Product Description

William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and writer of short stories. He was hugely popular in his time, and wrote 27 novels, more than 50 short stories, at least 15 plays, and over 100 pieces of non-fiction work. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1860), The Moonstone (1868), Armadale (1866) and No Name (1862). His works were classified at the time as 'sensation novels', a genre seen nowadays as the precursor to detective fiction and suspense fiction. He also wrote penetratingly on the plight of women and on the social and domestic issues of his time. His novel, No Name combined social commentary - the absurdity of the law as it applied to children of unmarried parents - with a densely-plotted revenge thriller. Amongst his other works are: Basil (1852), Hide and Seek (1854), After the Dark (1856), The Frozen Deep (1857), The Queen of Hearts (1859), Man and Wife (1870), The New Magdalen (1873), The Law and the Lady (1875), The Two Destinies (1876), and A Rogue's Life (1879).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #672592 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 404 pages

Review

Check out these other great works (hundreds of volumes):

Ultimate Handheld
Bible Library
(121 volumes, 1 Million + Links)

Ultimate Handheld
Classic Library
(more than 1000 works)

Ultimate Bible
Study Suite
(8 volumes, 1 Million + Links)

Click here to see Hundreds of titles available from Packard Technologies

About the Author
William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and writer of short stories.

Customer Reviews

A solid, satisfying read...
I loved this book. I have only read "The Haunted Hotel and Other Stories". I have yet to read "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone" (which I will read soon enough...) so I am not most reliable Wilkie Collins fan (fast becoming one though).

I have read other Victorian authors but I find Collins to be the most enjoyable (not forgetting Braddon as well...equally beautiful in her writing). His prose is a pleasure to read, it feels as if he really treasured his gift for composition and narrative. Each paragraph resonates with warmth, tenderness, compassion and care. The mystery of the story draws you in while the characters revolve gently on the stage, moving from each with ease. I was swept up in the atmosphere, the pace. It is a novel you don't want to leave for too long. Work, family, hobbies... I simply wanted to push everything aside and get to the ending. Of course, sadly, when you come to the END you don't want it to end.

There is a bit melodrama here, I'll admit. (It was an early novel following "Basil".) And there are some coincidences here that fall into the "sensational" and "stretched" category. Otherwise, the great writing and the pathos for the characters make up for it. A must for Wilkie Collins fans and readers of Victorian literature. A must for Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts.

Good Victorian Story
I've read quite a few Victorian novels, including the works of Trollope, Dickens, Eliot and Wilkie Collins. This isn't Collins' best or most compelling work (those honors belonging to The Moonstone and The Woman in White, of course), but it is still entertaining, well written and a pretty quick read. The story revolves around an adopted deaf and dumb girl, her adoptive parents and the mystery of her biological parentage. The characters are well drawn, but there is no grand love story as there usually is in Victorian novels.

The Kindle version I read was just fine. The dictionary worked, the font was fine, there were very few typos.