Search results for ""Author Wilkie Collins""

'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop .. There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth .. stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.

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An enigmatic countess is tormented by a dark secret. An English aristocrat, Lord Montbarry, falls ill and dies in a decaying Venetian palazzo. An Italian servant disappears, and his wife receives a note containing one thousand pounds. With the palazzo now transformed into a luxury hotel, and the late Lord Montbarry’s family in residence, these strands begin to come together, yet strange and macabre events are occurring, and the dead seem unable to rest.

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Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reading series for teenagers and young adults learning English as a foreign language.- Carefully adapted text.- Accompanying audio and digital version with the print edition, accessed securely online.- The series includes popular classics, bestselling modern fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction.- The eight levels of Penguin Readers are mapped to the CEFR, and Lexile measured.- Beautiful new illustrations for levels 2 to 6. Starter and level 1 titles in graphic-novel format, for beginner learners.- Language practice exercises and a glossary in every book, additional activities and lesson plans online.- Visit the Penguin Readers website: www.penguinreaders.co.ukThe Woman in White, a Level 7 Reader, is B2 in the CEFR framework.One night when Walter Hartwright is walking home, he meets and helps the mysterious 'woman in white'. Soon after this meeting, Walter starts a job as a drawing teacher in the north of England and falls in love with his student, Laura Fairlie. But Laura is engaged to Sir Percival Glyde. Then Laura receives a letter warning her not to marry Glyde. Walter is sure that the letter comes from the woman in white...

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'A masterpiece' The TimesAfter the tragic deaths of their parents, Magdalen and Norah discover the devastating news that they are both illegitimate and not entitled to any inheritance. Norah is forced to become a governess to earn her keep but Magdalen has grander plans and embarks on an elaborate scheme of revenge against her cold-hearted relatives.INCLUDES 'MRS ZANT AND THE GHOST'

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A new collection of 8 stories demonstrating Collins as one of the great ghost story writers of the Victorian era, on the 200th anniversary year of his birth. It features a new introduction by Xavier Aldana Reyes, exploring Wilkie Collins' contribution to the ghost story form, as well as the rarely anthologised story 'The Last Coachman'.

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HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘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.

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"She looked so irresistibly beautiful as she said those brave words that no man alive could have steeled his heart against her." In love with the beautiful heiress Laura Fairlie, the impoverished art teacher Walter Hartright finds his romantic desires thwarted by her previous engagement to Sir Percival Glyde. But all is not as it seems with Sir Percival, as becomes clear when he arrives with his eccentric friend Count Fosco. The mystery and intrigue are further deepened by the ghostly appearances of a woman in white, apparently harbouring a secret that concerns Sir Percival’s past. A tale of love, madness, deceit and redemption, boasting sublime Gothic settings and pulse-quickening suspense, The Woman in White was the first best-selling Victorian sensation novel, sparking off a huge trend in the fiction of the time with its compulsive, fascinating narrative.

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'The most popular novel of the nineteenth century, and still one of the best plots in English literature' Sarah Waters Marian and her sister Laura live a quiet life under their uncle's guardianship until Laura's marriage to Sir Percival Glyde. Sir Percival is a man of many secrets – is one of them connected to the strange appearances of a young woman dressed all in white? And what does his charismatic friend, Count Fosco, with his pet white mice running in and out of his brightly coloured waistcoat, have to do with it all? Marian and the girls' drawing master, Walter, have to turn detective in order to work out what is going on, and to protect Laura from a fatal plot . . .

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A breathtaking classic of psychological suspense by the inventor of the detective novel, Wilkie Collins, with an afterword by writer, editor and playwright David Stuart Davies.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.On a moonlit London night, art teacher Walter Hartwright meets a young woman – beautiful, terrified and dressed entirely white – alone on the street. Compelled to help this piteous creature, he finds himself caught up in a world of secrets, murder and madness, with an impossible mystery to solve. The odds seem stacked against him, but a sleuthing partnership with the brilliantly clever Marian Halcombe may be just enough to outwit their formidable nemesis – the menacing Count Fosco.

