Victorians! discussion

BBC Radio did a broadcast of this short work, and their online link summarizes the story as "Eminent Victorian trio Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Gaskell tell of a woman's worries over an unsettling sign of life in a derelict house." Of course that leaves out one of the authors.

The most complete background description of the story that I was able to locate is from Wikipedia. I have presently lost my hard copy of the book, which might also include some background.

Wikipedia Entry:
"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.

A dramatisation of "A House to Let" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during the week of 11th-15th December 2006. It was repeated on Radio Four Extra during the week 26th-30th December 2011.

I am experiencing slight delays, but anyone feel free to begin discussing.

I'm about half-way through and really enjoying it. I love Sophonisba and her name. I think the authors must have had fun with this one.

I wasn't aware that Dickens, Collins, and Gaskell had ever collaborated. I have never heard of Adelaide Anne Proctor, but I thought her poetry was beautiful. This is a great read!

Hi all, I haven't even looked into the actual discussion threads on this read. I wanted to apologize for proposing the discussion and then not being able to start on time. Real life has taken me away through some traveling and family events over the past week so I do hope to join back in soon.

Hope you are enjoying this and all your reads :)