13 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 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
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A stranger brings an unsettling question
- Marriage comes with a financial warning
- Agnes offers a small kindness
- A disappearance brings money instead of answers
- An official inquiry leaves doubt alive
- Agnes becomes the focus of terror
- A hotel room unsettles the family
- The Countess returns despite her fear
- Fear spreads while affection offers warmth
Who’s who
- Countess NaronaA 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 MontbarryA middle-aged soldier and peer who abandons his cousin Agnes for the Countess and goes abroad with her and the Baron.
- Agnes LockwoodA gentle, truthful woman who forgives her faithless lover and becomes the unwilling center of a mystery that draws her to Venice.
- Henry WestwickMontbarry's youngest brother, honest and persistent, who loves Agnes and wants to protect her and learn the truth about the palace.
- Doctor WybrowA famous London physician who cannot explain the Countess and cannot stop thinking about her after she asks if she is going mad.
- Baron RivarThe Countess's supposed brother, a gambler and chemist who always needs money for his experiments.
- Emily FerrariAgnes's former maid, timid but fierce, who fights to learn what has happened to her missing courier husband.
- Mr. TroyAgnes's sharp and good-humored lawyer, who tries to reason out the mystery of Ferrari's disappearance.
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The Haunted Hotel
by Wilkie Collins · 1878
A London doctor tries to flee a stranger whose one question, about madness, pulls him into a Venetian mystery.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“I want to know, if you please, whether I’m in danger of going mad.”
In short
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 Haunted Hotel at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h3 h 10 min fast, 4 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 56,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1878by 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 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.
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Details
- First published
- 1878
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
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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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.
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).
“I want to know, if you please, whether I’m in danger of going mad.”
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