‘The Red Room’ : an introduction. How does Wells generate interest and tension in the opening pages?

‘The Red Room’ : an introduction. How does Wells generate interest and tension in the opening pages?

‘It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.’
(p205, line 1)

The narrator is optimistic that he will not be easily scared and this makes the reader feel that something bad will take place. To enforce this feeling, the narrator is also made to seem naïve – ‘There’s a many things to see when one’s still but eight-and-twenty’.

Wells includes much incidental detail in his writing, such as the furniture throughout the castle. This style of writing creates mystery and distracts the reader’s attention from the characters and the challenge that the narrator is undertaking. Use of repetition is also common, for example, ‘It’s your own choosing’, and ‘This night of all nights’, giving the reader a premonition that something bad may occur. The conversations have mysteri...