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The Dream Woman
Wilkie Collins · 1909 · Mystery & Detective, Horror & Gothic
Lost after a hunt, Percy Fairbank finds a hostler sleeping in an empty inn yard and hears the extraordinary history of Francis Raven. A recurring dream, a woman with a knife and the date of February 29 bind several witnesses into a mystery where memory becomes warning and fate appears to keep its appointment.
Inside this edition
Every LitLab edition is illustrated from the text itself — the world of the book mapped, its people drawn, its scenes staged. 14 plates are open to everyone in this book; here are 8 of them.
Farleigh Hall to Underbridge - The Lame Horse RouteThe supported sequence from the hunting country to the desolate inn after Clotilde's horse strains a tendon.
The Dream at Two - Room, Window and QuarryA symbolic diagram distinguishing Francis's dream chamber from its later moonlit waking echo by the quarry.
From Farleigh Hall to Maison Rouge - Francis Enters ServiceA schematic journey from Somersetshire through Underbridge to the Fairbanks' estate near Metz.
The Surgeon's Experiment - The Wrong NightThe leap-year logic, the three blindfold steps and the relative adjacency of the stable rooms.
The Final Quarter Hour - A Quarter to TwoThe last timed movements through the yard and the two westward paths, with the violent outcome omitted.
The Dream Woman - Principal Characters
Percy, Clotilde and Rigobert - Identity and Continuity
Francis Raven - The Haunted HostlerThe worn stableman whose birthday fear and remembered dream shape the nested testimony.
This edition
- Title
- The Dream Woman
- Author
- Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)
- First published
- 1909
- Illustrated plates
- 61 original artworks · 14 open to everyone
- Chapters
- 16 · about 21,270 words
- Reading time
- 1 h 25 min
- Language
- EN
- Formats
- Read online · EPUB and PDF download with a subscription
- Publisher
- LitLab — The Illustrated Classics
- On LitLab since
- August 2026
- Rights
- Text in the public domain. Illustrations and edition © LitLab.
- Source text
- Project Gutenberg #2038
Neighbours in the library
Chosen by what they share with The Dream Woman — the same author, the same genre.
The MoonstoneAlso by Wilkie Collins · 1860s
The Pipe and The PuzzleMystery & Detective · 1900s
The Hound of the BaskervillesMystery & Detective · 1900s
The Great Valdez SapphireMystery & Detective · 1900s
The Lost Duchess and The Minor CanonMystery & Detective · 1900s
The Blue CrossMystery & Detective · 1910s