Bøger af Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale and No Name. Collins was a lifelong friend of Charles Dickens. A number of Collins's works were first published in Dickens's journals All the Year Round and Household Words. The two collaborated on several dramatic and fictional works, and some of Collins's plays were performed by Dickens's acting company. -wikipedia

The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century British epistolary novel, generally considered the first full length detective novel in the English language. The story was originally serialised in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round. The Moonstone and The Woman in White are widely considered Wilkie Collins' best novels. Besides creating many of the ground rules of the detective novel, The Moonstone also reflected Collins' enlightened social attitudes in his treatment of the servants in the novel. Collins adapted The Moonstone for the stage in 1877, but the production was performed for only two months. Plot: Colonel Herncastle, an unpleasant former soldier, brings the Moonstone back with him from India where he acquired it by theft and murder during the Siege of Seringapatam. Angry at his family, who shun him, he leaves it in his will as a birthday gift to his niece Rachel, thus exposing her to attack by the stone's hereditary guardians, who, legend says, will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Rachel wears the stone to her birthday party, but that night it disappears from her room. Suspicion falls on three Indian jugglers who have been near the house; on Rosanna Spearman, a maidservant who begins to act oddly and who then drowns herself in a local quicksand; and on Rachel herself, who also behaves suspiciously and is suddenly furious with Franklin Blake, with whom she has previously appeared to be enamoured, when he directs attempts to find it. Despite the efforts of Sergeant Cuff, a renowned detective, the house party ends with the mystery unsolved, and the protagonists disperse. During the ensuing year there are hints that the diamond was removed from the house and may be in a London bank vault, having been pledged as surety to a moneylender. The Indian jugglers are still nearby, watching and waiting. Rachel's grief and isolation increase, especially after her mother dies, and she first accepts and then rejects a marriage proposal from her cousin Godfrey Ablewhite, a philanthropist who was also present at the birthday dinner and whose father owns the bank near Rachel's old family home. Finally Franklin Blake returns from traveling abroad and determines to solve the mystery. He first discovers that Rosanna Spearman's behavior was due to her having fallen in love with him. She found evidence (a paint smear on his nightclothes) that convinced her that he was the thief and concealed it to save him, confusing the trail of evidence and throwing suspicion on herself. In despair at her inability to make him acknowledge her despite all she had done for him, she committed suicide, leaving behind the smeared gown and a letter he did not receive at the time because of his hasty departure abroad.... William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868). The last is considered the first modern English detective novel. Born into the family of painter William Collins in London, he lived with his family in Italy and France as a child and learned French and Italian. He worked as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, was published in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend, mentor and collaborator. Some of Collins's works were first published in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words and the two collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins published his best known works in the 1860s, achieved financial stability and an international reputation. During that time he began suffering from gout. After taking opium for the pain, he developed an addiction. During the 1870s and 1880s the quality of his writing declined along with his health.

Wilkie Collins, considerado por muchos como el padre de la novela policíaca y de intriga moderna, nos ofrece en "Armadale" una de sus novelas más completas y una de las cúspides de su obra. En 1832, en un balneario alemán, un hombre llamado Allan Armadale, ya en su lecho de muerte, confiesa que muchos años atrás mato a un hombre que llevaba su mismo apellido: un hombre que fue su amigo y luego su enemigo y cuya muerte le ha pesado y perseguido toda su vida. Ahora, en su testamento, le deja a su hijo una grave advertencia: debe mantenerse apartado del hijo del otro Armadale o una maldición caerá sobre ellos y la tragedia volverá a repetirse. Pero veinte años después, a pesar de las advertencias del padre, ambos jóvenes, hijos de la víctima y el verdugo vuelven a encontrarse, se harán amigos, y, una vez más, la herencia maldita volverá a perseguirlos. "Armadale" es un complicado melodrama, rebosante de suspense, intriga y golpes de efecto, que sirve al autor para desarrollar el problemático de la identidad y la amistad. La problemática social de la época victoriana, la soberbia elección de los personajes, y sobre todo un villano como Lydia Gwilt... con estos hijos, Wilkie Collins teje una trama envolvente y seductora que brega entre identidades confusas, maldiciones heredadas, rivalidades amorosas, espionaje y asesinatos. * Wilkie Collins (Londres, 1824-1889) Fue novelista británico, y está considerado como uno de los precursores, si no el creador, de la novela policíaca. Fue amigo y colaborador de Charles Dickens, además de editor y pintor. "Armadale", junto a "La Piedra Lunar" y "La Dama de Blanco", cierra una suerte de trilogía policíaca victoriana que convirtió a su autor, en uno de los más famosos de su tiempo.

