Story summary
Samenvatting van Het spookhotel
- 7 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A London doctor tries to flee a stranger whose one question, about madness, pulls him into a Venetian mystery.
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Het spookhotel in het kort
Samenvatting: 7 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 4 h3 h 10 min fast, 4 h 45 min slow
- Lengte
- 56.600 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1878by Wilkie Collins
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Het spookhotel in short
The Haunted Hotel begins with a doctor puzzled by a woman who fears she is doomed. It follows her marriage to Lord Montbarry, the quiet kindness that puts Agnes Lockwood's name in a courier's reference, and the courier's disappearance in Venice. A thousand pounds arrives in the post, the lord dies abroad, and an insurance inquiry finds nothing to object to.
What Het spookhotel is about
Picture a famous London doctor creeping out of his own house on tiptoe to avoid an unwelcome visitor. He nearly makes it, but a hand lands on his arm in the hall. The woman has a face as white as a corpse and black eyes that shine like metal, and she asks one question: is she in danger of going mad?
The Haunted Hotel was written by Wilkie Collins, the Victorian novelist loved for his tales of secrets and suspicion. He builds the mystery from gossip, letters, an insurance inquiry and a missing courier, so you piece the puzzle together as the characters do.
Voor wie is het?. This book suits readers who love Victorian mysteries, ghost stories and old houses with secrets. If you enjoy a clever plot built from letters and rumors, you will find plenty here.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A stranger asks a doctor about madness
The book opens in 1860 with Doctor Wybrow, a celebrated London physician. A stranger refuses to leave his consulting room. He tries to run from her, but she stops him in the hall with a hand on his arm.
Wybrow tests her with every method he knows and finds her sound in body and mind. Then she asks her question. She is a widow about to marry again. The day before, she met her future husband's former love, and she felt a deadly panic, as if that gentle woman were destined to bring about her ruin.
Wybrow tells her the matter calls for a priest rather than a doctor. Still, he feels a strange dislike and sends his servant to follow her. The servant returns with a name: Countess Narona.
A fear that no test can explain is where this mystery begins.
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Club gossip prepares a hasty wedding
Wybrow asks about the Countess in his club smoking room.
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A small kindness puts Agnes's name in play
On the wedding day, Agnes Lockwood sits alone in her London lodgings and burns Montbarry's old letters.
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Letters from Venice and a courier who vanishes
The newlyweds travel on through Paris and Rome.
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A death in Venice and an inquiry that finds nothing
Agnes asks her friend Mr. Troy, a blunt and humorous lawyer, to help.
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The widow confronts Emily and Agnes
Emily decides to set a trap.
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Love, legacy and a hotel built on a death
Henry presses Agnes gently to think of a happier future, but she asks him to spare her.
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Room Fourteen makes the family uneasy
The old palace becomes a grand hotel.
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The widow returns and takes the room
On a moonlit night in St. Mark's Square, Francis is stopped by a woman in black.
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What the story is about and how it is told
At heart, the novel is about guilt and the fear it breeds.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Countess Narona A pale, black-eyed widow with a dark reputation, she marries Lord Montbarry and fears that Agnes Lockwood is fated to bring her to account.
- Lord Montbarry A middle-aged soldier and peer who abandons his cousin Agnes for the Countess and goes abroad with her and the Baron.
- Agnes Lockwood A gentle, truthful woman who forgives her faithless lover and becomes the unwilling center of a mystery that draws her to Venice.
- Henry Westwick Montbarry's youngest brother, honest and persistent, who loves Agnes and wants to protect her and learn the truth about the palace.
- Doctor Wybrow A famous London physician who cannot explain the Countess and cannot stop thinking about her after she asks if she is going mad.
- Baron Rivar The Countess's supposed brother, a gambler and chemist who always needs money for his experiments.
- Emily Ferrari Agnes's former maid, timid but fierce, who fights to learn what has happened to her missing courier husband.
- Mr. Troy Agnes's sharp and good-humored lawyer, who tries to reason out the mystery of Ferrari's disappearance.
How it ends (spoiler)
Agnes sleeps in the haunted room and sees a severed head float above her, and the Countess in a trance beside her bed. Henry later finds the head hidden in a secret space above. The Countess's unfinished play, a thin disguise for real events, shows that she and the Baron killed Lord Montbarry and passed off the dying courier as him. The Countess dies of a burst blood vessel. False teeth prove the head was the lord's. Agnes and Henry marry.
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Vragen over Het spookhotel
What is The Haunted Hotel about?
It follows a mysterious Countess who marries Lord Montbarry, the disappearance of a courier in Venice, and the later haunting of a hotel built in the same palace. The mystery gathers around Agnes Lockwood and the Westwick family.
Who is Countess Narona?
She is a pale, black-eyed widow with a scandalous reputation across Europe. She marries Lord Montbarry, travels with a man called her brother, Baron Rivar, and believes Agnes Lockwood is fated to bring her to account.
Is The Haunted Hotel a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by Wilkie Collins. It uses real places such as London and Venice, and an 1860 setting, but the people and events are invented for the mystery.
Is The Haunted Hotel a ghost story or a detective story?
It is both. A strange atmosphere hangs over a hotel room, while letters, an insurance inquiry and a missing courier give the plot the shape of a puzzle that readers solve along with the characters.
Is The Haunted Hotel easy to read?
Yes in spirit, since the chapters are short, the scenes are clear and the voices are lively. Collins keeps you moving with gossip, letters and sharp dialogue, and the mystery pulls you from chapter to chapter.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Collins, Wilkie. The Haunted Hotel. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-haunted-hotel.
Collins, W. (2026). The haunted hotel. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-haunted-hotel (Original work published 1878)
Collins, Wilkie. The Haunted Hotel. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-haunted-hotel.
@book{collins2026haunted,
author = {Collins, Wilkie},
title = {The Haunted Hotel},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-haunted-hotel},
note = {First published 1878}
}
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