Search results for ""Wilkie Collins" "The Law and the Lady""

Book SynopsisValeria 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 tangledworkings 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.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Note on the text; Select bibliography; A chronology of Wilkie Collins; The Law and the Lady; Explanatory notes

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1994 "[Collins] clearly relished performing his life, one minute as the well-known author Wilkie Collins, the next as 'Mr. William Dawson' holidaying in Ramsgate with Mrs. Dawson and the children... Dealing with such an extraordinary life and such extraordinary fictions, most accounts of the artistic life would have no difficulty in presenting the one as simply a spill-over from the other. In this admirable biography, Catherine Peters resists such reductiveness."--Stephen Gill, The Times Literary Supplement "[Collins's] oddity was increased by his addiction to opium, which he carried around with him in a silver hip-flask. 'All his life,' we learn from his present biographer, he was 'haunted by a second self,' by the idea that 'someone was standing behind him.' ... Catherine Peters's book is crammed with interesting details."--Peter Quennell, The Evening Standard "The first readable portrait of Collins as a human being."--Francoise Riviere, The European "A wonderful case study in Victorian morals... [Peters] offers a fascinating story, plainly told."--William St. Clair, Financial Times "As intelligent and comprehensive account of [Collins's] work as we are ever likely to have."--Claire Tomalin, Independent on SundayTable of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. i*CONTENTS, pg. vii*ILLUSTRATIONS, pg. ix*ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, pg. xi*One. Families (1788-1822), pg. 1*Two A Happy Family (1823-1835), pg. 19*Three. Educations (1836-1840), pg. 37*Four. The Prison at the Strand (1841-1847), pg. 55*Five. Publication ( 1847-1851), pg. 75*Six. 'The Fire of Artistic Ambition'(1851-1852), pg. 95*Seven. The Sorcerer and the Apprentice (1852-1853), pg. 115*Eight. In the Sorcerer's Footsteps (1853-1854), pg. 131*Nine. The Setting-up of a Balloon (1855-1856), pg. 147*Ten. The Frozen Deep (1856-1858), pg. 165*Eleven. Secret Connections (1858-1859), pg. 187*Twelve. The Woman in White (1859-1860), pg. 205*Thirteen. At the Top of the Tree (1860-1862), pg. 227*Fourteen. No Name (1862-1864), pg. 247*Fifteen. Armadale: The Self and the Shadow (1863-1866), pg. 263*Sixteen. 'Wild yet domestic': Wilkie's family mysteries (1867-1868), pg. 285*Seventeen. The Moonstone (1867-1870), pg. 303*Eighteen. After Dickens (1870-1872), pg. 319*Nineteen. Wilkie and the Theatre (1871-1874), pg. 333*Twenty-one. The Law and the Lady (1874-1879), pg. 367*Twenty-two. The Unknown Public (1878-1885), pg. 385*Twenty-three. The Final Years (1885-1889), pg. 407*Twenty-four. The Journey's End (1889), pg. 427*APPENDIX A. Charles Collins' 'Secret Connection', pg. 435*APPENDIX B. Wilkie Collins' Travelling Desk, pg. 439*APPENDIX C. Wilkie Collins' First, Unpublished Novel, pg. 441*References, pg. 445*Bibliography, pg. 479*Index, pg. 493

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Book SynopsisIn 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.Trade Review“This is a timely re-examination of Wilkie Collins’s The Dead Alive. Anna Clark has situated Collins’s novella within its nineteenth-century context in terms of the Boorn murder trial, which inspired its plot, and other contemporary materials, including reviews and illustrations. The introduction provides a clear overview of Collins’s work, as well as of the text under consideration, which makes this volume useful for both scholars and students. This is a welcome and exciting addition to Broadview’s indispensable Victorian literature series.” — Joanne Ella Parsons, Falmouth University“Wilkie Collins’s The Dead Alive is an incredibly teachable novella, and Anna Clark’s introduction helpfully situates it within a range of historical contexts. This little-known text—advertised as Collins’s ‘first American story’ and based on an actual 1819 Vermont trial—is distinct within Collins’s oeuvre. The bold Naomi Colebrook prefigures Collins’s detective-heroine Valeria Woodville in The Law and the Lady but is also depicted as a uniquely American heroine. The contextual material that Clark provides, including reviews and reports of the real-life trial, position The Dead Alive as a significant experiment in transatlantic, legal, and sensational writing.” — Tara MacDonald, University of IdahoTable of Contents Introduction William Wilkie Collins The Dead Alive in Context A Note on the Text The Dead Alive In Context The Boorn Murder Trial from Leonard Sargent, The Trial, Confessions and Conviction of Jesse and Stephen Boorn, for the Murder of Russell Colvin, and the Return of the Man Supposed to Have Been Murdered (1873) from Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, Seventieth Session, "Report of the Select Committee on the Abolishment of Capital Punishment" (5 March 1847) from Lemuel Haynes, "The Prisoner Released. A Sermon delivered at Manchester, Vermont, Lord's Day, Man. 9th, 1820, on the remarkable interpositin of Divine Providence in the deliverance of Stephen and Jesse Boorn, who had been under sentence of death for the supposed murder of Russell Colvin." In Sketches of the Life and Character of Rev. Lemuel Haynes, A.M., by Timothy Mather Cooley (1837) On the American Character from Alexis de Tocqueville, "Of the Principal Source of Belief Among Democratc Nations," Democracy in America, vol. 2, trans. Henry Reeve (1841) from Charles Dickens, American Notes (1842) American Reviews from "The Dead Alive" (Review), Cincinnati Daily Enquirer (4 January 1874) from "New Publications" (Review of The Dead Alive), Christian Watchman (5 February 1874) from "Literariana" (Review of The Dead Alive), The Daily Graphic (18 February 1874) from "New Publications" (Review of The Dead Alive), The Christian Register (21 February 1874) from "Novels of the Week" (Review of The Frozen Deep, and Other Stories), The Athenaeum (21 November 1874) Advertising, Illustrations from The Commercial Advertiser (3 January 1874) Illustrations from Shepard and Gill edition of The Dead Alive Acknowledgments

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