"The narrator is a lawyer who contrives, in a series of ingenious moves, to steal back an incriminating letter from a blackmailer. The letter contains a confession to an attempted forgery by the dead father of a poor young governess, Miss Smith. The lawyer's success enables her marriage to a rich young man, Frank Gatliffe, to take place without the threat of scandal." -- <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.wilkie-collins.info/books_after_dark.htm">Wilkie Collins Information Pages</a>
"Originally published as 'The Fourth Poor Traveller' in 'The Seven Poor Travellers', a jointly-authored group of linked stories that formed the 1854 Extra Christmas Number of Household Words, published on 14 December 1854. The other contributors were Charles Dickens, G. A. Sola, Adelaide Anne Procter, and Elizabeth Lynn." — quoted from p 380 of Norman Page's collection of Wilkie Collins short fiction Mad Monkton and Other Stories.
| Date | Publication | Publisher | Type | Page | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1856 | After Dark | Tauchnitz | Collection | 50 | |
| February 1856 |
|
After Dark | Smith, Elder & Co. | Collection | |2 |
| 1862 |
|
After Dark | Smith, Elder & Co. | Collection | |
| 1875 |
|
After Dark and Other Stories | Harper & Brothers | Omnibus | 48 |
| 1894 | After Dark | Chatto & Windus | Collection | |3 | |
| 1954 |
|
Tales of Suspense | The Folio Society | Collection | |
| 1972 |
|
Tales of Terror and the Supernatural | Dover Publications | Collection | 171 |
| June 1972 | Tales of Terror and the Supernatural | Peter Smith Publisher | Collection | |7 | |
| November 1990 |
|
The Best Supernatural Stories of Wilkie Collins | Robert Hale | Collection | 95 |
| 1994 |
|
Mad Monkton and Other Stories | Oxford University Press | Collection | 21 |
| October 2008 | After Dark | Project Gutenberg | Collection | ||
| July 2009 | The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Wilkie Collins: Volume 2 | Leonaur Ltd | Collection | ||
| July 2009 | The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Wilkie Collins: Volume 2 | Leonaur Ltd | Collection | ||
| August 2011 |
|
After Dark | Nabu Press | Collection | |
| September 2011 |
|
After Dark | Dunda Books | Collection | |3 |