Most Popular Books by Wilkie Collins

Intrigue, investigations, thievery, drugs and murder all make an appearance in Collins’s classic who-done-it, The Moonstone. Published in serial form in 1868, it was inspired in part by a spectacular murder case widely reported in the early 1860s. Collins’s story revolves around a diamond stolen from a Hindu holy place. On her eighteenth birthday, Rachel Verinder receives the diamond, but by the following morning the stone has been stolen again. As the story unravels through multiple eyewitness accounts, the elderly Sergeant Cuff—with a face “sharp as a hatchet”—looks for the culprit. One of Collins’s best-loved novels, with an exciting plot moved along by deftly-drawn characters and elegant pacing, The Moonstone was also turned into a play by Collins; the play appears as an appendix to this edition.

This is the story of what a Woman''s patience can endure, and what a Man''s resolution can achieve. If the machinery of the Law could be depended on to fathom every case of suspicion, and to conduct every process of inquiry, with moderate assistance only from the lubricating influences of oil of gold, the events which fill these pages might have claimed their share of the public attention in a Court of Justice. But the Law is still, in certain inevitable cases, the pre-engaged servant of the long purse; and the story is left to be told, for the first time, in this place. As the Judge might once have heard it, so the Reader shall hear it now. No circumstance of importance, from the beginning to the end of the disclosure, shall be related on hearsay evidence. When the writer of these introductory lines (Walter Hartright by name) happens to be more closely connected than others with the incidents to be recorded, he will describe them in his own person. When his experience fails, he will retire from the position of narrator; and his task will be continued, from the point at which he has left it off, by other persons who can speak to the circumstances under notice from their own knowledge, just as clearly and positively as he has spoken before them. Thus, the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness—with the same object, in both cases, to present the truth always in its most direct and most intelligible aspect; and to trace the course of one complete series of events, by making the persons who have been most closely connected with them, at each successive stage, relate their own experience, word for word. Let Walter Hartright, teacher of drawing, aged twenty-eight years, be heard first.

In an early example of detective fiction, this gothic mystery novel is a thrilling tale of mistaken identities, forbidden love, and a woman shrouded in mystery. Walter Hartright is a young drawing master who finds himself unwittingly entangled in a web of intrigue when he encounters a mysterious woman dressed entirely in white. Little does he know that this chance meeting will set off a chain of events leading him into a labyrinth of secrets. As Walter delves deeper into the enigma surrounding the woman in white, he becomes embroiled in a complex plot involving family secrets, hidden identities, and manipulative schemes. First published in 1859, The Woman in White showcases Wilkie Collins'' masterful grasp of the gothic genre with his ability to craft suspenseful and atmospheric scenes.

The moonstone in the title refers to a brilliant but flawed gem seized by a British officer in India. He brought it back to England as a family heirloom - with a supposed curse placed upon it. The officer bequeathed the stone to his niece, Rachel Verinder, for her to inherit when she turns 18. The night of her 18th birthday, the Moonstone goes missing. Everyone connected with Rachel at her family estate in Yorkshire is under suspicion. It is up to the London detective, Sergeant Cuff, to solve the crime.

In a court-yard in the City of London, which was No Thoroughfare either for vehicles or foot-passengers; a court-yard diverging from a steep, a slippery, and a winding street connecting Tower Street with the Middlesex shore of the Thames; stood the place of business of Wilding & Co., Wine Merchants. Probably as a jocose acknowledgment of the obstructive character of this main approach, the point nearest to its base at which one could take the river (if so inodorously minded) bore the appellation Break-Neck-Stairs. The court-yard itself had likewise been descriptively entitled in old time, Cripple Corner. Years before the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, people had left off taking boat at Break-Neck-Stairs, and watermen had ceased to ply there. The slimy little causeway had dropped into the river by a slow process of suicide, and two or three stumps of piles and a rusty iron mooring-ring were all that remained of the departed Break-Neck glories. Sometimes, indeed, a laden coal barge would bump itself into the place, and certain laborious heavers, seemingly mud-engendered, would arise, deliver the cargo in the neighbourhood, shove off, and vanish; but at most times the only commerce of Break-Neck-Stairs arose out of the conveyance of casks and bottles, both full and empty, both to and from the cellars of Wilding & Co., Wine Merchants. Even that commerce was but occasional, and through three-fourths of its rising tides the dirty indecorous drab of a river would come solitarily oozing and lapping at the rusty ring, as if it had heard of the Doge and the Adriatic, and wanted to be married to the great conserver of its filthiness, the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor.

