Wilkie Collins writing career spanned some 30 years (1850-1880). During the last ten years his writing skills declined due to poor health and opium addiction; some of his later novels are really bad (semi-theatrical melodramas). Surprisingly 'The Haunted Hotel', one of the last works by Wilkie Collins, is a rather nice, compact ghost story. Fans of Wilkie Collins will be pleased.

The story is about, um.., a haunted hotel. Several characters, mostly squabbling aristocrats, return to the Venetian home (now hotel) of a deceased colleague (..a rather nasty fellow). The past comes to haunt these guests in rather metaphysical ways. It's all a bit silly, of course. But the decent prose and characterizations save 'The Haunted Hotel' from being some camp ghost story.

Bottom line: certainly not a classic but enjoyable nonetheless.

...This little volume contains enough suspense, fog, and familial twists-and-turns to satisfy any modern mystery fan (if one overlooks the inherent sexism that dates this book)...not to mention the delicious sense of voyeurism in peeking in on this group of gentle Englishfolk. Read it and remember when mystery writers could actually write.

If you are a Wilkie Collins fan, well then, add this title to your list. I have. A story filled with suspenses and mystery. It keeps you turning the pages until the end. Who killed the count or did anyone? What happened to the courier? Is the countess mad? Told partly by letters and differing characters' perspective it is typical of Collins' narrative style. He takes the readers to a most stupendous climax in Venice. It is a ghost story, a fun read, like watching an old black and white movie. Recommeded!

I recently saw the movie "Basil" with Christian Slator and thought it was quite a compelling story and the book must be great. What a shock. It turns out that the movie is, at best, only "inspired" by the book. If you see the movie first it will ruin this book, as there is very little other than the names of characters that are the same. Otherwise, the book is a fairly interesting story of how lust can really complicate your life when you are young and stupid, set in Victorian England.

Wilkie Collins came to fame with 'The Woman in White', followed by a succession of 'suspense' novels which are his trademark. 'Basil' is an earlier yet surprisingly mature work, and it is not a suspense novel. 'Basil' chronicles the life of a young, foolish man who falls in love (literally) at first sight with a young woman. He then discovers, too late, that this 'sweet young thing' is not as she first appeared. The author captures Basil's anguish perfectly. While some people might find the entire story to be a bit contrived, I found the emotional element of writing to greatly outweigh this 'love at first' kitsch.

So in conclusion, 'Basil' should have a wider appeal beyond the Wilkie Collins fan club. Folks who love mid-Victorian writing will find much to enjoy with 'Basil'.

After reading The Woman in White, A Rogue's Life, and attemting The Moonstone, I picked up Basil. Basil's story was more absorbing than any of the other books and my sympathies were entirely with him. I felt his betrayal and utter dejection. If only I could have been his friend!

This book is definitely not another Woman in White or The Moonstone, both wonderfully well-written mysteries. For those who absolutely have to read every word that Collins wrote, this book is recommended. The plot is fairly boring and the characters fairly uninteresting. Overall, a slow and somewhat dull read.

This last of Wilkie Collins' novels is far more readable than one might suppose, given the relatively mediocre quality of his late work. Readers should be warned not to expect the same high level of intricate villainy, mystery, and subtle plotting that distinguished Collins' earlier, more famous books, and they will also have benignly to overlook some unnecessarily heavy-handed narrative intrusions from the author and his absurd harping on differences between the Celtic and Saxon temperaments (to the detriment of the former). But "Blind Love" is lively and full of incident, the heroine's predicament touches on serious moral issues, and the core events in the story are told with drama and zest. A young lady named Iris Henley defies friends and family to marry the ne'er-do-well scion of an Irish noble house, Lord Harry Norland, to whom she is irresistibly attracted (the "blind love" of the title). Charming, handsome, and reckless, Harry is not really a bad sort at heart, but he lacks the backbone to make something of himself, is prone to rash action and to running through money, and finds it far too easy to grasp at any expedient if his back is to the wall. When the married couple's financial resources start to grow slim in Paris, Harry lets himself be tempted to a series of criminal acts by his unscrupulous associate Dr. Vimpany, who has conceived a nefarious plan for filling their coffers once more. Out of loyalty to her husband, but ignorant of the true nature of his deeds, Iris yields to Harry's persuasion and becomes his reluctant accomplice in the final stage of Vimpany's plot, the commission of an insurance fraud. But remorse quickly burdens her tender conscience and the happiness of the marriage is irrevocably destroyed. To say more would be to spoil what small surprises lie in store for the reader. In "Blind Love" suspense arises not from the need to unavel what took place, and how, but from the interaction between the characters. The first third of the novel is marred by the almost comic implausibility of the scenes between Harry and Iris, who is vainly striving to resist her natural impulse to fling herself into his arms, whereas the conclusion is flawed by the summary, just-winding-up-the-plot retribution meted out to the evil-doers and Iris' foregone consignment to a staid new marriage with her formerly rejected suitor, the patient and unwavering Hugh Montjoy. But the central portion of this novel, where Collins probes the Norland menage and its tell-tale tensions, and then implacably details the criminal scheme, is as absorbing as any Collins admirer could desire.

This book contains tiresome characters in an anti-catholic setting. For a Wilkie Collins book, it is absolutely dreadful. Still, it is a Collins book, so at least it is well written. A man and woman marry. A Jesuit, out to get the man's property, breaks up the marriage and succeeds in making everyone miserable, including the reader. While I had heard of the prejudice against Jews and Catholics in Victorian England, it never hit home until I read this book.