Armadale (1866) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century semi epistolary novel. Parts of the novel consists of letters between the various characters, other chapters record the events as the characters perceive them. The novel has a very convoluted plot about two distant cousins both named Allan Armadale. The father of one had murdered the father of the other

L'abime est une lecture de hasard, deux écrivains très connus, une écriture à quatre mains. Pourtant cette histoire très légère n'est pas marquante, certes elle est aussi très courte. Elle se déroule entre l'Angleterre et la Suisse. Monsieur Walter Wilding voit son affaire de négoce prospérer au fil des ans, aussi décide-t-il de s'associer avec Mr Vendale. Voila, Monsieur Wilding doit aussi sa bonne fortune de sa mère, qui vient de décéder et dont il vient d'hériter. Or par inadvertance, il apprend qu'en réalité il n'est pas le fils légitime de cette dame, qu'une erreur d'identité a été commise suite à une erreur administrative...

Lo que empieza como una cáustica, y a menudo hilarante comedia de equívocos, se transforma paulatinamente en un horrible cuadro conyugal de traición, venganza, malos tratos, locura y asesinato. Marido y mujer, inmediatamente posterior a La piedra lunar, pertenece al período de mayor creatividad de Wilkie Collins.

The Law and the Lady is a detective story, published in 1875 by Wilkie Collins. It is not quite as sensational in style as The Moonstone and The Woman in White.Valeria Brinton marries Eustace Woodville despite objections from Woodville's family leading to disquiet for Valeria's own family and friends. Just a few days after the wedding, various incidents lead Valeria to suspect her husband is hiding a dark secret in his past and she discovers that he has been using a false name. He refuses to discuss it leading them to curtail their honeymoon and return to London where Valeria learns that he was on trial for his first wife's murder by arsenic. He was tried in a Scottish court and the verdict was 'not proven' rather than 'not guilty' implying his guilt but without enough proof for a jury to convict him. Valeria sets out to save their happiness by proving her husband innocent of the crime. In her quest, she comes across the disabled character Miserrimus Dexter, a fascinating but mentally unstable genius, and his devoted female cousin, Ariel. Dexter will prove crucial to uncovering the disturbing truth behind the mysterious death.General Wilkie Collins' earliest career attempt - to read for the bar - informed much of his later work, and he was particularly interested in the marriage, divorce and property laws of England and of Scotland - mysteries and miseries surrounding these laws serve as plot-points in many of his novels, such as the notorious trial of Madeleine Smith, who was accused of poisoning her paramour with arsenic (the verdict was "Not Proven"). In the novel, Collins attacks the Scottish courts for allowing these verdicts, by showing how the defendant's reputation is tarnished even though they were not found legally guilty.Though Collins is sometimes credited with inventing the detective story, others give that honor to Edgar Allan Poe, whose Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) was 27 years earlier than Collins' The Moonstone. However, Collins almost certainly began the tradition of female sleuths continued by Agatha Christie with Miss Marple and, in more modern times, V. I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky's private detective. William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866), and The Moonstone (1868). The last is considered the first modern English detective novel. Born into the family of painter William Collins in London, he lived with his family in Italy and France as a child and learned French and Italian. He worked as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, was published in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend, mentor and collaborator. Some of Collins's works were first published in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words and the two collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins published his best known works in the 1860s, achieved financial stability and an international reputation. During that time he began suffering from gout. After taking opium for the pain, he developed an addiction. During the 1870s and 1880s the quality of his writing declined along with his health. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage and never married; he split his time between Caroline Graves, except for a two-year separation, and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.

The Moonstone, an Indian diamond steeped in a history of violence and mysticism, is stolen from Rachel Verinder's sitting room, and no one in her household is above suspicion. Join an unforgettable collection of liars, lovers, addicts and outcasts as they struggle to uncover the truth and reclaim the stone before its curse destroys them all. This thrilling mystery, regarded as the first detective novel in the English language, is re-imagined by the award-winning adaptor of The Island of Dr. Moreau and Neverwhere.

