Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins updating his Instagram feed I spoke too soon when agreeing that The Fallen Leaves was Wilkie Collins’ worst novel – Blind Love (1890) is an absolute stinker. To be fair to Collins, he died while writing the novel and therefore had no opportunity to revise it. On his deathbed, Collins asked that his friend Walter Besant finish the novel, providing him with detailed notes and a plot outline. Without the benefit of the preface, it would be quite hard to detect where Collins ends and Besant begins, although the latter’s misogyny and elitism does creep in on occasion. ...

WARNING: Contains plot spoilers. Although it saves you the trouble of reading this terrible novel. Do yourself a favour and read Armadale instead. Wilkie Collins, looking decently ashamed of himself The Fallen Leaves (1879) is generally considered to be Wilkie Collins’ worst novel, and for once I am inclined to agree with the majority view. It’s hard to credit that the masterful creator of The Woman in White and Armadale could also be responsible for such a turgid story. The ‘Fallen Leaves’ of the title are introduced as “The people who have drawn blanks in the lottery of life … the friendless and the lonely, the wounded and the lost,” which alerts the reader to the excessive moralising that ensues. The novel actually starts rather well, with dastardly fortune hunter John Farnaby impregnating his girlfriend, Emma Ronald, thereby forcing her parents to approve their ill-advised marriage. Once he’s got his feet under the table, he arranges for the baby to be kidnapped, thereby escaping the stigma and inconvenience of a child conceived out of wedlock. The girl’s whereabouts remain unknown until the arrival of a Christian Socialist with the unlikely name of Amelius Goldenheart. ...

The plot of The Evil Genius (1886) focuses on a seemingly respectable middle-class marriage which falters when the husband, Herbert Linley, becomes infatuated with his daughter’s governess, the orphaned Sydney Westerfield. His wife, Catherine, is made aware of the situation following the interference of her stickybeak mother, the eponymous Evil Genius. Although initially reasonable and rational, Catherine becomes furious when Herbert proposes setting up home with his mistress and taking their daughter Kitty to live with them. She whisks Kitty away to live in Scotland where the marriage laws are more relaxed, and manages to obtain a divorce, thereby retaining custody of her own daughter. Like Laura Fairlie in The Woman in White, she must fight hard to resist the immense power the law has invested in her husband. ...

Wilkie Collins, pondering his next plot I seem to have embarked upon a Wilkie Collins season and can’t get enough of him at the moment. Although Jezebel’s Daughter (1880) was one of his least popular novels, it certainly doesn’t lack interest or incident. The plot centres around the firm of Wagner, Keller and Engelman, which has offices in London and Frankurt. After the death of her husband, Mrs Wagner becomes senior partner and is determined not to take a back seat. Eager to continue her late husband’s philanthropic activities, she befriends Jack Straw, an inmate of Bedlam, and takes him to live with her in order to prove that ‘lunatics’ are not beyond redemption. ...

Wilkie Collins, wondering whether he left the iron on After a life on the streets, Mercy Merrick successfully rehabilitates herself with the help of an inspirational sermon from a young clergyman, Julian Gray. Working as a volunteer nurse in the Franco-Prussian War, she meets Grace Roseberry, a genteel woman with an unappealing, but spotless, character. When Grace is apparently killed by a German shell, Mercy assumes her identity and returns to England. ...

Wilkie Collins drafting a prompt for ChatGPT Wilkie Collins is often overlooked as a comic writer, but Legacy of Cain (1889) shows him at his best, with several scenes causing me to snort indecorously on the train. The subtle humour leavens a novel dealing with the thorny issue of criminality and genetics, which could have become ponderous in less skilled hands. Prison chaplain Abel Gracedieu agrees to adopt the young daughter of a woman hanged for the brutal murder of her husband. Determined that she should not be tainted by her mother’s shame, he raises Eunice alongside his own daughter, Helena, and allows people to think them sisters. Even the girls themselves are unaware of their respective parentage. When an indigent and eccentric cousin, Miss Jillgall, appears on the scene, a series of events is set in motion and the putative sisters are embroiled in a love triangle. Malevolent characters appear from the past, and the curious begin piecing together the truth. ...