An English novelist, playwright, and short story writer William Wilkie Collins was born at 11 New Cavendish Street, Marylebone, London, the son of a well-known Royal Academician landscape painter, William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes. A skilful manipulator of intricate plots, Collins is remembered as a principal founder of English detective fiction. His novels of intrigue and suspense, although as popular in Collins's day as the works of such Victorian luminaries as Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Thackeray, were frequently dismissed by critics as sensationalist fiction. By the twentieth century, Collins began to receive recognition for his innovations in the detective genre, for his unconventional representation of female characters, and for his emphasis on careful plotting and revision, a practice that foreshadowed modern methods. Collins's story "A Terribly Strange Bed," his first contribution to Household Words, appeared in April 1852. The story was also one of six short stories by Collins in his collection entitled After Dark, published in 1856. In A Terribly Strange Bed, Faulkner is staying in Paris, after finishing his college education, and is exploring the amusements there. As a change from respectable establishments, he visits a low gambling house, where a variety of unsavoury characters are playing Rouge e Noir. He starts to win a great amount, which causes great interest and excitement among the other players. You can listen online to free English audiobook “A Terribly Strange Bed” by Wilkie Collins on our website. Enjoy it!
