Wilkie Collins
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Wilkie Collins was the first great detective novelist. His dark and complex mysteries influenced the work of other writers, such as Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens, with whom he developed a close personal friendship. Swinburne found his work worthy of serious criticism, and T. S. Eliot credits him even more than Poe with the invention of the modern detective novel and the popular thriller. Before such works as The Woman in White, The Moonstone,...
2) Basil
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Basil (1852) is a novel by Wilkie Collins. Written in the aftermath of Antonina (1850), his successful debut, Basil finds the author honing the trademark sense of mystery and psychological unease that would make him a household name around the world. Recognized as an important Victorian novelist and pioneer of detective fiction, Wilkie Collins was a writer with a gift for thoughtful entertainment, stories written for a popular audience that continue...
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"There, in the middle of the broad, bright high-road--there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven--stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments."
Thus young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white in what soon became one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked...
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The Moonstone is an enormous diamond, stolen from an Indian shrine and bequeathed to a young English heiress, Rachel Verinder, by a malicious uncle. When the cursed gem vanishes from Miss Verinder's bedroom, suspicion falls alternately on a lovesick, hunchbacked housemaid, a band of Indian jugglers, Rachel's beloved cousin, Franklin Blake, a sanctimonious suitor named Godfrey Ablewhite, and even Rachel herself. The eccentric Sergeant Cuff arrives...
5) After Dark
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A prolific author of the Victorian era, Wilkie Collins (1824–89) specialized in tales of suspense. The forerunners of today's detective and suspense fiction, his best-known works include The Moonstone and The Woman in White. The six short stories of After Dark ― tales of murder, mystery, and family drama ― originally appeared in the periodical Household Words, which was published by Collins's friend and fellow storyteller Charles Dickens. The...
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A remote castle in Wales inhabited by three older men is the last place on earth that a young, lively girl of 18 would want to spend time. And yet, when forced by circumstances to take up residence there for six weeks prior to coming of age, Jessie surprises them all by finding immense enjoyment in the experience and by capturing each of her adopted uncles' hearts. As the time grows near for her to return to England, the three brothers find it necessary...
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Hide and Seek (1854) is a novel by Wilkie Collins. Written in the aftermath of Antonina (1850), his successful debut, Hide and Seek finds the author honing the trademark sense of mystery and psychological unease that would make him a household name around the world. Recognized as an important Victorian novelist and pioneer of detective fiction, Wilkie Collins was a writer with a gift for thoughtful entertainment, stories written for a popular audience...
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Scion of a well-connected but impoverished family, Frank Softly may be the most audacious, outrageous, engaging, and thoroughly love-struck young man in Regency London. By the age of 25, he's been in and out of doctoring, caricaturing, forging Old Masters, and counterfeiting half-crowns. Now a maliciously conceived will ties the loveable rascal's fortunes to those of his doddering grandmother and miserly brother-in-law. The ensuing scheme brings Frank...
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This early work by Wilkie Collins was originally published in 1876. Born in Marylebone, London in 1824, Collins' family enrolled him at the Maida Hill Academy in 1835, but then took him to France and Italy with them between 1836 and 1838. Returning to England, Collins attended Cole's boarding school, and completed his education in 1841, after which he was apprenticed to the tea merchants Antrobus & Co. in the Strand. In 1846, Collins became a law...
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The mysterious death of an English lord in Venice haunts the living in this nineteenth-century gothic novel by the author of The Woman in White.
Agnes Lockwood was devastated when her fiancé, Lord Montbarry, broke off their engagement to marry Countess Narona. But she was even more devastated to learn of Montbarry's death in Venice not long thereafter. A rundown palazzo would not only be the last stop on the newlyweds' continental tour, but also...
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This early work by Wilkie Collins was originally published in 1850. Born in Marylebone, London in 1824, Collins' family enrolled him at the Maida Hill Academy in 1835, but then took him to France and Italy with them between 1836 and 1838. Returning to England, Collins attended Cole's boarding school, and completed his education in 1841, after which he was apprenticed to the tea merchants Antrobus & Co. in the Strand. In 1846, Collins became a law...
12) The Black Robe
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The Black Robe (1881) is a novel by Wilkie Collins. Written toward the end of Collins' career, The Black Robe shows brilliant flashes of the author's trademark sense of mystery and psychological unease, which made him a household name around the world. Recognized as an important Victorian novelist and pioneer of detective fiction, Wilkie Collins was a writer with a gift for thoughtful entertainment, stories written for a popular audience that continue...
13) Poor Miss Finch
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Wilkie Collin's intriguing story about a blind girl, Lucilla Finch, and the identical twins who both fall in love with her, has the exciting complications of his better known novels, but it also overturns conventional expectations. Using a background of myth and fairy-tale to expand the boundaries of nineteenth century realist fiction, Collins not only takes a blind person as his central character but also explores the idea of blindness and its implications....
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This vintage book contains William Wilkie Collins' 1880 novel, "Jezebel's Daughter". Based in the 1858 play "The Red Vial", it is a dramatic story of deceit and mystery based around Mrs. Fontaine, a disquieting widow who employs various poisons and remedies to manipulate her family and friends. This volume is highly recommend for lovers of chilling literature, and it is not to be missed by fans of Collins' masterful work. William Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)...
15) The Evil Genius
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This work by Wilkie Collins was originally published in 1886.
16) Nine O' Clock
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Nine O' Clock (1852) is a novel by Wilkie Collins. Written in the aftermath of Antonina (1850), his successful debut, Nine O' Clock finds the author honing the trademark sense of mystery and psychological unease that would make him a household name around the world. Recognized as an important Victorian novelist and pioneer of detective fiction, Wilkie Collins was a writer with a gift for thoughtful entertainment, stories written for a popular audience...
17) My Lady's Money
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This is a delightful tale of a woman of means who becomes the victim of the theft of a 500 pound note in her home. There are a number of possible suspects and she obtains help in pursuing the perpetrator. She retains a young girl as her companion and as she is of much lower rank and may be looked on as the possible thief, she is sent away to her Aunt, Miss Pink, to live until the manner is resolved.
18) A Fair Penitent
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This early work by Wilkie Collins was originally published in 1857. Born in Marylebone, London in 1824, Collins' family enrolled him at the Maida Hill Academy in 1835, but then took him to France and Italy with them between 1836 and 1838. Returning to England, Collins attended Cole's boarding school, and completed his education in 1841, after which he was apprenticed to the tea merchants Antrobus & Co. in the Strand. In 1846, Collins became a law...
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The novel follows the fortunes of four women, all in one way or another 'fallen leaves', who are linked by their relationships with the hero, Amelius Goldenheart, and also by secrets from the past. Their histories are looked at from two perspectives: that of the ruthless capitalist society of England in which they live, and that of the Christian Socialism of the hero who has been brought up in a Utopian community in America. Collins modelled his description...