Novels
Click here for the Wilkie Collins short stories
Antonina 1850. In the Rome of 408 AD, the young Antonina lives with her father Numerian, zealous in his aims to restore the Christian faith to its former ideals. Numerian's steward, Ulpius, brought up in the old religion, secretly lives only to restore the forbidden gods of pagan sacrifice. Vetranio, their wealthy neighbour, has designs on the innocent Antonina.
Armadale 1866: A story of fate, criminal fraud, and an attempted murder. Its anti-heroine Lydia Gwilt has been called "the first femme fatale in the modern sense.
Basil 1852: Basil falls in love at first sight with Margaret Sherwin, a linen-draper's daughter. He asks her father for permission to marry; but because of his own father's certain opposition, the marriage should be kept secret. Mr Sherwin agrees on condition that the marriage takes place within the week but is not consummated for one year, since Margaret is only just seventeen. Basil spends the next few months visiting Margaret but after overhearing two of her tantrums begins to doubt her character.
The Black Robe 1881.Lewis Romayne, accompanied by his old friend Major Hynd, is in Boulogne to see his dying aunt. He is involved in a quarrel over a card game, challenged to a duel and accidentally kills his opponent. The plaintive screams of the dead Frenchman's younger brother afterwards haunt Romayne for ever.
Blind Love 1889. Iris Henley is at odds with her father because she refuses to marry Hugh Mountjoy, nephew of her Irish godfather. She is in love with the wild Lord Harry Norland, a friend of Hugh's brother, Arthur. Harry has joined the Invincibles, an Irish political secret society, which assassinates Arthur despite Harry's attempted warnings. Harry, saved from betrayal by Iris, vows revenge on his friend's murderer. Iris returns to England, breaking her journey to stay with Mrs Vimpany, wife of an unsuccessful, avaricious doctor. Mrs Vimpany has been secretly paid by Harry to keep a watch on Iris.
The Dead Secret 1856. In 1829, Mrs Treverton lies dying in Porthgenna Tower on the west coast of Cornwall. She dictates to her maid, Sarah Leeson, a deathbed confession for her husband, Captain Treverton. Mrs Treverton dies before before she can make Sarah swear to give it to the Captain but she has already extracted promises neither to destroy the paper nor take it away from the house. Sarah therefore hides the confession in the Myrtle Room in the derelict north wing and after leaving a note for the Captain disappears from the house.
The Evil Genius 1886. After a traumatic childhood and youth, Sydney Westerfield is rescued from the drudgery of teaching in her aunt's school by becoming the governess of Kitty, only child of Herbert and Catherine Linley. Herbert and Sydney fall in love and matters are brought to a crisis by the meddling of Mrs Presty, Catherine Linley's mother.
The Fallen Leaves 1879. Amelius Goldenheart is in exile from his Utopian community because of an unsanctioned relationship with an older English woman who has suffered some mysterious tragedy in her earlier life - she is the first of the 'fallen leaves'. He comes to London with a letter of introduction to the villainous John Farnaby, and is captivated by Farnaby's niece Regina to whom, after some complications, he becomes engaged.
The Frozen Deep 1874: Frank Aldersley becomes engaged to Clara Burnham at a celebration ball the night before he joins an expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Clara is an orphan, staying with her best friend, Lucy Crayford whose husband is a lieutenant on the voyage. The same evening Clara rejects the advances of Richard Wardour, another admirer. Wardour in bitter despair joins the expedition at the last minute, vowing revenge on his rival without knowing that he is part of the crew.
The Guilty River 1886. Gerard Roylake returns from Germany on the death of his father to take up his inheritance at Trimley Deen. On his first evening he walks to the nearby River Loke and recognises his childhood friend, Cristel Toller, the miller's daughter. He also meets a deaf man living at the mill known only as The Lodger. Gerard and Cristel gradually fall in love, incurring the Lodger's jealousy.
The Haunted Hotel 1878. Lord Montbarry breaks off his engagement to Agnes Lockwood to marry the Countess Narona. The couple end a continental tour in Venice where they live reclusively in a large, decaying palace. They are accompanied by Baron Rivar, brother of the Countess, and by Ferrari, their courier. Agnes learns from Montbarry's brother, Henry Westwick, that Mountbarry, whose life was insured for £10,000 in favour of his wife, has died of bronchitis. The insurance companies carefully investigate but find no evidence that Mountbarry died other than by natural causes.
Heart and Science 1883. Ovid Vere, a brilliant young doctor, is advised to take a long rest to save his health. His formidable mother, Mrs Gallilee, has remarried and he has two step-sisters, the precocious Maria aged 12 and Zoe (called Zo) aged 10, who is hopelessly bad at her lessons. The day before Ovid is due to go away he follows an attractive girl in the street to a concert which his mother also attends. The girl faints and is discovered to be Carmina Graywell, Mrs Gallilee's niece from Italy, accompanied by her old nurse, Teresa. Carmina's father, Robert, has just died leaving her to be brought up by Mrs Gallilee in London.
Hide and Seek 1854. Valentine Blyth, an artist, and Lavinia, his invalid wife, have an adopted deaf and dumb daughter, Mary, usually called Madonna because of her resemblance to a painting by Raphael. Zack is a frequent visitor to the Blyths despite Mr Thorpe's disapproval of Madonna's dubious origins. Madonna falls in love with him, but Zack is too immature to respond.
