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    The Frozen Deep: “I am a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man!”
    The Frozen Deep: “I am a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man!”
    The Frozen Deep: “I am a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man!”
    Ebook141 pages1 hour

    The Frozen Deep: “I am a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man!”

    By Wilkie Collins

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Wilkie Collins was born on January 8th, 1824 at 11 New Cavendish Street in Marylebone, London. A novelist, playwright and author of short stories, William Wilkie Collins was a popular figure in Victorian literature which was further enhanced by his charm and flamboyant lifestyle. He was a friend and collaborator of Charles Dickens. His own talents outshone most other literary figures and he is credited with the introduction of the modern detective story with ‘The Woman In White’. Other achievements were ‘The Moonstone’, ‘All Year Round’ and ‘Amadale’. In all Wilkie Collins wrote some 30 novels, 14 plays, over 60 short stories and at least 100 nonfiction essays. He died from a paralytic stroke on September 23rd, 1889, at 82 Wimpole Street, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in West London. Catharine Graves is buried with him, following her death in 1895. Here we publish ‘The Frozen Deep’ originally a play that was guided in its writing by Charles Dickens and who also performed in as well. It didn’t perform as hoped and so Collins re-wrote it entirely to give us the novella which is before you.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCopyright Group
    Release dateJan 9, 2014
    ISBN9781783947676
    The Frozen Deep: “I am a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man!”
    Author

    Wilkie Collins

    William Wilkie Collins was born in London in 1824, the son of a successful and popular painter. Collins himself demonstrated some artistic talent and had a painting hung in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1849, but his real passion was for writing. On leaving school, he worked in the office of a tea merchant in the Strand but hated it. He left and read law as a student at Lincoln's Inn but already his writing career was flowering. His first novel, Antonina, was published in 1850. In 1851, the same year that he was called to the bar, he met and established a lifelong friendship with Charles Dickens. While Collins' fame rests on his best known works, The Woman in White and The Moonstone, he wrote over thirty books, as well as numerous short stories, articles and plays. He was a hugely popular writer in his lifetime. Collins was an unconventional individual: he never married but established long term liaisons with two separate households. He died in 1889.

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    Reviews for The Frozen Deep

    3.5/5

    49 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      After reading Collins' A Woman In White, this novella fell short, though it has its own merits. As a typical piece of Victorian England, it represents the utter reliance by women on men. The element of the supernatural (visions, trances, etc.) gave it an extra depth.

      Overall, I enjoyed reading this as an important piece of Wilkie Collins' repertoire and found the connection to Charles Dickens quite intriguing. I am amazed to find that this novella (and its original play format) inspired the famous A Tale of Two Cities. I recommend this for fans of Victorian Gothic literature or Wilkie Collins.
    • 3/5
      I give this book a solid three and two-thirds stars. It was a good story, but - more action! Less love triangle!
    • 4/5
      It’s about two men and two women–the women are the dearest of friends; the men, bitter rivals, though only one knows that, but I get ahead of myself. One of the women is married to a First Lieutenant on a ship bound for the arctic. She’s very close to the younger woman, Clara. Both of the previously mentioned men are also sailors–one, Richard, has just returned from Africa and the other, Frank, is set to go to the arctic with First Lieutenant Crayford. Richard left for Africa some years ago under the assumption that Clara was his for the taking upon his return, but she’s in love with Frank. When her spurned paramour finds out she’s no longer his (she never was, really, he just presumed she was) he vows revenge on his rival, even though he’s no idea who that man is.Once he discovers the man he so despises is on the arctic expedition, Richard wrangles his way aboard though he’s only just returned home. The boats get trapped on the ice and all of the men come to depend (even moreso than usual) upon one another for their sanity and survival. Richard spends this time trying to figure out which one of his compatriots is his rival in love and eventually does so. The ending wasn’t what I expected, but in a good way–I highly recommend this taut, suspence-filled, beautifully written, little-known gem by Mr Collins.
    • 4/5
       Wilkie's Collins' novella "The Frozen Deep" is based on the play of the same name he co-wrote with Charles Dickens. The setting is a British naval expedition to discover the Northwest Passage (loosely inspired by John Franklin's ill-fated voyage). The story is a melodrama about two men on the voyage -- one of whom is engaged to be married to a woman that the other has just broken up with. This fact is discovered after they have been shipwrecked in the Arctic for over a year, with predictably melodramatic consequences. Suffice it to say it all turns out better than Franklin's actual expedition and that the play this is based on was the basis of the ending of a Tale of Two Cities.Nowhere nearly as good as any of Collins' novels that I've read with little in the way of real suspense, mystery or psychological depth. But still enjoyable nonetheless and worth reading.

