{"product_id":"wilkie-collins-9780385537391","title":"Wilkie Collins","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA gripping short biography of the extraordinary Wilkie Collins, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Moonstone\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Woman in White\u003c\/i\u003e, two early masterpieces of mystery and detection.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely nearsighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colorful clothes, Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was nonetheless a charmer, befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to women—and avidly read by generations of readers. Peter Ackroyd follows his hero, the sweetest-tempered of all the Victorian novelists, from Collins' childhood as the son of a well-known artist to his struggling beginnings as a writer, his years of fame, and his lifelong friendship with that other great London chronicler, Charles Dickens. In addition to his enduring masterpieces, \u003ci\u003eThe Moonstone\u003c\/i\u003e—often called the first true detective novel—and the sensa","brand":"Nan A. Talese","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49525108048215,"sku":"9780385537391","price":22.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780385537391.jpg?v=1731859252","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/wilkie-collins-9780385537391","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}