A Terribly Strange Bed’, By Wilkie Collins

‘A Terribly Strange Bed’, by Wilkie Collins

Notes:
Story Summary


• The story opens with our narrator having finished in studies and finding himself with some leisure time in Paris. His idea of having a good time is mixing with the rough people of the neighbourhood: the low-life, ruffians, crooks who live in the seedier part of town. At the suggestion of his friend, the narratorenters into a gambling house.
• He tells us that he gambles for fun and that he never gets hooked into it for the cash, since he’s well off. Nevertheless, this time he gets on a winning streak and finds it hard to stop. He gets addicted to winning and refuses to leave when his friend tells his that he’s won enough. The friend leaves the house and leaves the narrator on his own.
• Enterthe ‘Old Soldier’, who takes the narrator under his wing and encourages him to gamble more. The narrator realises that he should be suspicious of the Soldier, but can’t drag himself away from the table. After more encouragement from the soldier, the narrator begins to trust him more. So when the soldier suggests champagne, the narrator is happy to oblige and drinks himself drunk. The readermight think at this point that the alcohol is drugged.
• The Soldier then tells the narrator that he needs to sober up, because he’s in danger of being mugged for winnings by the crooks in the house. So the Soldier suggests coffee. After drinking the coffee, the narrator seems to get worse: the room starts spinning. The Soldier persuades the narrator to stay the night, claiming that thenarrator shouldn’t roam the streets in his state with his gambling winnings. The narrator is in no condition to refuse and finds himself in a bedroom somewhere in the house.
• At first the narrator is disorientated but soon finds the room safe and comfortable. He observes the strange four-poster bed and tries to sleep. He realises he can’t sleep and decides to count and describe the furniturein the room so as to tire himself out.
• While doing this, the narrator begins to realise that the canopy of the bed is slowly moving down. He can’t be sure of himself at first, because he knows he’s drunk. But then the full realisation of the horror comes to him. He freezes. But at the last moment he jumps off the bed before being completely squashed by the canopy.
• Fully awake nowand sensing the danger, the narrator resolves to escape. He finds that the only means of escape is through the window and down the drain pipes. After getting the window open he gets his money and shimmies down the pipes. He runs through the back streets of the town to find the police.
• The narrator comes across a gang of policemen out looking for a murderer who’s terrorising Paris at themoment. At first they don’t believe what he’s trying to say, taking him for a drunken tramp. But then the reality of the problem dawns on them and they all head to the gambling house.
• Once at the house, they investigate the room with the bed and the one above it. In this room they took up the floorboards and found a whole array of mechanisms that worked the canopy of the four-poster bedand turned it into a murder machine.
• This is followed by the arrest of the main crooks involved, including the Soldier, who, it is found out, has been involved in other murders using the bed contraption.
• At the end of the story, the narrator, Mr Faulkner, learns from his mistake: he decides never to get involved in gambling ever again.


‘A Terribly Strange Bed’, by Wilkie CollinsCharacter Notes for Mr Faulkner



|Qualities/State of Mind |Context |Quote |Explanation |
|rich |Opening of the story: in |‘Shortly after my education at college|He had enough money to study and |
| |Paris...