After Dark

Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 762K words
Chapters: 77

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.After Dark by Wilkie CollinsAuthor: Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 1999

Editor's review

After Dark is a collection of short stories by Wilkie Collins, arranged in a linked narrative that showcases his skill in handling short-form structure beyond detective and suspense fiction. Collins often drives his stories through shifts in narrator, the building of suspense, and changes in voice, and this collection lets readers see these techniques at work in shorter pieces. For readers familiar with The Woman in White and The Moonstone, it offers a side view of the author's working methods; for those studying Victorian English short fiction, it also has textual value. The Gutenberg electronic edition is easy to search for characters and plot threads, and is suited to reading in sections rather than straight through. Note that the narrative pace of nineteenth-century English differs from today's suspense fiction; readers should first adjust to the language style before entering the plot.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Wilkie Collins's long works and want to read his short stories
Teachers and students studying Victorian English short fiction and suspense narrative
Readers used to reading public-domain English e-books and making textual excerpts
Literature lovers interested in multiple narrators and story-within-story structures

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced modern suspense and lack patience for nineteenth-century prose
Beginners who need a Chinese translation or per-story introductions and notes
Readers hoping to read Collins's most famous long novels

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first to understand how the pieces relate, then read them in batches rather than straight through.
After each piece, note the narrator and how suspense is set up, and keep structural notes.
Skip unfamiliar period vocabulary at first, and look it up after finishing a section.
Compare with Collins's major long novels to observe similarities and differences in his short-form technique.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story collection?

According to the title and the materials, this is a collection of short stories by Collins, organized in a linked narrative; it is not a single long novel. The pieces are connected through a framing structure, so readers can begin with the table of contents to grasp the overall structure.

Can I read it without having read other works by Collins?

Yes. The collection does not depend on the plots of his earlier long novels, though familiarity with Collins's narrative style makes it easier to get into. It is advisable first to adjust to nineteenth-century English sentence patterns and rhythm, then focus on how each piece builds suspense and switches narrators.

What kind of reading approach suits the electronic edition?

Public-domain electronic texts are easy to search and excerpt, making them suitable for reading in sections and taking notes. Since there are no introductory notes, it is advisable to record the narrative structure and character relationships after each piece, and to look up period background questions in a concentrated way rather than interrupting the flow by checking as you read.

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About the author

Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889 Author

Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) was a British novelist best known for his detective and suspense fiction. The library holds 44 of his works, including The Woman in White, The Moonstone, No Name, Armadale, The Law and the Lady and The Dead Secret. He was skilled at multiple-perspective narration and building suspense, and he addressed social issues such as identity, marriage and the law, with intricate plots and vivid characters. The Moonstone is often regarded as one of the pioneering works of modern detective fiction and has had a lasting influence on later mystery writing. It should be noted that the library's information on his nationality and life dates is limited, so this introduction relies mainly on his works and general public knowledge.