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HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘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.

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HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘The horrid mystery hanging over us in this house gets into my head like liquor, and makes me wild.’ Centred around a glorious yellow diamond that carries with it a menacing history, The Moonstone tells the story of Rachel Verinder, who inherits the stone on her eighteenth birthday. That very evening, the diamond is stolen and there begins an epic enquiry into hunting down the thief. At the same time, three Indian men, Brahmin guardians of the diamond are attempting to reclaim the stone in order to return it to their sacred Hindu Idol. Told from the perspective of 11different characters, Wilkie Collins’ tale of mystery and suspicion was considered the first modern English detective novel at its time of publication.

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Frank Aldersley becomes engaged to Clara Burnham on the eve of his departure on a journey to discover the Northwest Passage. Unbeknownst to him, Richard Wardour, his spurned rival, joins the crew of another ship belonging to the same expedition. When the ships get trapped in the ice and the men are randomly drawn into the same search party, Richard finds himself torn between his desire for revenge and the need for solidarity in the face of adversity. Based on an actual doomed mission to the Arctic captained by Sir John Franklin, and initially written for the stage in collaboration with Dickens – who also acted in the play – The Frozen Deep is an action-packed tale of vengeance and sacrifice.

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The Penguin English Library Edition of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins'Here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond - bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man'When Rachel Verinder's birthday present - the Moonstone, a large Indian diamond - is stolen at her party, suspicion and the diamond's mysterious curse seem set to ruin everyone and everything she loves. Only Sergeant Cuff's famous detective skills offer any hope of peace and a future for them all. The intricate plot and modern technique of multiple narrators made Wilkie Collin's 1868 work a huge success in the Victorian sensation genre. With a reconstruction of the crime, red herrings and a 'locked-room' puzzle, The Moonstone was also a major precursor of the modern mystery novel.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

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The moonstone is a yellow diamond of unearthly beauty brought from India and given to Rachel Verrinder as an eighteenth birthday present, but the fabled diamond carries with it a terrible curse.

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An enjoyable 19th century read following doomed happenings and grisly, secret premonitions. An eminent doctor is visited by a desperate woman with a question: am I evil, or insane?When the letters from Italian servant to his wife in London suddenly cease, she is convinced he has been murdered.In the darkened bedroom of a mouldering palazzo by the Grand Canal, an English lord sickens and suddenly dies.How are these little mysteries connected? Spend the night in Room 14 of Venice’s finest hotel, and find out the truth – if you dare…INCLUDES THE GHOST STORY ‘THE DREAM WOMAN’

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Classic / British English The Moonstone is an ancient Indian diamond which brings disaster to everyone who owns it. Rachel Verinder's uncle gives her the diamond as a birthday present, but that same night it is stolen... The Moonstone is now seen as the first, and one of the best, English detective novels.

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In this 1874 novella, the celebrated British writer of sensation fiction tells the tale of two brothers sentenced to be executed for having committed a murder that never occurred, and of the efforts of the energetic Naomi Colebrook to ferret out the truth and save the two innocents. As editor Anna Clarke observes, Collins' work is both a compelling legal sensation thriller and an important transatlantic commentary on American life. Along with the text itself and an illuminating introduction, Clarke provides a range of background materials-including documents from the real-life Boorn murder trial that inspired the novella-in order to set the work in its historical context.

