A Terribly Strange Bed | Wilkie Collins | A Bitesized Audio Production
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2024
- A young Englishman seeking hedonistic adventure in Paris finds himself on a winning streak in a disreputable gambling house. But is his good luck quite all it seems?
A new, original recording of a classic public domain text, read and performed by Simon Stanhope for Bitesized Audio.
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William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist and playwright, best remembered for his Victorian gothic suspense novels and short stories, which can now be seen as the precursors to the modern genres of crime fiction and thrillers. The son of a painter (William Collins), he was born in London but grew up in France and Italy, becoming fluent in both languages. He worked as clerk to a tea merchant before turning to writing in the late 1840s. He achieved international popularity in the 1860s, but suffered from ill-health in later life: he became addicted to the laudanum he took to manage the pain of gout. His best known novels are 'The Woman in White' (1860), 'No Name' (1862), 'Armadale' (1866) and 'The Moonstone' (1868), famously described by T. S. Eliot as "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe".
'A Terribly Strange Bed' dates from the very early period of Collins' writing career. It was originally published in 1852, the first of many contributions he made to 'Household Words', the magazine established and edited by Charles Dickens, who subsequently became a friend and mentor to Collins. The text was subsequently revised by Collins (quite significantly in places) and the story was re-published in 1856 as one of a collection of stories titled 'After Dark', with a framing narrative added to link the stories together. The narration here is from the 1856 version of the text, but does not include the frame story.
Recording © Bitesized Audio 2020.
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I have a terrible time falling asleep and have discovered l still love a bedtime story. Problem is finding point at which l dozed off so l can finish it next morning!☹️😌😷😷😷😷🇨🇦
Glad to help! Thanks Margot
So true.
have the same problem and I find that audio books are the best sleeping pill ever, just that next morning bit that is a bit frustrating......but a small price to pay
I just start again.
@@robynconway1286 I would just hear the same fifteen minutes over and over and
Your French accent was great! The energy you put into the character's voices brings the story to life! Well done!
Thanks sugarfalls1! I particularly enjoyed reading this one, it's a great story.
@@BitesizedAudio Well your narration made it even better! I hope you upload more soon! I always look forward to hearing another Bite Sized story. I think I've heard just about every one. You're addictive! lol But definitely in a good way ;) I can't believe you actually reply to all our messages personally! Very nice of you! I wish I could get an autographed picture.
You have a great gift of bringing characters to life, as an old reader of dusty old books, but not finding reading so easy as I once did, your narrations, are treat to my rocking chair days.
If the quality of modern radio plays was as good as this, people would rightly throw away their television sets.
Very kind of you to say so, thank you Brett!
I, most certainly, do agree!
Beautiful reading - my mother who was an avid radio play listener in the 50s “ wireless” days, often told me of a version of this story, read then by The Man in Black Valentine Dyall. I’m so pleased to have found it , and I’m sure Mr Dyalls narration could not have been better than yours. Many thanks for these readings. They are my favourite RUclips channel.
What a lovely comment Rebecca, thank you very much! I'm not familiar with Mr Dyall's version, I shall try to look it up - it's certainly a great story, I particularly enjoyed reading this one. Best wishes to you and thanks for your support
Bitesized Audio Classics - your welcome ! Keep safe !
A splendid short story by Wilkie Collins. Prior to Sir A.Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, I consider W.Collins as an earlier pioneer of crime fiction par excellance. His unbelievably uncanny plots, alongside that exuberant prose puts him several notches above the rest. Like Conan Doyle, he had a deep grasp of human nature and had probed the depths of criminal depravity and its ingenuity. How terribly underrated W. Collins is! By posting this audiobook, you have vindicated him.
We eagerly await BOTH Victorian & Edwardian short stories... they are delectable. Old wine is always better!
MANY THANKS to Bitesized Audio Classics. Cheerio🍷
Thank you G Vivo, I concur with your interesting observations about Wilkie Collins!
Thank you, Simon. I love Wilkie Collins and your delivery did his wit and humour full justice.
You erudition shows you to be a man of culture & education. Thank you for sharing it with us! 👏
How kind, thank you!
I especially appreciate your time and work on posting these. The reason, I was in a hit and run accident 9 years ago and am basically bed bound. I, of course, have seen everything on the wasteland that is tv. Instead of just laying here looking at the ceiling day in and day out, I can put on a story and travel in my mind on adventures I can no longer do. The first thing I do at night is put on these and drift off to sleep. Cured my insomnia! I just wanted to let you know how appreciative I am and what a difference you make in someone’s life even though you may not know it.
