Collins, Wilkie 1824-1889

The moonstone by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
813 editions published between 1800 and 2011 in 30 languages and held by 5,706 libraries worldwide
"A wonderful yellow diamond stolen from the forehead of the four-handed Indian god who typifies the moon, stolen again and again through centuries, and always bringing with it disaster upon its possessors and the households of its possessors."--This is the beginning of the detective story called 'The moonstone".

The woman in white by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
760 editions published between 1800 and 2011 in 24 languages and held by 4,425 libraries worldwide
Still unsurpassed as a masterpiece of narrative drive and excruciating suspense, 'The Woman in White' is also famous for introducing, in the figure of Count Fosco, the prototype of the suave, sophisticated evil genius. The first detective novel ever written, it has remained, since its publication in 1860, the most admired example of the genre.

No name by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
155 editions published between 1800 and 2009 in 7 languages and held by 2,042 libraries worldwide
"Magdalen Vanstone and her sister Norah learn the true meaning of social stigma in Victorian England only after the traumatic discovery that their dearly loved parents, whose sudden deaths have left them orphans, were not married at the time of their birth. Disinherited by law and brutally ousted from Combe-Raven, the idyllic country estate which has been their peaceful home since childhood, the two young women are left to fend for themselves. While the submissive Norah follows a path of duty and hardship as a governess, her high-spirited and rebellious younger sister has made other decisions. Determined to regain her rightful inheritance at any cost, Magdalen uses her unconventional beauty and dramatic talent in recklessly pursuing her revenge. Aided by the audacious swindler Captain Wragge, she braves a series of trials leading up to the climactic test: can she trade herself in marriage to the man she loathes?" "Written in the early 1860s, between The Woman in White and The Moonstone, No Name was rejected as immoral by critics of its time, but is today regarded as a novel of outstanding social insight, showing Collins at the height of his powers."--BOOK JACKET.

Armadale by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
159 editions published between 1800 and 2009 in 7 languages and held by 1,953 libraries worldwide
The tale, told partly through letters and documents, recounts the intertwined lives and fates of two distant cousins who both happen to bear the name Allan Armadale.

The evil genius by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
94 editions published between 1885 and 2010 in 3 languages and held by 1,635 libraries worldwide
Collins' most financially successful novel, The Evil Genius, opens with a jury determining the fate of a sea captain whose ship allegedly facilitated a diamond theft. The story develops into a powerful novel of Victorian private life, including deception, adultery and divorce.

The haunted hotel a mystery of modern Venice by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
128 editions published between 1878 and 2011 in 9 languages and held by 1,556 libraries worldwide
When the Countess Narona meets Agnes Lockwood, the woman jilted by her husband-to-be, she feels a great sense of foreboding. After the marriage, she moves with her husband, Lord Montbarry, to Venice. As much as Agnes tries to forget the episode of her broken engagement, her fate and that of the Countess seem to be inextricably woven. Both are relentlessly drawn to the Palace Hotel in Venice for a final and dramatic encounter, in the room where more than past emotions resurface to haunt them.

The law and the lady by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
136 editions published between 1800 and 2010 in 7 languages and held by 1,550 libraries worldwide
Le Lendemain de ses noces avec Eustace Woodville, la jeune Valeria découvre qu'elle a épousé un homme dont le vrai nom est Macallan. Cette découverte pique sa curiosité. COntre l'avis de tous, et bientôt en opposition violente avec tous ou presque, elle va s'employer, dans une angoissante solitude, à lever l'un après l'autre les masques supposés protéger une société (celle du meilleur monde) qui n'existe dirait-on que pour dissimuler ses propres turpitudes - assassinat, chantage, extorsion -, la Loi elle-même n'étant destinée, à fort peu près, qu'à fournir à cette société des alibis sur mesure...

The frozen deep by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
35 editions published between 1874 and 2010 in 5 languages and held by 1,392 libraries worldwide
En 1845, à Londres, un bal est donné pour célébrer le départ de deux navires pour le pôle Nord, lancés à la recherche d'un mythique passage et menés par sir John Franklin. En 1854, une enquête révèle le sort de l'équipage : après un terrible hivernage au milieu de l'océan gelé, décimés par la faim et le froid, les hommes ont gagné à pied la terre ferme et en sont arrivés aux pires extrémités.

Man and wife by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
120 editions published between 1800 and 2009 in 8 languages and held by 1,328 libraries worldwide
Wilkie Collins was born in London in 1824, the elder son of a successful painter, William Collins. He left school at 17, and after an unhappy spell as a clerk in a tea broker's office, during which he wrote his first, unpublished novel, he entered Lincoln's Inn as a law student in 1846. He considered a career as a painter, but after the publication, in 1848, of his life of his father, and a novel, Antonina, in 1850, his future as a writer was assured. His meeting with Dickens in 1851 was perhaps the turning-point of his career. The two became collaborators and lifelong friends. Collins contributed to Dickens's magazines Household Words and All the Year Round, and his two best-known novels, The Woman in White and The Moonstone, were first published in All the Year Round. Collins's private life was as complex and turbulent as his novels. He never married, but lived with a widow, Mrs. Caroline Graves, from 1858 until his death.

The black robe by Wilkie Collins ( Book )
82 editions published between 1880 and 2010 in 5 languages and held by 1,204 libraries worldwide
Henry James wrote in 1865, "To Mr Collins belongs the credit of having introduced into fiction those most mysterious of mysteries, the mysteries which are at our own doors." The Black Robe is one such mystery. Although, by today's standards, the piece suffers for its prejudices, it is nevertheless an absorbing and exciting story with lashings of gothic imagery.