A House to Let - Softcover

Dickens, Charles; Collins, Wilkie; Gaskell, Elizabeth; Procter, Adelaide Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1480179477 ISBN 13: 9781480179479

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012

Synopsis

"A House to Let" is a short story by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Anne Procter. It was originally published in 1858 in the Christmas edition of Dickens' Household Words magazine. Each of the contributors wrote a chapter and the story was edited by Dickens. "A House to Let" was the first collaboration between the four writers, although Collins and Dickens had worked with Procter on previous Christmas stories for the magazine in 1854, 1855, and 1856. The four authors would write together again in 1859's "The Haunted House" which appeared in the extra Christmas number of All the Year Round, the successor to Household Words which Dickens had started after a dispute with his publishers. In a letter to Collins from 6 September 1858, Dickens outlined his idea for a Christmas story. He originally envisioned the story being written by himself and Collins with his plot outline fleshed out by Collins, but was later to invite Gaskell and Procter to contribute chapters. Dickens and Collins wrote the first chapter, "Over the Way", and the last chapter "Let at Last" together, and each of the writers wrote one of the intervening chapters: Gaskell "The Manchester Marriage", Dickens "Going into Society", Procter "Three Evenings in the House" and Collins "Trottle's Report". The plot concerns an elderly woman, Sophonisba, who notices signs of life in a supposedly empty dilapidated house (the eponymous "House to Let") opposite her own and employs the efforts of an elderly admirer, Jabez Jarber, and her servant, Trottle, to discover what is happening within. Other notable books by Charles Dickens include Hard Times, Bleak House, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and Oliver Twist.

About this title

Review

'A testament to the narrative gifts of the three prose writers.' --The Times, April 24, 2004

'This is a welcome addition to the excellent Hesperus list.' --TLS, May 14, 2004

Talk about collaborations: this haunting little tale is the product of some of Victorian England’s finest fictionistas. --The Washington Post, August 8, 2004

From the Publisher

Only single-volume edition of an unjustly neglected collection of tales compiled by Charles Dickens

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1480179477
• ISBN 13: 9781480179479
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 92