Dear Emily, thank you so much for your comment. I'm very sorry to hear about your accident, but glad to know that you enjoy the stories and that they make a difference to you. Thank you for sharing. All best wishes to you
So many famous things I have never encountered before arriving here! What an enjoyable story, delightfully narrated! The details of the painting and how it seems to fit in are jolly...
The image of the gambling House, or rather a gambling hell, reminded me of Georgette Heyer's novels. A simularity which pleased me to no end. Thank you, kind sir, for a lovely story.
Magnificent!
Thanks Eamon, appreciated!
Don’t drink and gamble.
Thank you for sharing this interesting tale.
Thank you very much for this story. I believe I have read it before Manny years ago, so it was a treat to find it here. Thank you for great character voicing, too. I think that is what really makes a good story great!
Your French guy just sounds slimy! Like a cartoon character twirling his mustache! Absolutely perfect! 👏🏻😀💖
Fabulous story. I too remember a Jonathon Creek episode with a bed that flip the occupier into a water tank, where they drowned. Great stories are always embellished and retold by others. Thank you for the upload! ;-)
You're most welcome Lisa, thanks for listening
That might have been based on several working traps in hostelries around Britain. The Ostrich Inn, in Colnbrook (near Heathrow Airport) had one that dumped unfortunate victims into the River Colne. I haven't been there for years, (they did a cracking pub lunch in the 90s) but I seem to remember the landlord had dozens of victims - maybe 70-odd.
That bed and tank story was great.
What a delight to have your company ! Many thanks for your videos , what a treasure you are . ❤️👌🏼
You're very kind Christine, thank you for your lovely feedback
That was beautifully read as usual. Thanks for the upload.
You're most welcome, thank you for your kind comments
I must say the Storyteller is most excellent! I love these videos, thankyou
Kind of you to say so, thank you!
Having another super Bitesized evening!
You are, dear Simon, a gift to the listening community of RUclips, audible, and the other platforms you use.
Your voice acting, accents, timing, rhythm and emphasis are all spot on. You bring the excellent authors stories to life. ❤👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Thank you.
🇨🇦aunty 🤶🏻
Christmas 2023🎄
Thank you aunty! This is an older recording, but the story is rather a favourite of mine
Love your narration. It reminds me of my childhood favorite cartoon character "Mr Peabody" from Rocky & Bullwinkle. ❤️
Thanks Gigi. Yes, Mr Peabody has been referenced in a couple of other comments previously... I'm not familiar with the show as I don't think it made its way to this side of the pond, but I shall try to look it up!
Bitesized Audio Classics I hope you can find it. Maybe someone will have a clip on YT you can hear--thanks for your excellent work! I found one for you here: ruclips.net/video/owB6zFSZbng/видео.html
Don’t worry, he was very erudite, a compliment to you in fact😷😷😷😷🇨🇦
Now i Cant get that cute little dog out of my head.
Yes, ha ha !! Perhaps they both attended the same boarding school , ha ha
Oh brilliant. What a great story. And very well narrated. Thanks again Simon. You have a gift for it. 😊
WOW what a wonderful narrative, your talent of changing voices . This story was Blessed by you telling it . God Bless
Very kind, thank you! I do like this story, it was good fun to read
Thank you for sharing these fabulous old tales with us. I discovered your channel a few months ago, and have listened to many of your narrations (some more than once). They are wonderfully done-you really bring these stories to life! I particularly enjoyed this one. Please do more Wilkie Collins.
Thank you for your kind comments. Yes, more Wilkie Collins is certainly on my list...
Indeed. I look for them everyday. Great to listen to while eating and sewing.
Now one of my favourite bedtime listening channels. Best Narrator.
Very kind of you to say so, thank you!
Horrifyingly glorious!!!
Thanks Catharine. Yes, I'm fond of this particular story, Collins is one of my favourite authors
This is another good story I can understand.
Thank you
I'm glad! Thanks for listening
Great reading. More Wilkie Colloins please!
My favourite writer!!! Thank you!!!!!
Wonderful! Yes, I'm a big fan of Wilkie Collins too and have wanted to do this story for ages, so glad I got round to it at last!
Sleep tight. Very tight indeed. What a wonderful story as you slip off to sleep; or, will you?
