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weaselweader's review against another edition
4.0
An appetizer for further greatness to come!
Mrs Treverton, who is not expected to live through the night, summons her lady's maid, Sarah Leeson, to her side. Their hushed conversation reveals that, many years ago, Sarah and Mrs Treverton conspired together to cover up a devastating family secret. With her death fast approaching, Mrs Treverton demands the expiation of that guilt and attempts to force Sarah to reveal the details of the secret to her husband by giving him the hand-written confession which they prepare and sign together that night. While the timid, brow-beaten Sarah is unable to muster the mental courage to destroy the note, she somehow pulls her thoughts together and finds the strength to hide the note in a long abandoned room in Porthgenna mansion in order to keep the secret hidden from her master. When she sees the stricken Captain Treverton weeping, mourning his wife's death by hugging their infant daughter, Rosamond, and asking the baby for her comfort in dealing with his grief, Sarah realizes that the hypocrisy necessary to stay at Porthgenna mansion while the note was hidden there is beyond her and she flees into the night!
The story resumes some fifteen years later as an adult Rosamond, newly married to her loving squire, Leonard Frankland, inherits Porthgenna mansion and they make plans to implement a program of renovations which will restore the estate to its former glory. A series of coincidences result in Sarah encountering Rosamond and coming to the horrifying realization that the secret is in imminent danger of being brought to light! At that point, the messy stuff hits the fan and the balance of this wonderful classic novel is spent unearthing the sordid details of the secret and its emotional and practical impact on each of the characters that Collins has so lovingly and skillfully constructed.
The Dead Secret, the last of the so-called apprentice novels that Collins wrote before he vaulted to fame as an acknowledged master of English literature with the publication of The Woman in White and The Moonstone is a superb example of the stereotypical Victorian sensation novel - Sarah Leeson, the timid, socially naïve, weak-willed and fundamentally flawed female victim of a selfish conspiracy that revolves around the hidden details of Rosamond's birth and inheritance; as an actress, an occupation in Victorian England of suspect virtue and credibility, Mrs Treverton is subject to vicious contempt from the misanthropic Andrew Treverton, her brother-in-law, who shares rooms with the equally spiteful Shrowl; a well to do woman with a dark secret that may or may not involve a criminal act; an inheritance in question; tragedy, irony, drama, outrageous comic relief and even a ghost! What more delicious menu could the most discriminating reader of Victorian fiction hope for?
Paul Weiss
Mrs Treverton, who is not expected to live through the night, summons her lady's maid, Sarah Leeson, to her side. Their hushed conversation reveals that, many years ago, Sarah and Mrs Treverton conspired together to cover up a devastating family secret. With her death fast approaching, Mrs Treverton demands the expiation of that guilt and attempts to force Sarah to reveal the details of the secret to her husband by giving him the hand-written confession which they prepare and sign together that night. While the timid, brow-beaten Sarah is unable to muster the mental courage to destroy the note, she somehow pulls her thoughts together and finds the strength to hide the note in a long abandoned room in Porthgenna mansion in order to keep the secret hidden from her master. When she sees the stricken Captain Treverton weeping, mourning his wife's death by hugging their infant daughter, Rosamond, and asking the baby for her comfort in dealing with his grief, Sarah realizes that the hypocrisy necessary to stay at Porthgenna mansion while the note was hidden there is beyond her and she flees into the night!
The story resumes some fifteen years later as an adult Rosamond, newly married to her loving squire, Leonard Frankland, inherits Porthgenna mansion and they make plans to implement a program of renovations which will restore the estate to its former glory. A series of coincidences result in Sarah encountering Rosamond and coming to the horrifying realization that the secret is in imminent danger of being brought to light! At that point, the messy stuff hits the fan and the balance of this wonderful classic novel is spent unearthing the sordid details of the secret and its emotional and practical impact on each of the characters that Collins has so lovingly and skillfully constructed.
The Dead Secret, the last of the so-called apprentice novels that Collins wrote before he vaulted to fame as an acknowledged master of English literature with the publication of The Woman in White and The Moonstone is a superb example of the stereotypical Victorian sensation novel - Sarah Leeson, the timid, socially naïve, weak-willed and fundamentally flawed female victim of a selfish conspiracy that revolves around the hidden details of Rosamond's birth and inheritance; as an actress, an occupation in Victorian England of suspect virtue and credibility, Mrs Treverton is subject to vicious contempt from the misanthropic Andrew Treverton, her brother-in-law, who shares rooms with the equally spiteful Shrowl; a well to do woman with a dark secret that may or may not involve a criminal act; an inheritance in question; tragedy, irony, drama, outrageous comic relief and even a ghost! What more delicious menu could the most discriminating reader of Victorian fiction hope for?
Paul Weiss
pixie_hallows's review against another edition
5.0
Just realized I never reviewed this one. This book was so fun and the perfect end to my Victober reads. The premise is that a woman has a secret that she writes in a letter on her deathbed. Sworn to not destroy it or move it from the house lest she be haunted, a servant hides the letter and disappears. 15 years later, hijinks ensue. Victorian sensation at its best!
This is my third novel to read by Wilkie Collins and he is becoming a fast favorite. I’m looking forward to reading more of his works!
This is my third novel to read by Wilkie Collins and he is becoming a fast favorite. I’m looking forward to reading more of his works!
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