Wilkie Collins

Called "the first and greatest of English detective novels" by T.S. Eliot, The Moonstone is a masterpiece of suspense. A fabulous yellow diamond becomes the dangerous inheritance of Rachel Verinder. Outside her Yorkshire country house watch the Hindu priests who have waited for many years to reclaim their ancient talisman, looted from the holy city of Somnauth. When the Moonstone disappears the case looks simple, but in mid-Victorian England no one...

Magdalen Vanstone and her sister Norah learn the true meaning of social stigma in Victorian England only after the traumatic discovery that their dearly loved parents, whose sudden deaths have left them orphans, were not married at the time of their birth. Disinherited by law and brutally ousted from Combe-Raven, the idyllic country estate which has been their peaceful home since childhood, the two young women are left to fend for themselves. While...

Lord Montbarry breaks off his engagement to Agnes Lockwood to marry the Countess Narona. The couple end a continental tour in Venice where they live reclusively in a large, decaying palace. They are accompanied by Baron Rivar, brother of the Countess, and by Ferrari, their courier.

Agnes learns from Montbarry's brother, Henry Westwick, that Montbarry, whose life was insured for £10,000 in favour of his wife, has died of bronchitis. 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...

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...

If you have ever come across the word "rogue" before, chances are you have either been playing video games, perused old X-Men comics or have overheard it as part of your aunt's vocabulary, while she was being cajoled over the phone by that slick, dapper mediterranean gentleman she met on her holiday in Barcelona. Shockingly, and somewhat regrettably, Wilkie Collins is less romantically inclined and resorts to using the word in its traditional sense...

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...

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...

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866), and The Moonstone (1868), considered the first modern English detective novel. Born into the family of painter William Collins in London, he lived with his family in Italy and France as a child and learned French and Italian. He worked as...

A British attorney nearly dead from stress, exhaustion, and overwork ventures to America to spend some time recuperating at the quaint country farmhouse of a relative. Sounds like a pastoral paradise, right? Well, before long, the protagonist is thrown into the midst of a bizarre murder case. Will he be able to unravel the mystery before it's too late?