CBR15Bingo: Dwelling (the secret in the house is a major part of this book, and the house itself is a sort of character)
I continue my tradition of one Wilkie Collins book a year with The Dead Secret, a fun and fast-paced read that cements Collins as probably my favorite Victorian writer (besides George Eliot for Middlemarch, but I’ve struggled to read Daniel Deronda about four times, whereas I’ve enjoyed every Collins I’ve read). I was especially impressed to note on the back cover that this was his first full-length puzzle-romance, which you would not guess based off how assured and seamless this book is. Collins is just a treat and I love being a little spooked while knowing that the mystery will be solved. There is some tension with my last review stating that I don’t like mysteries, but I think I have a mental difference between the contemporary mystery novel and the Victorian gothic horror style mystery, or the Victorian romance thriller mystery. I’m not a Sherlock Holmes person but I am a dark secret with servants in a run down manor in 1873 person, I guess.
In any event, The Dead Secret has all the hallmarks of a great Collins novel, namely the titular dead secret and the complication social and class issues that surround it. I think what I really appreciate about his work is his eye for societal detail and the resultant issues caused by class struggles and norms. He also has an amazing ability to create truly memorable characters and to make all his characters feel fully alive. I got so worried for them reading this that I had to skip to the end at one point and make sure it ended how I wanted. I figured out the secret pretty early on, but its consequences and the tension were so strong that I also had to keep taking little breaks to stare into space and recalibrate. Collins also does such a good job of threading the needle between horror and realism, in that he writes books where you can believe the ghost is real or not. The point isn’t necessarily that it is, but that the character thinks it is, and that belief is extremely powerful. And I appreciated the somewhat nuanced for the time portrayal of blindness, as the blind character is an equal partner to his wife and someone who is deserving of love instead of non-stop pity.
Overall, another great Collins book and I’m glad I took the time to read it. This year I’ve been trying to relax a bit more about the speed of my reading or how many books I’m reading and instead reading longer books that take more time. I think it’s working out and I’m reading things that make me feel happy or that deepen my knowledge.
Warnings for: death, ghost, fatal illnesses,