Collins' "Terribly Strange Bed" Inspires Novel
Blood Money and Elaborate Traps Set Stage for The Haunted Hotel
Sep 2, 2009
(Contains Spoilers)
Wilkie Collins' short story "A Terribly Strange Bed," (1852) the tale of a young traveler seeking excitement in a seedy gambling house during an uneventful sojourn in Paris, served as inspiration for his novel The Haunted Hotel (1879), the supernatural story of the wealthy Lord Montbarry's mysterious death after his sudden marriage to the scandalous Countess Narona. Both plots are born in a gaming house on the good fortune of a cheerful gambler, and follow the bloody, twisting path to murder at the hands of ingenious, money-hungry villains.
Setting the Trap
Both "A Terribly Strange Bed" and The Haunted Hotel surround the fates of young men whose lives are thrown into peril in the face of villains looking to steal their fortune. In "A Terribly Strange Bed," the young traveler is weary of mingling among acceptable society and craves adventure "somewhere where we can see a little genuine, blackguard, poverty-stricken gaming with no false gingerbread glitter thrown over it all."
His friend leads him to the Palais Royal, where gamblers who've lost any sense of hope or desperation converge to toss what remains of their degraded lives away. The traveler throws himself into gambling to escape his oppressive surroundings and hits a lucky streak, eventually breaking the bank. A wizened old soldier toasts the young man's fortune with bottles of champagne, then suggests it would be safer for the naive traveler – and his hefty winnings – to board overnight in one of the rooms above the establishment. After sobering him up with strong coffee, conveniently laced with sedating drugs, the soldier makes sure his wealthy friend is tucked in for a long, dark night.
In The Haunted Hotel, Lord Montbarry is vacationing in Homburg and enjoying a good run at one of the gaming tables at "the famous Salon d'Or" when he meets the pale, exotic Countess Narona and good-naturedly supplements her hopeless losing streak with his own money. Her greedy brother, Baron Rivar, bullies her into marrying him to solidify a wealthy future for them both. Unfortunately, the marriage of convenience appears to be not-so-convenient when Montbarry is tight-fisted with his money after they marry. The only way to extract money from the Countess' new husband is if he's a dead husband.
Going for the Kill
Both victims are lured into a sense of safety in the comfort of their own rooms, rooms that house terrible secrets. After the traveler settles into his darkened room above the gambling house, he begins to sober up and realize his life may be in danger after so many unseemly characters had witnessed his incredible take at the tables. He barricades his door, locks his window, and tucks his winnings under his pillow, but still cannot sleep in the spacious canopy bed, which doesn't seem so spacious anymore as the canopy appears to be creeping down above him until it nearly pins him to the mattress. The traveler sees the terrible bed is really an elaborate mechanism to silently smother unsuspecting victims in the night and that somebody must have been controlling the false canopy from above.
Similarly, Lord Montbarry seeks escape from his scheming, new wife and her unsavory brother by staying locked up in the room of a grand, old palace during an extended honeymoon in Venice. Little does he know, his room connects to the Baron's suite above by a secret passageway, one he will never totally escape. After falling mildly ill at the same time his servant Ferrari contracts a deadly bout of bronchitis, the wheels are in motion for an elaborate murder and identity switch, and a ghastly surprise for his relatives awaits in the secret passageway at the close of the novel. Indeed, the haunting visions that terrorize Montbarry's family during their long nights in the haunted hotel recall the traveler's own terribly strange bed.
Blood Money
Both stories are tied up with the consequences of blood money, the all-important goal of the murderous villains. The lucky traveler finds no luck at all with his vast winnings and would be happy to leave them in his would-be death bed, only he doesn't want his murderers to claim the prize. Yet, nothing suggests the traveler uses the money for himself.
In The Haunted Hotel, the dying Ferrari is bribed into assuming Montbarry's identity on his death bed, but insists the money be sent to his widow so she can enjoy a comfortable life when he is gone. Ironically, when Emily receives one-thousand pounds attached to a cryptic note about her "missing" husband, she is certain it's blood money and refuses to ever spend a penny of it. While Countess Narona is plagued with a sense of doom after Montbarry's murder, the insurance money gained from his death is swiftly squandered by Baron Rivar.
In both cases, the blood money is rendered useless.
The Price of Gambling
Are Wilkie Collins' stories of murder and greed really morality tales imbedded with warnings against gambling? It seems the vice makes no distinction about whom it destroys; the casual gambler can be ruined as easy as the addict. Both "A Terribly Strange Bed" and The Haunted Hotel deal with ordinary men that are dealt extraordinary fates after choosing to gamble. Both men are idle gamblers who use casinos for idle amusements, and both fall victim to villains who are gambling addicts. The traveler admits he is unimpressed with the popular trend and has never done more than break even; Montbarry is more interested in Countess Narona and her luck at the tables than his own. Luckily, the traveler is able to escape his fate, but Montbarry is left to haunt the hotel until justice is eventually served.
Collins, Wilkie. Great Classics Library: Wilkie Collins. Chancellor Press. 1994. 1-85152-719-2
Collins, Wilkie. The Traveller's Story of a Terribly Strange Bed. Dodo Press. 2008. ISBN 978-1409913498
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