This premium quality large print volume includes the complete and unabridged text of Wilkie Collins'' classic tale of mystery and suspense in a freshly edited and newly typeset edition. With a large 7.44"x9.69" page size, this large print edition is printed on heavyweight bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Page headers and modern design and page layout exemplify the attention to detail given this volume. Widely regarded as the first mystery novel in the English language and a forerunner of modern detective fiction, The Woman in White, published in 1860, opens with a chance encounter on a moonlit country road in England between a mysterious woman dressed in white and Walter Hartright, on his way to Limmeridge House, the country mansion where the eccentric Frederick Fairlie has arranged for Hartright to teach drawing to his nieces, the half-sisters Marian and Laura Fairlie. At the approach of a carriage the woman vanishes into the darkness and Hartright accepts a ride the rest of the way to Limmeridge House. Hartright falls in love with Laura, a wealthy heiress with an uncanny resemblance to the mysterious woman he encountered on the road. But Laura has pledged to marry Sir Percival Glyde. Hartright departs Limmeridge, the wedding takes place and the mystery deepens when Laura returns from the honeymoon, moody, morose and melancholy. The enigmatic Count Fosco, a friend of Sir Percival, casts a sinister shadow as secrets unravel and the truth is revealed, and Hartright returns in an attempt to save the sisters and expose the dark mystery surrounding Limmeridge House. William Wilkie Collins (1824 - 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author. Very popular during the Victorian era, Collins was a long-time close friend of Charles Dickens, and a number of Collins''s works were first published in Dickens'' magazines, with The Woman in White first appearing as a serial in Dickens'' "All the Year Round" journal. For decades Collins maintained a double life, living with one family under his own name, despite the fact that the woman he identified as his wife, Caroline Graves, was actually married to someone else, and with a second family, located nearby, under the name William Dawson. Although that family also used the name Dawson, Collins was not married to that woman, Martha Rudd, either. Collins'' lifestyle may have influenced his writing, in which he attacked such social issues as the legal treatment of illegitimate children and the relative helplessness of women forced by law and society to be dependent upon a husband. Trained as a lawyer and admitted to the bar, Collins never engaged in active practice, but this background influenced his work. In addition to works critical of the legal system and English law, in both The Woman in White and Moonstone (1868) Collins employed an unusual style, presenting the story as a series of "narratives" from the viewpoints of different characters. In the opening paragraphs of The Woman in White, Collins likens this to the manner in which evidence is typically produced in legal proceedings. Following an extremely productive and successful decade in the 1860''s the quality and popularity of Collins'' work began to decline, quite probably influenced by the death of his literary mentor, Dickens, in 1870 and the effects of his addiction to opium and laudanum as painkillers for his gout. Another factor was likely the increasingly strident tone of the social criticism injected into his work. Collins continued to publish both fiction and nonfiction, and was working on a novel, Blind Love, later finished by another writer, at the time of his death in 1889 following a stroke.

Wilkie Collins'' ''The Woman in White (Illustrated)'' is a captivating novel that stands out for its innovative narrative structure and Gothic elements. Set in Victorian England, the story features a complex plot filled with mystery, deception, and unexpected twists. Collins'' use of multiple narrators and epistolary format adds layers of suspense and intrigue, keeping readers engrossed until the very end. The detailed illustrations accompanying the text enhance the reader''s experience, bringing the characters and settings to life. The novel''s exploration of identity, social class, and the role of women in society reflects the author''s deep understanding of the cultural and political climate of his time. Wilkie Collins, known for his contributions to the development of detective fiction, drew inspiration from real-life events and personal experiences to craft this gripping tale. His keen observation of human behavior and psychological insight shine through in the multidimensional characters he creates. ''The Woman in White (Illustrated)'' is a must-read for fans of classic literature, mystery, and Gothic fiction, offering a compelling blend of suspense and social commentary.

Widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels, The Moonstone tells of the events surrounding the disappearance of a mysterious (and cursed) yellow diamond. T. S. Eliot called it ''the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels''. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre, including a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the ''Scotland Yard bungler'' and the skilled, professional detective.

Featuring an appendix of discussion questions, this Diversion Classics edition is ideal for use in book groups and classrooms. Considered one of the first mystery novels, this extraordinary piece of Victorian literature is wrought with dizzying twists and psychological turns. Walter Hartright’s encounter with a mysterious woman clad in white leaves him spellbound. His thoughts are plagued so much by the encounter that he shares the story with his drawing students—the beautiful Laura Fairlie, and her half-sister, Marian Halcombe. But this woman in white piques more than their curiosity. As the story unravels, so does a mystery of identity, insanity, and betrayal.

The Woman in White is Wilkie Collins'' fifth published novel, written in 1859. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of "sensation novels".The story is sometimes considered an early example of detective fiction with protagonist Walter Hartright employing many of the sleuthing techniques of later private detectives. The use of multiple narrators (including nearly all the principal characters) draws on Collins''s legal training, and as he points out in his Preamble: "the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness".

''The woman who first gives life, light, and form to our shadowy conceptions of beauty, fills a void in our spiritual nature that has remained unknown to us till she appeared.'' One of the earliest works of ''detective'' fiction with a narrative woven together from multiple characters, Wilkie Collins partly based his infamous novel on a real-life eighteenth century case of abduction and wrongful imprisonment. In 1859, the story caused a sensation with its readers, hooking their attention with the ghostly first scene where the mysterious ''Woman in White'' Anne Catherick comes across Walter Hartright. Chilling, suspenseful and tense in mood, the novel remains as emotive for its readers today as when it was first published.

"The Woman in White is an epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, serialized in 1859-1860, and first published in book form in 1860. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of ''sensation novels''.As was customary at that time, The Woman in White was first published as a magazine serial. The first episode appeared on 29 November 1859, following Charles Dickens''s own A Tale of Two Cities in Dickens''s magazine All the Year Round in England, and Harper''s Magazine in America. It caused an immediate sensation. Julian Symons (in his 1974 introduction to the Penguin edition) reports that ""queues formed outside the offices to buy the next instalment. Bonnets, perfumes, waltzes and quadrilles were called by the book''s title. Gladstone cancelled a theatre engagement to go on reading it. And Prince Albert sent a copy to Baron Stockmar."

The Woman in White is an epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, serialized in 1859-1860, and first published in book form in 1860. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels and is widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of ''sensation novels''.As was customary at that time, The Woman in White was first published as a magazine serial. The first episode appeared on 29 November 1859, following Charles Dickens''s own A Tale of Two Cities in Dickens''s magazine All the Year Round in England, and Harper''s Magazine in America. It caused an immediate sensation. Julian Symons (in his 1974 introduction to the Penguin edition) reports that "queues formed outside the offices to buy the next instalment. Bonnets, perfumes, waltzes and quadrilles were called by the book''s title. Gladstone cancelled a theatre engagement to go on reading it. And Prince Albert sent a copy to Baron Stockmar."

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 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, The Moonstone, Armadale and No Name.

First published serially in 1868, Wilkie Collins''s "The Moonstone" is generally considered as the first full length detective novel in the English language. The novel concerns a large valuable diamond plundered from India by Colonel Herncastle during the Siege of Seringapatam. Herncastle, who has been shunned by his own family, decides to bequeath the diamond to his niece Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday. At her birthday party, Rachel wears the Moonstone for all to see, later that night the diamond goes missing from her room and quickly an investigation ensues to discover the identity of the thief and recover the jewel. Suspicion quickly falls upon three Indian jugglers at the party who are actually disguised Hindu priests who have dedicated their lives to recovering the diamond which has great religious significance. Despite the efforts of Sergeant Cuff, a renowned detective, the night ends with the mystery unsolved. Described by G. K. Chesterton as "probably the best detective tale in the world", "The Moonstone" is one of Wilkie Collins''s most popular works which influenced the development an entirely new genre of fiction. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.