A HOUSE TO LET

“A house to let” is a work written by four authors, 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. Wilkie wrote the introduction and collaborated with Dickens on the second story and ending, while Gaskell and Proctor wrote the remainder. The plot concerns an elderly woman, Sophonisba, who notices signs of life in a supposedly empty dilapidated house opposite her own and employs the efforts of an elderly admirer, Jabez Jarber, and her servant, Trottle, to discover what is happening within.  In each of these chapters, a possible resolution as to why the house is empty. This is what makes the novel so peculiar. The story consists of four different stories, that often contradict each other. Enjoy the classic example of gothic fiction.