Iolani: (Written in the 1840s but first published 1999) Iolani, the evil High Priest of Oro and brother of the King, fathers a child by Idia. To avoid the local custom of putting the firstborn to death, Idia flees with the help of her courageous young friend, Aimata, to another part of the island where they live under the protection of the local chieftain, Mahine.
"I Say No" 1884. The orphaned Emily Brown's only relative is her father's impoverished sister, Letitia, and Emily must therefore earn her own living. With the help of her best friend Cecilia Wyvil, she secures a position in Northumberland as secretary to Sir Jervis Redwood. Soon Emily begins to realise that all the people she thought she could trust have concealed some aspect of her father's death. Emily determines to find her father's murderer.
Jezebel's Daughter 1880. In 1828, the firm of Wagner, Keller and Engelman has offices in London and Frankfort. After the death of her husband, the progressive Mrs Wagner becomes senior partner, running the London office where she plans to employ women clerks. To prove that lunatics can be cured by kindness, she removes the simple-minded Jack Straw from Bedlam and takes him into her household.
The Law and The Lady 1875: Valeria and Eustace Woodville begin their marriage inauspiciously, when, on honeymoon at Ramsgate, Valeria discovers her husband's true name is Macallan. As Eustace refuses to explain she confronts his mother who although sympathetic will also not answer her questions. Valeria becomes 'positively resolved...to discover the secret which the mother and son were hiding.'
The Legacy of Cain 1889. Helena and Eunice are sisters brought up by their father, the Reverend Abel Gracedieu. He has deliberately kept them in ignorance of their true ages because the elder daughter was adopted in 1858, after her natural mother was executed for the brutal murder of her husband. The story's main narrator is the prison governor who always feared the adoption would end badly because of the taint of inherited evil.
Man and Wife 1870: Blanche is 18 and Anne, acting as her governess, 25. Geoffrey has promised to marry Anne but is now trying to break the secret engagement because he will be cut out of his father's will. Anne tries to force Geoffrey into a declaration in Scotland, which would be a legally binding marriage by Scottish law, but traps Arnold Brinkworth, Blanche's fiance instead.
Miss or Mrs? 1873: Natalie Graybrook is engaged to the much older Richard Turlington whom she detests but who needs her fortune of £40,000 to avoid bankruptcy. She is, however, in love with her cousin Launcelot Linzie. They marry secretly, though Natalie remains with her father Sir Joseph, to avoid a charge of abduction against Launcelot.
The Moonstone 1868: In Moonstone , which unfolds through the words of its various characters, Sergeant Cuff interviews people at a country house to discover who stole a huge diamond that has a violent history. The plot includes also somnambulism and experiments with opium, Oriental magic, and three mysterious Hindus. By making the criminal a member of the same class as the victim, Collins challenged the idea, that criminal behavior of the lower classes threatened the peace of the middle class. The crime is committed by one of the investigators unknowingly under the influence of opium.
Mr Wray's Cash Box 1852: Reuben Wray, a retired actor of little note, once worked with the illustrious John Kemble at Drury Lane. He now earns a precarious living teaching elocution. He arrives in Tidbury-on-the-Marsh, accompanied by his grand-daughter Annie and Martin Blunt, his clumsy but good-natured assistant. They had all left Stratford-upon-Avon in a hurry because Mr Wray had made a mask of Shakespeare, his lifelong hero, and believes the authorities are pursuing him.
The Stolen Mask This e-text taken from an 1864 pirated US edition of the story published in Colombia, USA.
My Lady's Money: Lord Montbarry breaks off his engagement to Agnes Lockwood to marry the Countess Narona. The couple end a continental tour in Venice where they live reclusively in a large, decaying palace. They are accompanied by Baron Rivar, brother of the Countess, and by Ferrari, their courier.
The New Magdalen 1873: Mercy Merrick has been tricked into the tragic life of a woman of the streets, after a childhood with strolling players and gypsies. She struggles to rehabilitate herself, inspired by a sermon given by a young clergyman, Julian Gray, in the refuge where she was living.
No Name 1862: A young woman learns that she and her sister are illegitimate and penniless after the death of their father, but starts her countermove to regain her inheritance.
Poor Miss Finch 1872: The heroine, Lucilla, has been blind with cataracts from about the age of one. A significant part of the plot is taken up with the efforts of the eccentric but likeable German doctor, Herr Grosse, to restore her sight and his disagreement with the conservative English oculist, Mr Sebright.
A Rogue's Life 1879. Frank Softly is a poor young gentleman whose snobbish father sends him to boarding school to make useful connections, but without success. He tries a variety of professions to earn his living but by the time he is twenty-five has failed at medicine, caricaturing, portrait painting, forging Old Masters and administering a scientific institution.
The Two Destinies 1876: George and Mary are childhood sweethearts in Suffolk's Greenwater Broad. Despite a prediction from Mary's grandmother, old Mrs Dermody, that their two destinies are inextricably linked, George's father disapproves. He separates them by taking his family to America where he subsequently dies. George and his mother return to England where she marries Mr Germaine, a rich suitor she had known before her first marriage.
The Woman in White: The book tells the story of the evil Sir Percival Glyde's plot to steal his wife's inheritance with the help of a sinister Italian, Count Fosco. Walter Hartright goes to Limmeridge House in Cumberland as drawing master to Laura Fairlie and her half-sister Marian Halcombe. He sees Anne Catherick on the night she left an asylum to which she had been committed by Sir Percival. Anne knows a secret about his past – his illegitimacy. Sir Percival burns the parish registry and is killed in the resulting fire. Laura has been committed to an asylum as Anne, but Walter restores Laura to her true identity.