Thank you for sharing!! You always make my day!!
Glad to know that, thanks so much for listening
Excellent narration
Thanks Douglas, appreciate your feedback
@@BitesizedAudio I am very impressed. I have been trying to find a particular narrator whose name is unknown to me. He also read "a terribly strange bed" as well as many short stories such as those by Edgar Allan Poe. The voice is so important in narration, if it doesn't fit I skip over it immediately. Thank you for your time and sharing your skill with us!
Always a treat when you put up a new story and this one was no exception!
Very kind, thank you!
Thumbs Up for Wilkie Collins
Yes indeed, he's one of the greats of the era!
Thank you, Bitesize, for all the work you do creating these audio stories for us. I sure appreciate it !
Thanks BlueFriend. It's a pleasure, these stories are great fun to read...
Many thanks!
You're welcome! Thanks for listening
Excellent as always.
Great story, too.
Thanks Chris, much appreciated
Not to sound too sappy - but you read the written word like a concert pianist plays the notes on the sheet music.
I have no trouble reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories but I must confess that I have frequently become bogged down reading some of the other Victorian/Edwardian mystery or ghost stories by him or other writers of that era.
The language they employ can be a little hard to interpret because of the dense wording of that antique time.
However, when I listen to you read, it becomes entirely understandable and enjoyable.
If not for you, I might never have had the chance to appreciate these stories.
For that alone, I thank you.
Thank you so much for your very generous words Chris, I'm touched. Delighted to know that you enjoy the stories, really appreciate your comments and feedback.
Absolutely love this.Does anyone know of a story about a deaf and dumb child ,who strays from his home,only to be taken in by an old man who helps the boy to speak? I first saw it on T.V. as a short film.
Oh for goodness sake! Not exactly the imagery I should be having at bedtime haha.
I’m having a Bitesized evening and loving it. Thank you Simon.
I really liked this one! The reader does a great job with the accents and makes the story more interesting with his reading of it.
Thanks Missy Ing, appreciated!
VWD Mr Stanhope! There are readers & there are story tellers. You sir are the latter! Tysm BA God Bless one & all! Sub in Nashville, TN
Very kind of you to say so! Thank you, and all best wishes
Thank you for your wonderful narration. This story was really enjoyable and didn't turn into the usual obvious tale. Very good.
Yet another great story, from M R James hope theirs more?✊👍
"Don't have nightmares!" 😂
Thanks Nick!
Scarily exciting!😃
Just chillin back to listen.Thank you🌸🌸
Thanks Stella
Hi I've just subscribed and checked ur playlist and I'm going to enjoy perusing ur 'wares' and take care all in these strange days and stay safe.
Excellent - thanks Simon, hope you enjoy listening. Best wishes to you
Absolutely brilliant thank you so much for uploading this really enjoyed it as always!
Have you read No Name? Wonderful & very moving. 📘
@@h.calvert3165 Im afraid I havnt but I will certainly be looking at reading it!
Wonderful, so glad to know that as you mentioned it was a favourite of yours (one of mine too!). Thanks for your kind feedback
@H. Calvert Ah yes, it is indeed. Moving, but also very funny in places I recall. Definitely worth looking up for those who don't know it
@@BitesizedAudio
Collins was a fascinating man, with a very unconventional lifestyle. Yet he seemed to have a real comprehension of the inner lives of women. His female characters have much more depth & reality than do those of his chum, Dickens (at least in my opinion). 📘
Really enjoyed that. It's amazing but you can nearly get the sounds and smells of old Paris....👍
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you John
Thank you
You're welcome!
What a clever story!
Wow ,what a terribly strange story! Loved it, thank you for this,I was spellbound.Might be from years ago but timeless.
Excellently expressive reading. Very enjoyable. Thank you.
Thanks for your comment Emma, glad you enjoyed it
Bravo, sir! You've a new fan in me, as does Wilkie Collins!
Wonderful, glad to know that - thank you!
Thank you for sharing ❤
You're most welcome, thanks for listening
LOVE this channel! Thanks so much for your excellent choice in stories and the marvelous and soothing way that you read them. I'm a fan of The Journey Round my Room the protagonist mentions, "Was it as a punishment that I was exiled to my chamber, to that delightful country in which abound all the riches and enjoyments of the world? As well might they consign a mouse to a granary."
