Résumé
Résumé de Sans issue
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love Victorian mysteries, short reads with strong plots, and stories of hidden identity and betrayal. Enjoy Dickens's warmth and humor alongside Collins's suspense as two writers share one tale.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
No Thoroughfare is a short Victorian story by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. It first appeared in December 1867 as the Christmas number of the magazine All the Year Round, which Dickens edited. The two friends had worked together before, and here they split the labor. Dickens opens the tale in London, among wine merchants and foundlings. Collins takes over for the later chapters, which move to the snowbound passes of the Swiss Alps. The authors also turned it into a stage play that same season.
You get a plot built on a simple, unsettling question. What if your name, your money and your place in the world rested on a mistake? You meet a gentle orphan, a loyal partner, a clever lawyer and a smooth Swiss villain. You also get two moods in one book, the warm and comic city life that Dickens loved and the cold, tense suspense that Collins did so well. Let us begin with a man who never knew his parents, and who has built a business on a name that may not be his.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A foundling builds a wine houseFree
- 2A confession shakes the foundation
- 3Vendale falls for a Swiss ward
- 4A rivalry spreads across Europe
- 5The mountain road brings danger
- 6Names, class and a shared pen
Point clé 1 sur 6
A foundling builds a wine house
The story starts in London with Walter Wilding, a man raised in the Foundling Hospital, a charity home for abandoned children. He believes a woman reclaimed him from the Foundling Hospital and raised him as her own. He is gentle, anxious and kind, and he now runs a firm of wine merchants called Wilding and Company. The business has come to him along with a name he has always believed was his own.
His partner is George Vendale, a cheerful and capable young man who is good for Wilding's nerves. Vendale has the easy confidence that Wilding lacks. The two work well together, and Vendale plainly feels real affection for his friend. Dickens shows their bond with warmth and small comic touches.
The firm has its own odd corners. The cellars are ruled by Joey Ladle, an old servant who loves to predict gloom and enjoys it a little too much. His dark remarks add humor to the early scenes. A lawyer named Bintrey also looks after the firm's affairs, and he is sharper than he first seems.
This opening is an overture to the trouble that follows. Everything looks settled, yet Wilding carries a quiet sadness about his birth. A man who has no family tends to wonder who he is. That wondering is about to be answered in a way he would never choose.
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 Sans issue
What is No Thoroughfare about?
It follows a foundling wine merchant, Walter Wilding, whose name and fortune are called into doubt. His partner George Vendale loves a Swiss ward, and a rivalry with her guardian leads from London to the Alps.
Who wrote No Thoroughfare, Dickens or Collins?
Both. They shared the writing between them, and each had a hand in the story. It appeared in 1867 as the Christmas number of All the Year Round, and they also made a stage play from it.
What does the title No Thoroughfare mean?
A thoroughfare is a road that leads through to another place, so no thoroughfare means a road that cannot be passed. In the story it points to blocked paths, both in life and on the mountain.
Is No Thoroughfare hard to read?
No. It is short and moves quickly, with brisk chapters and clear scenes. The plot is easy to follow.
Is No Thoroughfare a true story?
No, it is fiction. It draws on real settings such as the Foundling Hospital in London and the Simplon Pass in the Alps, but the characters and events are invented by the authors.