Other editions of book A House to Let

Compiled by Charles Dickens, and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Anne Procter, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London. Advised by her doctor to have a change of scenery, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by a nearby “house to let,” she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy their mistress’ curiosity; however, it is only after repeated false starts—and by way of elaborate tales of men lost at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates—that they happen upon the truth. Charles Dickens is one of England’s most important literary figures. His works enjoyed enormous success in his day and are still among the most popular and widely read classics of all time.

A novel written in collaboration by four of the most well-known and most appreciated Victorian writers, Charles Dickens, Adelaide Anne Procter, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell and Wilie Collins, A House to Let is an excellent story presented in a variety of styles – at some points it is very humorous, at others melodramatic and suspenseful all the way.The novel first presents a frame, then inserts four stories into that frame. An elderly lady is advised by her physician to find an apartment to rent in London. She finds the apartment, a place that is comfortable and also has a house opposite that is strangely decaying and marked with the sign To Let. She becomes curious about the history of the house that has had no dweller for almost a decade. She keeps an eye on the building and nobody seems to enter or leave it, but then, on two occasions, she sees a pair of eyes looking back at her from the house, which intrigues her even further. Being old and sick, she cannot investigate herself. Therefore, she sends out two people, a suitor of hers and a servant, to find out about the place. They bring back stories about the house when they return and these stories are the narratives that make up the book.The best word to describe the stories in the book is charming. - four charming stories that revolve around a ghostly, decrepit building and four attempts to solve a mystery. However, none of them provides a complete account of the history of the house, the mystery being finally solved by the house itself. The stories in the book are not signed by the individual authors, so the guessing game about the house can continue with an equally exciting dilemma about who wrote which story.

Compiled by Charles Dickens, and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Anne Procter, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London. Advised by her doctor to have a change of scenery, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by a nearby “house to let,” she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy their mistress’ curiosity; however, it is only after repeated false starts—and by way of elaborate tales of men lost at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates—that they happen upon the truth. Charles Dickens is one of England’s most important literary figures. His works enjoyed enormous success in his day and are still among the most popular and widely read classics of all time.

Compiled by Charles Dickens, and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Anne Procter, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London. Advised by her doctor to have a change of scenery, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by a nearby “house to let,” she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy their mistress’ curiosity; however, it is only after repeated false starts—and by way of elaborate tales of men lost at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates—that they happen upon the truth. Charles Dickens is one of England’s most important literary figures. His works enjoyed enormous success in his day and are still among the most popular and widely read classics of all time.

This story is a novella that was initially published in the Christmas edition of Household Words magazine of 1958. This is a collection of several stories from various authors who are each assigned a chapter of their own. These collections of short stories were then edited by Charles Dickens and published in his magazine. Each chapter uses their own distinct methods of storytelling and it gives the audiobook that much needed diversity as a story that is told from several point of views. The main plot of the novella centers on Sophonisba, an old woman who lives opposite the House of Let. The House of Let is an old house that has been abandoned for years. One day, she saw signs of life within the House of Let. Curious as to whom or what may have caused this, she asked Jabez Jarber, an elderly admirer of her as well as her servant, Trottle to find out what exactly is happening inside the House of Let. The story would then move on from one character to another as the mystery behind the dilapidated old house unravels and all question are answered. The House of Let is an interesting listen for its story construction as well as the narrator. Ruth Golding knows what and when to do changes in her voice work to enhance the atmosphere of the story. A House of Let is a seriously underrated novella that captures the mystery and humor of a fabulous story of bygone days.

Compiled by Charles Dickens, and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Anne Procter, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London. Advised by her doctor to have a change of scenery, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by a nearby “house to let,” she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy their mistress’ curiosity; however, it is only after repeated false starts—and by way of elaborate tales of men lost at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates—that they happen upon the truth. Charles Dickens is one of England’s most important literary figures. His works enjoyed enormous success in his day and are still among the most popular and widely read classics of all time.

Compiled by Charles Dickens, and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Anne Procter, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London. Advised by her doctor to have a change of scenery, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by a nearby “house to let,” she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy their mistress’ curiosity; however, it is only after repeated false starts—and by way of elaborate tales of men lost at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates—that they happen upon the truth. Charles Dickens is one of England’s most important literary figures. His works enjoyed enormous success in his day and are still among the most popular and widely read classics of all time.

Compiled by Charles Dickens, and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Anne Procter, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London. Advised by her doctor to have a change of scenery, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by a nearby “house to let,” she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy their mistress’ curiosity; however, it is only after repeated false starts—and by way of elaborate tales of men lost at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates—that they happen upon the truth. Charles Dickens is one of England’s most important literary figures. His works enjoyed enormous success in his day and are still among the most popular and widely read classics of all time.

Compiled by Charles Dickens, and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Anne Procter, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London. Advised by her doctor to have a change of scenery, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by a nearby “house to let,” she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy their mistress’ curiosity; however, it is only after repeated false starts—and by way of elaborate tales of men lost at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates—that they happen upon the truth. Charles Dickens is one of England’s most important literary figures. His works enjoyed enormous success in his day and are still among the most popular and widely read classics of all time.

Compiled by Charles Dickens, and including chapters by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Anne Procter, A House to Let is a composite tale of mystery and intrigue set amid the dark streets of Victorian London. Advised by her doctor to have a change of scenery, the elderly Sophonisba takes up lodgings in London. Immediately intrigued by a nearby “house to let,” she charges her two warring attendants, Trottle and Jarber, to unearth the secret behind its seeming desertedness. Rivals to the end, they each seek to outdo the other to satisfy their mistress’ curiosity; however, it is only after repeated false starts—and by way of elaborate tales of men lost at sea, circus performers, and forged death certificates—that they happen upon the truth. Charles Dickens is one of England’s most important literary figures. His works enjoyed enormous success in his day and are still among the most popular and widely read classics of all time.

The long and the short of this business was, that next day I had a pair of post-horses put to my chariot—for, I never travel by railway: not that I have anything to say against railways, except that they came in when I was too old to take to them; and that they made ducks and drakes of a few turnpike-bonds I had—and so I went up myself, with Trottle in the rumble, to look at the inside of this same lodging, and at the outside of this same House. As I say, I went and saw for myself. The lodging was perfect. That, I was sure it would be; because Trottle is the best judge of comfort I know. The empty house was an eyesore; and that I was sure it would be too, for the same reason. However, setting the one thing against the other, the good against the bad, the lodging very soon got the victory over the House. My lawyer, Mr. Squares, of Crown Office Row; Temple, drew up an agreement; which his young man jabbered over so dreadfully when he read it to me, that I didn’t understand one word of it except my own name; and hardly that, and I signed it, and the other party signed it, and, in three weeks’ time, I moved my old bones, bag and baggage, up to London.

"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. Collins wrote the introduction and collaborated with Dickens on the second story and ending, while Gaskell and Proctor wrote the remainder.[1] "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 envisaged 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 11–15 December 2006. It was repeated on Radio Four Extra during the week 26–30 December 2011, again in December 2014 and again during the week 19-23 December 2016.