Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone was published in 1868 and concerns the huge yellow diamond of the title that was once stolen from an Indian shrine. Rachel Verrinder receives the stone as a gift and does not realize that it has been passed to her in a sinister form of revenge by John Herncastle who, it transpires, acquired the moonstone by means of murder and theft. The jewel also brings bad luck. The stone disappears on the very night it is given to Rachel, though,...

"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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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)...

In 1870, during the heart of the war between France and Germany, two women's lives tragically and fatefully intersect. When Grace Roseberry, an Englishwoman traveling home, is struck by a mortar shell, French nurse Mercy Merrick seizes upon the chance to escape her checkered past and reinvent herself in England.