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`This time the fiction is founded upon facts' stated Wilkie Collins in his Preface to Man and Wife (1870). Many Victorian writers responded to contemporary debates on the rights and the legal status of women, and here Collins questions the deeply inequitable marriage laws of his day. Man and Wife examines the plight of a woman who, promised marriage by one man, comes to believe that she may inadvertently have gone through a form of marriage with his friend, as recognized by the archaic laws of Scotland and Ireland. From this starting-point Collins develops a radical critique of the values and conventions of Victorian society. Collins had already developed a reputation as the master of the `sensation novel', and Man and Wife is as fast moving and unpredictable as The Moonstone and The Woman in White. During the novel the atmosphere grows increasingly sinister as the setting moves from a country house to a London suburb and a world of confinement, plotting, and murder. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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'The most popular novel of the nineteenth century, and still one of the best plots in English literature' Sarah WatersThe original 'sensation novel', The Woman in White opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter with a strange, solitary woman on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the corridors of English country mansions and the madhouse, this is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Matthew Sweet

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Editedand with an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. ‘Have you ever heard of the fascination of terror?’ This is a unique collection of strange stories from the cunning pen of Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone. The star attraction is the novella The Haunted Hotel, a clever combination of detective and ghost story set in Venice, a city of grim waterways, dark shadows and death. The action takes place in an ancient palazzo coverted into a modern hotel that houses a grisly secret. The supernatural horror, relentless pace, tight narrative, and a doomed countess characterise and distinguish this powerful tale. The other stories present equally disturbing scenarios, which include ghosts, corpses that move, family curses and perhaps the most unusual of all, the Devil's spectacles, which bring a clarity of vision that can lead to madness.

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Valeria Woodville's first act as a married woman is to sign her name in the marriage register incorrectly, and this slip is followed by the gradual disclosure of a series of secrets about her husband's earlier life, each of which leads on to another set of questions and enigmas. Her discoveries prompt her to defy her husband's authority, to take the law into into a labyrinthine maze of false clues and deceptive identities, in which the exploration of the tangled workings of the mind becomes linked to an investigation into the masquerades of femininity. Probably the first full-length novel with a woman detective as its heroine, The Law and the Lady is a fascinating example of Collins's later fiction. First published in 1875, it employs many of the techniques used in The Moonstone, developing them in bizarre and unexpected ways, and in its Gothic and fantastic elements The Law and the Lady adds a significant dimension to the history of detective fiction. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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A thrilling tale of mystery and crime from a master storyteller. A pacy tale from the original master of detective fiction Wilkie Collins. Transported from the temples of India to atmospheric Victorian England, the scene is set for a tale which twists between death, drugs, mystery and, most of all, misdirection. Rachel inherits the moonstone from her uncle on her 18th birthday, a cursed diamond of sacred importance stolen from India. When the stone goes missing, Sergeant Cuff is faced with a myriad of possible culprits, from mysterious Indian jugglers who may not be all they seem, to a very oddly acting maidservant. Told from the viewpoints of various vivid characters, Collins spins a tale of intrigue with many a wrong-turn as the moonstone leaves a path of destruction in its wake.FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and fantasy to science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic. Each book features a brand new biography and glossary of Literary, Gothic and Victorian terms.

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When Rachel Verinder's legacy of a priceless Indian diamond is stolen, all the evidence indicates that it is her beloved, Franklin Blake, who is guilty. Around this central axis of crime and thwarted love, Collins constructs an ingenious plot of teasing twists and surprises, and an elaborate multi-voiced narrative that sustains the tension all the way to its stunning ending. Described by T.S. Eliot as the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels, Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone is an important precursor of the modern mystery and suspense genres.

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When Francis Raven is roused from his sleep on the eve of his birthday and confronted by the sight of a woman trying to stab him, he is unsure whether she is real or an apparition. Years later, against the wishes of his mother, he marries Alicia, a woman with a strange resemblance to the mysterious visitor, who ends up attacking him on his birthday, before vanishing from his life. Is Francis's wife a ghost, a demon or a living human being? And will the prophecy of the night-time visitation be fulfilled one day? Originally published in Household Words in 1855 as 'The Ostler', but recast and expanded two decades later, The Dream Woman is a powerfully dark and suspenseful multi-narrative novella from the master of the mystery genre and the author of some of the most enduringly popular novels of the Victorian era.

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The Penguin English Library Edition of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop ... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth ... stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

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