Bedark

 I'm on page 304 of 775: I am going to give up on this book for the time being. I'm so tired of reading on just about every page  how dependent Wilkie Collins is of laudanum/opium and how wonderful the drug is. I got it the first 10 times Mr. Simmons, I  don't need it repeated on every page. There are still 471 pages left and I am annoyed to know that this trend will continue.  Shame too, the story line seemed to be a good one. 

 Furthermore, why does the story get side-tracked so often? As far as I can tell from the 300+ pages I've already read, the  bulk of the story up unto that point could have been told in about 200 pages if not less.