Wilkie Collins

Best known for the Woman in White and The Moonstone, and largely credited with developing the first detective and sensation novels in English literature, Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) has in recent years been the subject of renewed popular and critical interest. In five decades the prolific Collins produced more than twenty-five novels and novellas and five collections of short stories and essays; adapted, wrote, or produced more than twelve plays; and published a travel book, a biography, and dozens of journal articles. Also an outspoken social critic, Collins generated considerable controversy in both his works and his life - in writing about class and gender inequities, marriage law reform, and the crimes of British imperialism, for example, and in choosing to live with rather than marry the two women he partnered over the course of his life, and in fathering three children with one of them. In Wilkie Collins, Lillian Nayder presents the first book-length study of Collins's life and the full range of his works - the novels, plays, short fiction, and nonfiction - in historical context. Whereas critics usually label Collins as either radical or reactionary, Nayder argues for a multifaceted view that takes into account Collins's simultaneous and complex stance as radical reformer and upholder of the patriarchal, imperial order.