Penguin has reissued Wilkie Collins’ The Haunted Hotel as part of their Gothic Classics: Gothic Reds series, a collection of stories featuring quintessential horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and Edgar Allan Poe. This edition brings to light one of Collins’ smaller works, and set aside such company places him at the forefront of the Gothic horror movement. T S Eliot once described Collins as the creator of detective fiction, influencing the great Charles Dickens, and coining the sensation novel which influenced later Gothic writing.

The Haunted Hotel combines sensation, detection and horror, within the framework of a traditional ghost story. In addition to what one would expect from a Collins mystery, the haunting element of the ghost story brings Collins work into the Gothic horror field. Collins exploits the exoticism of his Venetian setting, capturing the Gothic revival of the nineteenth century, in his mysterious haunted hotel. He uses the formidable Countess Narona – with her ominous premonitions and her mysterious brother Baron Rivar – juxtaposed against the angelic and innocent Agnes Lockwood, to create the sense of otherness central to the Gothic horror. (Frankenstein, Jane Eyre).

The novel is driven by the foresight of Countess Narona, who, betrothed to the wealthy Lord Montbarry foresees that if the wedding proceeds, something terrible will befall her husband. Having been accused of bewitching Montbarry, who was thought to be in love with the innocent Agnes Lockwood, it seems an odd admission. Here the mystery of the Gothic meets the romantic precedent; through their relationship to Montbarry, the pure heroine and the femme fatale are entwined in the perpetration and revelation of his fate.

Having married, the Countess, her husband, and brother travel to Venice, where Montbarry dies of supposed natural causes. Their courier mysteriously disappears and their maid quits unexpectedly. The siblings are immediate suspects however are cleared of all charges by the law. Their Venetian mansion is turned into an exquisite hotel, which many months later Agnes and the Montbarry family visit. The members of the family all experience violent sickness and delusions when staying in the hotel’s best room – Room 14. Enter the Countess compelled to visit Venice by her second sight, carrying a script which may reveal the true nature of her husband’s death.

In The Haunted Hotel Collins combines the unseen twists of his excellent novels The Moonstone and The Woman in White with the setting and premise of the Gothic horror creating an exciting, exotic and spooky ghost story. The characterisation of the Countess is perfect, however Agnes Lockwood lacks the feisty nature that carries a female protagonist, and seems lifeless in comparison. The questions of Montbarry’s death, the haunting of the hotel and the servant’s disappearance, are eventually answered as Agnes and the Countess are brought together in Venice, to unveil the mystery of their lover’s fate.

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