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This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The "Sensation Novel" ushered in the modern mystery genre. It was inaugurated by Wilkie Collins’s best-seller The Woman in White in 1860. But this collection, selected by Peter Haining, reveals that Collins had actually been writing realistic stories of suspense for at least a decade before this. With dramatic plots that revolved around hidden secrets, bloody crimes, villainous schemes, and clever detective work all occurring in everyday settings, Wilkie Collins helped to shape a new genre that was worlds away from anything being written by his contemporaries—and one that was to have a far-reaching influence. Sensation Stories ranges from Collins’s earliest tales and those published under the auspices of his great friend Charles Dickens to the title piece from his last, melancholic collection. Among several famous yarns and stories not published for over a hundred years is one featuring a pioneer female detective and another that has been called the first British detective story. There is a ghost story controversial for its eroticism, the first humorous or satirical detective story and a story that clearly presages The Woman in White , published two years later. Thrilling reads in their own right, all 10 stories showcase Wilkie Collins’s towering contribution to the development of the mystery genre. Indeed, he is now regarded as the inventor of the modern detective story and the forefather of a crime fiction tradition that runs through Arthur Conan Doyle to Thomas Harris today.

Collins's 1889 collection of fourteen short stories includes "Miss Morris and the Stranger," about a young governess and a fateful meeting, "Mr. Medhurst and the Princess," about two star-crossed lovers, and a dozen other tales involving love, social classes, money, and even ghosts.

The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel. But it is an art in itself. To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task. Many try and many fail. In this series we look at short stories from many of our most accomplished writers. Miniature masterpieces with a lot to say. In this volume we examine some of the short stories of Wilkie Collins.William Wilkie Collins was born on January 8th 1824.Bullied as a child his escape was to tell the bully a story each night before going to sleep. It proved to be quite an education. Lauded as the Father of the Detective novel, Collins was the author of The Moonstone and The Woman In White among the thirty novels he wrote. A great friend and colleague of Charles Dickens (who regularly published him in his own magazines) Collins was also a playwright and prolific author of short stories. A sufferer of gout he used and became addicted to opium to combat the pain.Writing at the time of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 he stated, "I begin to believe in only one civilising influence – the discovery one of these days of a destructive agent so terrible that War shall mean annihilation and men's fears will force them to keep the peace."Collins died on September 23, 1889 at 82 Wimpole Street, following a paralytic stroke. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Collected here for your reading pleasure are a selection of chilling, disturbing, but always entertaining stories from a man at the top of his craft and always aware of his effect on the minds of us mere mortals.Many of these stories are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Word Of Mouth. Many samples are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores. They are read for you by Richard Mitchley & Ghizela RoweIndex Of StoriesThe Dream WomanThe Traveller’s Story Of A Terribly Strange BedThe Dead Alive

Wilkie Collins (1824-89), associate of Charles Dickens and author of 15 novels, is perhaps best known for the great mystery novel The Moonstone. But Collins also wrote short stories, tales of terror and the supernatural, which many consider comparable to those of Poe and J. Sheridan LeFanu. This collection features 12 of Collins’ most masterful horror tales: "The Dream Woman," "A Terribly Strange Bed," "The Dead Hand," "The Biter Bit," "Fauntleroy," "Blow Up with the Brig!," "A Stolen Letter," "The Lady of Glenwith Grange," "Mr. Policeman and the Cook," "Mr. Lepel and the Housekeeper," "Miss Bertha and the Yankee," and "Mad Monkton." Herbert van Thal, the noted authority of Victorian literature, has made the selection, and has also contributed a new introduction summarizing Collins' life and briefly evaluating his career. These tales are not easily forgotten; they feature unusually imaginative situations, coupled with vivid descriptions and surprising plots. Collins' ventures into the shadowy realms of the half-dead and his explorations of subtle, morbid psychology, strange diseases, and uncanny coincidences are every bit as fascinating and terrifying as those of Poe. Also like Poe, he was an excellent craftsman, able to carry the suspense to the very end by keeping the mystery shrouded until the final page. Although a few of these stories have been anthologized, most of them are now extremely hard to find. With this reprinting, they will once again be available both to lovers of supernatural fiction and to those who enjoy perfection in the art of storytelling. As G. K. Chesterton put it: "Wilkie Collins is the one man of unmistakable genius who has an affinity with Dickens … there were no two men who could touch them at a ghost story."