Return to Wilkie Collins Appreciation Page
This page is maintained by David R Grigg (). Last modified on 07 Jan 2000.
Review by David R Grigg:
This is Collins' first "sensation" novel, and while it cannot compare with his mature works, it shows many of the features that he later developed. It is also interesting in how it dares toy with sexual passion (buried however far under Victorian euphemism and misdirection).
It tells the story of Basil, a young man of the upper middle class, who falls instantly in love with a young lady who he meets by accident on an omnibus. She is from the lower class, her father being a tradesman, well beneath Basil's "station in life". Nevertheless, Basil pursues her and secretly marries her, on the understanding with her father that for one year they must remain apart (and reading between the lines, celibate).
It all comes to pieces when Basil discovers her passion for an employee of her father. Basil follows them, and in a (for the times) steamy scene, overhears them having sex in a cheap hotel. Basil in a fury attacks her lover and greviously disfigures him.
The rest of the novel concentrates on the lover's thirst for revenge and pursuit of Basil.
As I say, not a mature novel, but well worth reading anyway.
A Wilkie Collins Bibliography | Buy this book now!
Review by David R Grigg:
I'd rank this novel among my top five Wilkie Collins favourites. It is certainly "sensation fiction", but it shows Collins' maturity in development of plot and character.
The plot turns around "the dead secret" of the Treverton family, a secret hidden by an old family servant against the dying wishes of Mrs Treverton. We discover all of this, without of course knowing what the secret is, in a longish prologue.
The rest of the novel turns on the fortunes of Rose Treverton, the daughter of the family, and the slow, convoluted turns by which she discovers the secret, which will have a stunning impact on her and her new husband, who is blind.
Collins was very good at female characters, (much better than Dickens, for example, whose women are either saints or caricatures of one kind or another) and that of Rose Treverton is excellently done. There's plenty of humour via an old German friend of the family servant, and an eccentric uncle of Rose Treverton.
A Wilkie Collins Bibliography | Buy this book now!
Review by David R Grigg:
This is one of the only two Collins books to have remained continually in print since his death (the other being The Moonstone). It is hard to add anything further to the comments that have been made about this work. It was a fantastic popular success in Collins' time, with people literally queueing up for the next edition of the serial (which was published in "All the Year Round", edited by Dickens and Collins).
The story is reputed to have been based on an actual incident in Collins' life, when he heard a scream when walking one night and saw a woman dressed all in white running from a house.
The novel itself is told in the form of narratives from several different players. The plot is too difficult to summarise briefly, but involves the protagonist (a young drawing master) and his love for Laura Fairlie, a (rich) young lady whom he is engaged to teach. She is nevertheless married against her will to an evil baronet, who is only after her money. The subsequent story revolves around the mistreatment of Laura and her eventual escape. Considerable interest is added by the character of Marian Halcolme, a cousin and friend to Laura, who though described as "ugly", presumably to defuse any idea of a love interest on the part of the reader, is a fascinating study of a strong and clever woman, attractive by force of her personality. Also, Count Fosco, a wonderful eccentric picture of evil genius.
The whole book is beautifully written and quite gripping. A BBC Television series was made of it in the early 1980s.
-- David Grigg
Review by Tingen:
The Woman in White is a wonderful mystery in which you witness the adventures of a young drawing-master named Walter Hartright. You also meet Marian Halcombe, Laura Fairlie, whom Walter falls in love with, and the enigmatic Woman in White. There is also the villainous Count Fosco and his apprentice, Sir Percival Glyde. This is one of my favorite mystery novels because when you read it you feel as if you were really there seeing everything that was happening. The main characters are also very endearing, so that you do care what happens to them through the outcome of the story. I recommend this book to the many mystery lovers who haven't yet found one of the most influential and unforgettable mystery books ever written.
-- Tingen
A Wilkie Collins Bibliography | Buy this book now!
Review by David R Grigg:
The Moonstone is generally regarded as being one of the earliest examples of the modern detective story. I'm not so sure about this - the detective, Sergeant Cuff, doesn't do much effective detective work, and eventually retires to grow roses!
But as a piece of very well-written melodrama, it succeeds very well. The mystery is all to do with a valuable gem, the Moonstone, stolen from an Indian temple during the Mutiny, supposedly with a curse upon it. It is brought to England, where it quickly goes missing during an evening dinner party. There is wonderfully written and drawn out tension between the protagonist, Franklin Blake, and Miss Rachel Verrinder, the beautiful daughter of that evening's host. The solution to the mystery is well concealed by the author, and the revelation, on first reading, a genuinely surprising one.
There is also some excellent comic characterisation, in the form of Gabriel Betteredge, a house-steward who considers Robinson Crusoe the fount of all wisdom, and Miss Clack, a do-gooding pamphleteer.
A Wilkie Collins Bibliography | Buy this book now!