Wilkie Collins

A young man just beginning a new job in London meets with a strange woman on a moonlit road, offers her assistance getting into the city and then finds she may have just escaped an asylum. Hidden connections are unveiled between the family that employs the young man and the mysterious woman, pulling the reader into a suspenseful web of plots within plots, theft, betrayal, mistaken identities and attempted murder. Punctuating his dramatic narrative...

"When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret her reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Swilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money--and murder. The character of Lydia...

Sisters Magdalen and Norah Vanstone's lives are dismantled when their illegitimacy is made public, causing them to lose access to their family home and income. The women must fight to regain their financial footing, building a new legacy all their own. Following the deaths of their parents, Magdalen and Norah Vanstone learn they were legally single at the time of their births. This makes both daughters illegitimate and unable to collect their ample...

Man and Wife Wilkie Collins - The novel has a complex plot, which is common in Collins's work.[3] In the Prologue, a selfish and ambitious man casts off his wife in order to marry a wealthier and better-connected woman by taking advantage of a loophole in the marriage laws of Ireland. The initial action takes place in the widowed Lady Lundie's house in Scotland. Geoffrey Delamayn has promised marriage to his lover Anne Silvester (governess to Lady...

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...

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...

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...

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...

This work by Wilkie Collins was originally published in 1886.

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)...