William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is best known as the innovator of the English detective novel, whose sensational novels, plays, and short stories were hugely popular in the Victorian Era. Today, readers enjoy Collins' intricate and suspenseful plots, and his penetrating social commentary on the plight of women and domestic issues of the time. «No Name», one of Collins' best-known works, takes place at Combe-Raven in West Somersetshire in 1846. Sisters Norah and Magdalen Vanstone...
The special charm of 'No Name' is the uncertainty in which the reader is kept. The most experienced of novel-readers is unable to predict whether Magdalen succeeds in her scheme, or marries Capt. Kirke, or retires from the scene to die, baffled and broken-hearted. Each crisis in the progress of the story takes the public by surprise. The death of the elder Vanstone, the marriage of Magdalen with his son, the trust by which Noel Vanstone prolongs the contest, even after his decease —to...
The author of 'The Woman in White' and of 'No Name' has had reprinted and published a collection of articles contributed by him to Household Words, and perhaps to other periodicals. The two papers which will attract most attention are probably those entitled respectively, «To Think, or Be Thought For,» and «Dramatic Grub-street,» inasmuch as upon their first appearance they provoked both private and public remonstrance, and they are now reprinted because Mr. Collins has seen...
"In relation to the purely literary side of the question," as Mr. Wilkie Collins says, there can be no doubt that his studies of character in 'My Lady's Money' do seem to be drawn from nature. The story is constructed with his accustomed skill, the details fit together as usual with the precision of the facts in a criminal trial.
"In relation to the purely literary side of the question," as Mr. Wilkie Collins says, there can be no doubt that his studies of character in 'My Lady's Money' do seem to be drawn from nature. The story is constructed with his accustomed skill, the details fit together as usual with the precision of the facts in a criminal trial.
A good bookshelf is not complete without this charming little tale. It is founded on what was related to the author as a fact, as to the first obtaining of the well-known cast of the face of Shakespeare, by a stonemason, who was repairing the church at Stratford-on Avon. He was found out, and by the local authorities forthwith threatened with severe penalties; and not knowing how far his deed was culpable, and their threats dangerous, he thought it best to make a hasty retreat from the place...
A good bookshelf is not complete without this charming little tale. It is founded on what was related to the author as a fact, as to the first obtaining of the well-known cast of the face of Shakespeare, by a stonemason, who was repairing the church at Stratford-on Avon. He was found out, and by the local authorities forthwith threatened with severe penalties; and not knowing how far his deed was culpable, and their threats dangerous, he thought it best to make a hasty retreat from the place...
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is best known as the innovator of the English detective novel, whose sensational novels, plays, and short stories were hugely popular in the Victorian Era. Today, readers enjoy Collins' intricate and suspenseful plots, and his penetrating social commentary on the plight of women and domestic issues of the time. Unfortunately Collins suffered from rheumatic gout, for which he took the opiate laudanum, and which eventually led to paranoid delusions and the...
The holidays are the best time to enjoy Christmas mysteries and classic ghost tales (for the fans of the genre) in the snuggling comfort of your home. This edition hence brings to you some of the finest literary gems together in one place to satisfy your cravings for some suspense. Enjoy: The Christmas Banquet (Nathaniel Hawthorne) What the Shepherd Saw: A Tale of Four Moonlight Nights (Thomas Hardy) The Wolves of Cernogratz (Saki) Markheim (Robert Louis Stevenson) A Chaparral Christmas...
William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is best known as the innovator of the English detective novel, whose sensational novels, plays, and short stories were hugely popular in the Victorian era. Today, readers enjoy Collins' intricate and suspenseful plots, and his penetrating social commentary on the plight of women and domestic issues of the time. Unfortunately Collins suffered from rheumatic gout, for which he took the opiate laudanum, and which eventually led to paranoid delusions and the...
William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is best known as the innovator of the English detective novel, whose sensational novels, plays, and short stories were hugely popular in the Victorian era. Today, readers enjoy Collins' intricate and suspenseful plots, and his penetrating social commentary on the plight of women and domestic issues of the time. Unfortunately Collins suffered from rheumatic gout, for which he took the opiate laudanum, and which eventually led to paranoid delusions and the...