    Book preview

    The Frozen Deep - Wilkie Collins

    THE FROZEN DEEP by Wilkie Collins

    Wilkie Collins was born on January 8th, 1824 at 11 New Cavendish Street in Marylebone, London.  A novelist, playwright and author of short stories, William Wilkie Collins was a popular figure in Victorian literature which was further enhanced by his charm and flamboyant lifestyle.  He was a friend and collaborator of Charles Dickens.  His own talents outshone most other literary figures and he is credited with the introduction of the modern detective story with ‘The Woman In White’.  Other achievements were ‘The Moonstone’, ‘All Year Round’ and ‘Amadale’. In all Wilkie Collins wrote some 30 novels, 14 plays, over 60 short stories and at least 100 nonfiction essays.  He died from a paralytic stroke on September 23rd, 1889, at 82 Wimpole Street, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in West London. Catharine Graves is buried with him, following her death in 1895.  Here we publish ‘The Frozen Deep’ originally a play that was guided in its writing by Charles Dickens and who also performed in as well.  It didn’t perform as hoped and so Collins re-wrote it entirely to give us the novella which is before you.

    Index Of Contents

    First Scene - The Ball-room

    Chapter 1.

    Chapter 2.

    Chapter 3.

    Chapter 4.

    Between the Scenes. The Landing Stage

    Chapter 5.

    Second Scene. The Hut of the Sea-mew.

    Chapter 6.

    Chapter 7.

    Chapter 8.

    Chapter 9.

    Chapter 10.

    Chapter 11.

    Third Scene. The Iceberg.

    Chapter 12.

    Fourth Scene. The Garden.

    Chapter 13.

    Chapter 14.

    Chapter 15.

    Fifth Scene. The Boat-House.

    Chapter 16.

    Chapter 17.

    Chapter 18.

    Wilkie Collins – A Short Biography

    First Scene - The Ball-room

    Chapter 1.

    The date is between twenty and thirty years ago. The place is an

    English sea-port. The time is night. And the business of the

    moment is dancing.

    The Mayor and Corporation of the town are giving a grand ball, in

    celebration of the departure of an Arctic expedition from their

    port. The ships of the expedition are two in number - the

    Wanderer and the Sea-mew. They are to sail (in search of the

    Northwest Passage) on the next day, with the morning tide.

    Honor to the Mayor and Corporation! It is a brilliant ball. The

    band is complete. The room is spacious. The large conservatory

    opening out of it is pleasantly lighted with Chinese lanterns,

    and beautifully decorated with shrubs and flowers. All officers

    of the army and navy who are present wear their uniforms in honor

    of the occasion. Among the ladies, the display of dresses (a

    subject which the men don't understand) is bewildering and the

    average of beauty (a subject which the men do understand) is the

    highest average attainable, in all parts of the room.

    For the moment, the dance which is in progress is a quadrille.

    General admiration selects two of the ladies who are dancing as

    its favorite objects. One is a dark beauty in the prime of

    womanhood, the wife of First Lieutenant Crayford, of the

    Wanderer. The other is a young girl, pale and delicate; dressed

    simply in white; with no ornament on her head but her own lovely

    brown hair. This is Miss Clara Burnham, an orphan. She is Mrs.

    Crayford's dearest friend, and she is to stay with Mrs. Crayford

    during the lieutenant's absence in the Arctic regions. She is now

    dancing, with the lieutenant himself for partner, and with Mrs.

    Crayford and Captain Helding (commanding officer of the

    Wanderer) for vis-à-vis, in plain English, for opposite couple.

    The conversation between Captain Helding and Mrs. Crayford, in

    one of the intervals of the dance, turns on Miss Burnham. The

    captain is greatly interested in Clara. He admires her beauty;

    but he thinks her manner, for a young girl, strangely serious and

    subdued. Is she in delicate health?

    Mrs. Crayford shakes her head; sighs mysteriously; and answers,

    In very delicate health, Captain Helding.

    Consumptive?

    Not in the least.

    "I am glad to hear that. She is a charming creature, Mrs.