Thanks for your kind feedback, it's much appreciated
Very, very well done! Now, I must get some sleep. On the other hand...
I hope you made it safely through the night!
You certainly gain ones attention and keep it !! Can one call a reading "a page turner" I wonder ? I was hanging on your every word Again and it would appear as always a great choice Many many thanks
Wonderful! Thank you Bob for your kind feedback
I thought I had heard all of your narratives but I seemingly missed a few!
Your range of voices really are amazing Simon!♥️😎✌️
Thanks Jackalina! Yes, I can see you've been listening to a few of my older uploads. I'm very fond of this story, although I fear the audio quality isn't the best (it was recorded in a cupboard during the early days of lockdown so there was quite a lot of background noise to take out!) A fun read, though
@@BitesizedAudio my hearing isn’t the best in one of my ears, but truly I don’t think I would have noticed anyway Simon. As I’m sure you must know, you are really talented at this! The only thing I don’t understand is why you don’t have a LOT MORE subscribers!
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Great narration! Brilliant voice !!! Love you very very much!!!
Very kind of you to say so, thank you!
Enjoyed this book reading.
Lovely to hear that, thank you
Brilliant! I thouraghly enjoy listening to all your stories 😊
Thank you!
wow.. Super narration. talented works. Nice information for people who really bored at home. I #BrainBlitzAudios appreciate your content.😊😊😊😊👍👍👍👍💛💜💞💛💜💙
Kind of you to say so, thank you
Hey nice one thanks so much for the story
Thanks Johnny, appreciate your support and feedback
This is wonderful work by everyone who was involved. Gratitude! 🎶
I read the book Drood several years back. Excellent fictional account told from the perspective of...Wilke Collins.
Ah yes, I picked up a copy of that a couple of years ago but must confess I haven't got round to reading it yet (too busy researching old short stories!) I really must do so soon, it sounds excellent. Thanks Addie
Very enjoyable. A very unique tale. Thanks!
Thanks Susan. Yes, quite a fun one, this!
Reminded me of one of the Jonathon Creek episodes from a while back. Great story though.
Thanks Andy. Yes, I can see what you mean... It's a real classic and has no doubt inspired many imitators...
Amazing voice work, Bravo!
This story is dramatized on the 1960 TV series Thriller. It's a segment starring Robin Hughes.
That's a helll of a beard Wilkie.
Ooh!...like Buzz magister below, I have just seen this...I have to do some work first, but after that, will listen to this in bed, doing some needlepoint :) Back in an hour x👍
@buzz magister I am going to have to google that word...Does it mean like ''psychic?'' Just a guess before I hit Google! thanks :)
@buzz magister I was wrong...It means 'Supernatural'....going to listen now, as was too tired last night :)
@buzz magister A good story...and Collins uses 'Preternatural'. a few minutes in!'..
@buzz magister Preternatural isn't a word much used these days...I do love a 19th century story.
One I remember as a child was ''The Upper Berth''by F.Marion Crawford..I was read it aloud by a cousin on holiday...and assumed aged 9 that it was a modern tale..and on listening to it recently realised it was late 19th century.
It was always a treat to have a story read to one..We had a teacher that would read to us on a Friday afternoon before home time.. and there would be rare stories in the radio to listen to...Perhaps this is why You Tube is so good..it takes one back to Childhood days of listening to a story.... I loved it when mum read us stories too!
I'm new to this channel. Am enjoying it very much.
Thank you Julie, glad to know that. Thanks for listening
I've looked to see if you have done a reading of "the moonstone" or the "woman in white", I wondered if not have you any plans to do more Wilkie Collins in the future. Waiting with baited breath 😆
Hello Tracy, I'm a big fan of Wilkie Collins and certainly plan to do more of his short stories for the channel. I've got 'Who Killed Zebedee" and 'The Biter Bit' on my list in development already, though based on current workload it's likely to be early next year before I get around to him again. I love 'The Moonstone' and 'The Woman in White', but they're both (especially the latter) quite an undertaking. It's probably something I'd prefer to do with support from a studio and larger team... as a one-man-band (which I am for the purposes of this channel) it would be rather daunting to tackle something of that length. But it's certainly food for thought. I'll bear it in mind, thank you!
