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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A dying woman leaves a secret, a maid breaks her promise, and a hidden paper waits in a lonely coastal house.
At Porthgenna Tower on the rough Cornish coast, Mrs. Treverton asks her maid, Sarah Leeson, to carry a message to her husband. Sarah fails to keep her promise. Unable to speak the secret aloud, she writes it down and hides the account inside the house.
Years later, Sarah lives under another name, Mrs. Jazeph, still burdened by fear and shame. Rosamond Frankland, the open-hearted daughter of the Treverton house, knows nothing of the hidden past. Her blind husband, Leonard, relies on the honesty of those he loves. In Wilkie Collins's The Dead Secret, their lives draw toward Porthgenna Tower and its concealed truth.
What you’ll discover
- A house beside rough seas Enter weathered Porthgenna Tower, where a hidden account gives the old house its uneasy pull.
- A servant living in fear Follow Sarah Leeson as another name offers no escape from her broken promise.
- A marriage built on trust Meet Rosamond and Leonard, whose warmth stands against the silence surrounding her family's past.
- Suspense that gathers slowly Follow questions and small frights as Collins draws ordinary lives toward a buried fact.
- The cost of keeping quiet Explore how a secret kept through kindness or fear grows beyond its first purpose.
Who will love it
Readers who love Victorian mysteries, hidden letters and old houses with locked wings will enjoy this novel. It also suits those who like warm love stories and vivid comic characters.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dying woman demands the truth
- Sarah hides what she cannot deliver
- The closed house changes hands
- Bitterness conceals an uncle's grief
- A warning awakens Rosamond's curiosity
- Kindness follows Sarah into danger
- The couple searches with shared sight
- Trust stands against the hidden life
- Small clues carry the mystery forward
Who’s who
- Sarah LeesonA shy lady's maid with gray hair, sworn to a secret by her dying mistress, who hides a letter and runs from the house.
- Rosamond TrevertonThe warm, quick-tempered young bride of Leonard Frankland, who wants to find the mysterious Myrtle Room and never to deceive her husband.
- Leonard FranklandA gentle, proud young man, blind since a year before his wedding, who relies on his wife's eyes and keeps a strong sense of honor.
- Mrs TrevertonA former actress, strong-willed and ill, who forces her maid to write a letter and swear oaths to guard it.
- Captain TrevertonA kind naval officer, devoted to his wife and little daughter, who sells the family house after her death.
- Andrew TrevertonThe Captain's embittered brother, a hermit in Bayswater who hates mankind and refuses to make a will.
- Uncle Joseph BuschmannA cheerful German cabinetmaker in Truro, Sarah's uncle, who loves Mozart's music and will do anything to help his niece.
- ShrowlAndrew's bald, coarse servant, who bullies his master and sees a chance to make money from a copied plan.
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The Dead Secret
by Wilkie Collins · 1857
A hidden letter, a locked Cornish wing and a blind husband draw a bride toward the Myrtle Room.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“The Secret must be told”
In short
A woman lies dying in a great house on the Cornish coast. In her last hour she drinks a whole bottle of strong medicine, bolts the door against her husband and her doctor, and forces her maid to write a letter and swear an oath on a Bible.
The Dead Secret at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h 45 min6 h 55 min fast, 10 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 124,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1857by Wilkie Collins
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dying wife forces a maid to write
The story opens on the night of the twenty-third of August, 1829, at Porthgenna Tower, the Cornish home of Captain Treverton. A bell rings for the lady's maid, Sarah Leeson.
Her mistress, Mrs Treverton, was an actress before her marriage. She orders the door bolted, even against the doctor and her husband. She drinks a whole bottle of strong medicine to find strength, then begins a letter to her husband. Her hand fails, so she dictates the rest. Sarah begs her to let the secret die, but the answer is plain. The secret must be told.
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Details
- First published
- 1857
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 10 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Collins, Wilkie. The Dead Secret. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dead-secret.
Collins, W. (2026). The dead secret. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dead-secret (Original work published 1857)
Collins, Wilkie. The Dead Secret. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dead-secret.
@book{collins2026dead,
author = {Collins, Wilkie},
title = {The Dead Secret},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dead-secret},
note = {First published 1857}
}
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What is The Dead Secret about?
It follows a letter hidden in a shut room of Porthgenna Tower in Cornwall. A maid hides it in 1829, and sixteen years later a young married couple search for the mysterious Myrtle Room that holds the answer.
Who is Sarah Leeson and why does she hide the letter?
Sarah is a lady's maid who swears oaths to her dying mistress. Terrified of delivering the letter to her kind master, she hides it in the north wing and flees from the house.
What is the Myrtle Room?
It is a room on the closed north side of Porthgenna Tower. The name appears on an old key label, and it becomes the center of the search by Rosamond and Leonard Frankland.
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).
“The Secret must be told”
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