.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Read and hear El hotel encantado in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
El hotel encantado
by Wilkie Collins · 1878
A doctor distrusts a charming countess as a family's fears gather around a marriage and a palace in Venice.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Haunted Hotel is a short novel by Wilkie Collins, first printed in 1878. Collins was already known for The Woman in White and The Moonstone, and here he turns his skill at plotting toward the ghost story.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A doctor meets a woman who unsettles him
The story opens in London with Doctor Wybrow, a respected physician. He is asked to see Countess Narona, a beautiful and self-possessed foreign widow, who has come to him for a medical opinion. She is agitated and afraid, and something about her disturbs him in a way he cannot explain.
Collins uses this first scene to set the pattern of the whole book. A sensible man with no taste for fancy meets a person who gives him a chill, and he cannot put it into words. Wybrow is a scientific witness, and that matters, because the reader is invited to trust his judgment even when it has no proof behind it.
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What is The Haunted Hotel about?
It is a Victorian mystery with a ghost story inside it. A doctor distrusts a countess who becomes engaged to an English lord, and the trouble follows the couple to an old palace in Venice that later becomes a hotel.
Is The Haunted Hotel a true story?
No, it is fiction by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1878. It draws on real Victorian worries about money, marriage and foreign travel, and on Venice, a city already full of ghostly reputation.
Who are the main characters in The Haunted Hotel?
The main figures are Countess Narona, Lord Montbarry, Baron Rivar, Agnes Lockwood, Henry Westwick and Doctor Wybrow. The Countess and her brother are the mysterious pair, while the others are drawn into their circle.
The author
Wilkie Collins
1824–1889 · English mystery novelist
Wilkie Collins was a British novelist and playwright born in London in 1824. He lived mainly in London and died there in 1889. His novels include The Woman in White (1859–1860), The Moonstone (1868), The Law and the Lady (1875), and The Black Robe (1881).
More by Wilkie Collins
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