After Dark Preface to 'After Dark'

In which Mr. Wilkie Collins offers a thoughtful preface revealing his earnest endeavour to weave together a collection of tales through the diary of a modest travelling portrait-painter and his wife’s observations, aiming to shed light on the artist’s life and the intertwined narratives that follow. He expresses gratitude to those who have aided him and clarifies that the stories, though set in foreign locales, are wholly his own creations, born from his imagination and literary care.