The Dream Woman by Wilkie Collins

Originally published in 1855, The Dream Woman is a tidy novella by Wilkie Collins, author of The Moonstone and The Woman In White, both publishing sensations of the 1860's. This nicely keeps open to the reader how much occult they prefer, for the action may indeed be corporeal - or proof that spiritual entities can be called forth.

The story is told in four narrations, the first being from Percy Fairbank and his wife, visitors of friends to the countryside where, lost during a fox hunt, find themselves at a small village inn. The stableman arranges a carriage home and solves their curiosity as to why he was sleeping, apparently in night terrors, during the day. On the way back to their friends, Mrs. Fairbanks sits up front with him as he offers the longest narration. Many years ago he was travelling in these parts when he also stopped at an inn. It was his birthday, and at 2am, with the door locked and the windows shut, a ghostly image not only appeared at his bedside, she tried to stab him with a knife! Every year since, at 2am on his birthday, he fears this apparition will reappear and complete the job. His story continues - he lives with his mother and aunt, finds new jobs - and falls in love at first sight with a beautiful flaxen haired girl his mother refuses him to marry; for she is the image he described of his Dream Woman!

They marry, but the union is disastrous and she disappears into the night after a violent argument - she vows to kill him! The man is alone again, every year in peril for his life.

Percy continues the story as the couple feel so for the man, they offer him a job at their estate in France. Surely his terrors will abate with a fresh new beginning, and the ghostly spectre of death will not find him. The final narration is from one of the Fairbank's French staff, a new character entwined into this haunted story, a man now accused of murder.

This was very engaging. In my edition, an introduction by Collins describes turning his short story published in Household Words into a longer novella, adding detail and characters sufficient as to make this a new tale. Despite it being written in 1855, the language was not stilted - it could have been written today - and the novella form worked well for the momentum. It had a nice balance between occult and ghostly apparitions (including talk of fortune telling and divination), but it could also be read as a straight mystery of the living world. I find it more fun to believe the former. Either way, it's a well crafted story of a man's powerful bewitchment...

"Again and again I say it, I was a man bewitched!"

1855 / Tradeback / 134 pages