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I cannot wait, the moonstone, is widely known as the first detective novel but I have to agree the women in white would have to run as maybe a series. I wondered if you was a fan of H.C.Mcneile, known in the main for his bulldog Drummond character? I love the character of "tenny" the comedic relief lol, not exactly 19th century but still a great read. You have also introduced me to the wonderful Catherine Louise pirkis, I hadn't read much of hers before but I've got to admit, the loveday character is wonderful for the time, thank you. I await who killed zebedee with baited breath lol. Thank you. Txx
Mr Collins wasn't very fond of La France 😁😁😁
And the French had the gall to call the English perfidious .
Mr. Stanhope, have you made a recording yet of The Frozen Deep? I love that WC story and think you’d do it brilliantly.
I haven't yet, but I would like to do some more Wilkie Collins so I'll keep it in mind...
are a treat!
Edward Everett Horton - Voice of Mr. Peabody, Aesop & Fractured Fairy tales!
Thanks old fan. A couple of commenters on other stories have mentioned Edward Everett Horton, a very nice comparison, thank you! I remember him from the Astaire and Rodgers films and various 30s comedies which I enjoyed watching on television when I was growing up, perhaps it's a subconscious influence!
The only thing I could think through the latter 2/3 of this story was * S Q U I S H * ...
Nice and gruesome. Joseph Conrad reworks the same idea of a murderous four-poster in his 'Inn of the Two Witches'. Compare it with the Wilkie Collins precursor and -- sorry Wilkie -- you really get a sense for how sophisticated a storyteller Conrad is.
Perfectly delightful reading....but I often wonder though..whether the narrator kept his rouge et noir winnings? Or, gave the money to charitable causes....(widows and orphans, don't you know..)
Cheerio Greg.
Greg?
O it Wilkie Collins lol
It is indeed! But yes, there's definitely more M. R. James in the pipeline (and more from Mr Collins at some point too, I hope)
It all falls apart in the details, but of course, it is truly impossible once the Sub-Prefect says that many "drowned men" recovered from the Seine as suicides, had no doubt been smothered in the gambling den house. If even one autopsy had been performed, it would have been seen that there was no water in the stomachs of the men - and probably none in the lungs. Some water could have got in through an open mouth or the nostrils and trickled into the lungs, but not enough to 'drown', and it is impossible to get water into your stomach if it is not swallowed. By that fact, they would have understood that the bodies in the Seine had died elsewhere and been thrown in afterwards.
I don't think they did many autopsies in the victorian age. Most likely they just sold the bodies to medical colleges. It's a work of fiction. It's not supposed to appear as something that was likely to happen in the real world. Suspension of disbelief is a beautiful thing. If you want realistic, true crime stories, read Ann Rule's books. The only problem with those is it gets incredibly depressing to realize the depths which human cruelty will sink to. True crime is a great way to learn second-hand the tactics that abusive and sociopathic employ, but for entertainment, it gets very grim.
I very much enjoyed this story, and Simon's wonderful rendition of it. If you want to nit-pick, it's incredibly easy to do with stories that are over 100 years old. It's also pointless. Hindsight is 20/20.
You might as well point out that 'brain fever' is not a fever at all, it was a nervous breakdown.
Of course it's easy to pick holes in stories that were written without the extra century or so of knowledge that we have had since then.
It's the so simple to criticize, and for some reason, RUclipsrs love to do the easy thing and show their "superior knowledge"
I'm sure EVERYONE in 1889 (year of Wilkie's death) knew about water only being able to enter the lungs pre-mortem. And of course, besides EVERY police officer knowing this fact (yeah right), you expect every fiction writes to have this knowledge as well. Do you think they mentioned the fact in the Encyclopedia Britannica? Under the "Drowning" entry maybe? Get real and don't complain when FICTIONAL stories fail to contain knowledge that wasn't available to the general public at the time of writing.
We all know how smart you are now, so I'm sure you feel better.
11:40
Can I get this book plz😭😭😭😭😭
It is online in Project Gutenberg... now I am curious about "the framing narrative" mentioned in the introductory notes above.
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impending doom 5/5
Sir, can you even convert my stories into audiobooks and give for using in my channel?
My channel is not very famous, Sir, can you please help?
dumb thing to ask
wrong place & way to ask it
B1228
Obnoxious reading,
What a boring story and an equally boring narrative style . I fell asleep twice through the narration . Very rarely do I ever leave such a comment after listening to an audio book especially of Bitesized Audio .
I've actually read this story before but to listen to you Simon narrating it was magnificent!
Thank you kindly!
@@BitesizedAudio You are most welcome!