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"A Terribly Strange Bed" is a short story by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1852 in ''Household Words'', a magazine edited by Charles Dickens. It was written near the beginning of his writing career, his first published book having appeared in 1848. Collins met Dickens in 1851, and this story was the first contribution by Collins to Dickens's magazine ''Household Words''. After several more pieces for the magazine, he became a paid member of staff in 1856.〔(Wilkie Collins - A Short Biography ) Wilkie Collins Information Pages. Accessed 8 Oct 2014.〕〔(Wilkie Collins's A Terribly Strange Bed ) The Victorian Web. Accessed 8 Oct 2014.〕 In the story, an English visitor to a gambling-house in Paris stays overnight in the building, and is nearly killed by a specially constructed bed. ==The story in ''After Dark''== The story was one of six short stories by Collins in his collection entitled ''After Dark'', published in 1856. In the preface, he acknowledged the painter W. S. Herrick as his source for the idea of this story.〔 The stories in ''After Dark'' are linked by a narrative framework. At the beginning and end of the book are "Leaves from Leah's Diary": William Kerby, a travelling portrait-painter, is in danger of losing his sight, and is required by his doctor to cease painting for a while. His wife Leah realizes that destitution threatens. He is a good story-teller, and Leah has the idea of writing down his stories and publishing them. Each story has a prologue, added to the original story that appeared in ''Household Words''. In the prologue of this story, now entitled "The Traveller's Story of a Terribly Strange Bed", Kerby is in a hotel in Liverpool, making a portrait in chalk of Faulkner, who is staying there while waiting to sail to Brazil. Kerby has with him a portfolio containing sketches he made in Paris, which interests Faulkner; one of the sketches is of a back street, which he recognizes, and he tells Kerby of his adventure in a house in that street. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「A Terribly Strange Bed」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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