16 h 27 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 16 h 27 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
One strange bed, one buried family burden, one hidden crime: ordinary lives turn toward danger.
In The Queen of Hearts, Wilkie Collins gathers romantic and mysterious tales within a family circle. Three elderly brothers tell stories to keep a young guest with them. Each evening opens another door: onto London streets, the English countryside, or foreign cities where visitors face dangers they do not understand.
A Terribly Strange Bed draws a traveller toward danger in an unfamiliar house. Mad Monkton explores inheritance, family pride and the pull of the past. In Anne Rodway, a poor London needlewoman follows grief and stubborn care into a search for truth. Alongside these mysteries, love stories test duty, trust and the cost of keeping a promise.
What you’ll discover
- An evening of stories Settle into a family gathering where each new tale changes the mood.
- Danger far from home Follow travellers whose unfamiliar surroundings turn a simple visit into a source of fear.
- The past presses close Explore old family burdens, where inheritance and pride give the past a troubling hold.
- A needlewoman seeks truth Meet Anne Rodway, whose grief and stubborn care draw her into the search for truth.
- Promises under pressure Discover romances where marriage, duty and hidden truths make loyalty a difficult choice.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like tales told by lamplight, ghost stories with a sceptical doctor, mysteries of disguise, and warm family comedy with a gentle romance underneath.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Three old brothers cannot host one young woman
- Jessie arrives early and rules the tower
- A letter from the Crimea sets a plan
- Two tales of courage and a hidden family grief
- A dream with a knife and a dead man's quest
- A dead man stirs and a detective blunders
- A rector's secret and a servant's long road
- A banker's kindness and a dressmaker's diary
- Secrets, trust and the courage to speak
- How the frame and the voices shape the book
Who’s who
- GriffithThe youngest brother, a retired lawyer and writer, who tells the book and plots to keep Jessie at the tower until his son comes home.
- OwenThe eldest brother, a gentle retired clergyman who paints stormy scenes and contributes three tales, writing one himself.
- MorganThe second brother, a sour retired doctor who hides at the top of the tower and writes the ghostliest stories.
- Jessie YelvertonThe lively young ward nicknamed the Queen of Hearts, who must spend six weeks with her guardian to keep her fortune.
- GeorgeGriffith's wounded son, an army officer who loves Jessie in secret and hopes to reach the tower in time.
- Lady WestwickJessie's fashion-loving aunt, whose letters from London tug at her to leave the tower.
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- Hardcover
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The Queen of Hearts
by Wilkie Collins · 1859
Three old brothers in a Welsh tower must entertain a spirited young ward, and ten nights of stories may keep her.
Medium level10–20 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What do you do when a lively young woman drops into the lives of three lonely old men? In The Queen of Hearts, the brothers of Glen Tower, a Welsh house built on an old fortress, have no idea.
The Queen of Hearts at a glance
- Reading time
- About 9 h 10 min7 h 15 min fast, 10 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 131,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1859by 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
Three old brothers cannot host one young woman
Griffith, Owen and Morgan live in The Glen Tower, a bleak old house in the hills of South Wales. Owen is a gentle clergyman. Morgan is a blunt doctor who smokes constantly and is writing a huge book on whether medicine deserves our thanks. Griffith, a lawyer, is the one who tells the book.
Jessie Yelverton is the daughter of Griffith's late friend, and Griffith is now her only guardian. Her father's will says that until she turns twenty-one she must spend six consecutive weeks each year under a guardian's roof, or receive only a life interest in her property. At school she led a midnight dance dressed as the Queen of Hearts, and the name stuck. She writes that she dreads the three horrid old men, then changes her mind and promises to come on the twentieth of September.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1859
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 10 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Collins, Wilkie. The Queen of Hearts. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-queen-of-hearts.
Collins, W. (2026). The Queen of Hearts. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-queen-of-hearts (Original work published 1859)
Collins, Wilkie. The Queen of Hearts. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-queen-of-hearts.
@book{collins2026queen,
author = {Collins, Wilkie},
title = {The Queen of Hearts},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-queen-of-hearts},
note = {First published 1859}
}
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What is The Queen of Hearts by Wilkie Collins about?
It is a collection of ten tales read aloud over ten evenings in a Welsh tower. Three old brothers tell them to entertain their young ward Jessie while they wait for the return of Griffith's soldier son.
Why is Jessie called the Queen of Hearts?
At school she dressed as the Queen of Hearts for a midnight dance with three friends dressed as the other queens of a card pack. The nickname fitted her charm so well that it stuck.
Who tells which stories in The Queen of Hearts?
The three brothers share the tales. Griffith contributes family, mystery and detective narratives, Morgan the ghostlier tales, and Owen accounts connected with his clerical life, each read aloud in turn.
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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