    Crayford. She interests me indescribably. If I was only twenty

    years younger perhaps (as I am not twenty years younger) I had

    better not finish the sentence? Is it indiscreet, my dear lady,

    to inquire what is the matter with her?"

    It might be indiscreet, on the part of a stranger, said Mrs.

    Crayford. "An old friend like you may make any inquiries. I wish

    I could tell you what is the matter with Clara. It is a mystery

    to the doctors themselves. Some of the mischief is due, in my

    humble opinion, to the manner in which she has been brought up."

    Ay! ay! A bad school, I suppose.

    "Very bad, Captain Helding. But not the sort of school which you

    have in your mind at this moment. Clara's early years were spent

    in a lonely old house in the Highlands of Scotland. The ignorant

    people about her were the people who did the mischief which I

    have just been speaking of. They filled her mind with the

    superstitions which are still respected as truths in the wild North, especially the superstition called the Second Sight."

    God bless me! cried the captain, "you don't mean to say she

    believes in such stuff as that? In these enlightened times too!"

    Mrs. Crayford looked at her partner with a satirical smile.

    "In these enlightened times, Captain Helding, we only believe in

    dancing tables, and in messages sent from the other world by

    spirits who can't spell! By comparison with such superstitions as

    these, even the Second Sight has something, in the shape of

    poetry, to recommend it, surely? Estimate for yourself," she

    continued seriously, "the effect of such surroundings as I have

    described on a delicate, sensitive young creature, a girl with a

    naturally imaginative temperament leading a lonely, neglected

    life. Is it so very surprising that she should catch the

    infection of the superstition about her? And is it quite

    incomprehensible that her nervous system should suffer

    accordingly, at a very critical period of her life?"

    "Not at all, Mrs. Crayford, not at all, ma'am, as you put it.

    Still it is a little startling, to a commonplace man like me, to

    meet a young lady at a ball who believes in the Second Sight.

    Does she really profess to see into the future? Am I to

    understand that she positively falls into a trance, and sees

    people in distant countries, and foretells events to come? That

    is the Second Sight, is it not?"

    "That is the Second Sight, captain. And that is, really and

    positively, what she does."

    The young lady who is dancing opposite to us?

    The young lady who is dancing opposite to us.

    The captain waited a little, letting the new flood of information

    which had poured in on him settle itself steadily in his mind.

    This process accomplished, the Arctic explorer proceeded

    resolutely on his way to further discoveries.

    "May I ask, ma'am, if you have ever seen her in a state of trance

    with your own eyes?" he inquired.

    "My sister and I both saw her in the trance, little more than a

    month since, Mrs. Crayford replied. She had been nervous and

    irritable all the morning; and we took her out into the garden to

    breathe the fresh air. Suddenly, without any reason for it, the

    color left her face. She stood between us, insensible to touch,

    insensible to sound; motionless as stone, and cold as death in a

    moment. The first change we noticed came after a lapse of some

    minutes. Her hands began to move slowly, as if she was groping in

    the dark. Words dropped one by one from her lips, in a lost,

    vacant tone, as if she was talking in her sleep. Whether what she

    said referred to past or future I cannot tell you. She spoke of

    persons in a foreign country, perfect strangers to my sister and

    to me. After a little interval, she suddenly became silent. A

    momentary color appeared in her face, and left it again. Her eyes

    closed, her feet failed her, and she sank insensible into our

    arms."

    Sank insensible into your arms, repeated the captain, absorbing

    his new information. "Most extraordinary! And, in this state of

    health, she goes out to parties, and dances. More extraordinary

    still!"

    You are entirely mistaken, said Mrs. Crayford. "She is only

    here to-night to please me; and she is only dancing to please my

    husband. As a rule, she shuns all society. The doctor recommends

    change and amusement for her. She won't listen to him. Except on

    rare occasions like this, she persists in remaining at home."

    Captain Helding brightened at the allusion to the doctor.

    Something practical might be got out of the doctor. Scientific

    man. Sure to see this very obscure subject under a new light.

    How does it strike the doctor now? said the captain. "Viewed

    simply as a Case, ma'am, how does it strike the doctor?"

    He will give no positive opinion, Mrs. Crayford answered. "He

    told me that such cases as Clara's were by no means unfamiliar to

    medical practice. 'We know,' he told me, 'that certain disordered

    conditions of the brain and the nervous system produce results

    quite as extraordinary

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