A cargo de Miss Clack, sobrina del difunto Sir John Verinder CAPÍTULO I Grande es mi deuda con mis queridos padres (ambos ya en el cielo) por los hábitos de orden y regularidad que lograron inculcarme siendo yo muy pequeña. En aquella feliz época ya ida se me enseñó a tener el cabello bien peinado a toda hora del día y de la noche y a doblar cada prenda de mi traje pulcramente, de la misma manera y sobre la misma silla, situada ésta siempre en el mismo sitio, esto es, a los pies del lecho, antes de retirarme a dormir.

I had been living at Tunbridge Wells and nowhere else, going on for ten years, when my medical man-very clever in his profession, and the prettiest player I ever saw in my life of a hand at Long Whist, which was a noble and a princely game before Short was heard of-said to me, one day, as he sat feeling my pulse on the actual sofa which my poor dear sister Jane worked before her spine came on, and laid her on a board for fifteen months at a stretch-the most upright woman that ever lived-said to me, "What we want, ma'am, is a fillip."

Lo que empieza como una cáustica, y a menudo hilarante comedia de equívocos, se transforma paulatinamente en un horrible cuadro conyugal de traición, venganza, malos tratos, locura y asesinato. Marido y mujer, inmediatamente posterior a La piedra lunar, pertenece al período de mayor creatividad de Wilkie Collins.

Antes de que el médico se marchara una mañana, le pregunté cuánto tiempo iba a vivir. Me respondió No resulta fácil decirlo; puede morir usted antes de que vuelva a verle por la mañana, o puede vivir hasta finales de mes. A la mañana siguiente, todavía vivía lo suficiente como para pensar en las necesidades de mi alma, de modo que (puesto que soy miembro de la Iglesia Católica Romana) mandé llamar a un sacerdote. La historia de mis pecados, relatada en confesión, incluía el abandono culpable de mi deber hacia las leyes de mi país. En opinión del sacerdote -y yo estuve de acuerdo con él- tenía la obligación moral de re¬conocer públicamente mi falta, como un acto de penitencia digno de un inglés católico. Llegamos así a establecer un reparto del trabajo. Yo relaté las circunstancias, mientras que su reverencia tomó la pluma y puso las cosas sobre el papel.

Man and Wife was Wilkie Collins' ninth published novel. It is the second of his novels (after No Name) in which social questions provide the main impetus of the plot. Collins increasingly used his novels to explore social abuses, which according to critics tends to detract from their qualities as fiction. The social issue which drives the plot is the state of Scots marriage law; at the time the novel was written, any couple who were legally entitled to marry and who asserted that they were married before witnesses, or in writing, were regarded in Scotland as being married in law.The novel has a complex plot, common in Collins' work. In a Prologue, a selfish and ambitious man casts off his wife in order to marry a wealthier and better-connected woman, by taking advantage of a loophole in the marriage laws of Ireland.The initial action takes place in the widowed Lady Lundie's house in Scotland. Geoffrey Delamayn has promised marriage to his lover Anne Silvester (governess to Lady Lundie's stepdaughter Blanche), who has incurred the enmity of her employer. The spendthrift Geoffrey is about to be disinherited, and wishes to escape from his promise and marry a wealthy wife. Nevertheless he is obliged to arrange a rendezvous with Anne, in the character of his wife, at an inn, and documents this in an exchange of notes with her. Subsequently, urgent matters force him to send his friend Arnold Brinkworth, Blanche's fiancé, to Anne in his place. To gain access to her, Arnold must ask for "his wife". Although nothing improper passes between them, they appear to the landlady and to Bishopriggs, a waiter, to be man and wife.Thus both Geoffrey and Arnold might be deemed to be married to Anne, depending on the weight put on the spoken and written evidence. Most of the novel concerns Anne's, Geoffrey's and Arnold's attempts to clarify their marital status: Anne needs to be married to save her reputation Geoffrey wishes to cast off Anne by asserting that she is married to Arnold Arnold wishes to marry Blanche, but fears he has accidentally already married Anne under Scots law. In subsequent chapters Geoffrey, a keen athlete, courts Mrs Glenarm, a wealthy young widow, while Anne consults lawyers who give her conflicting advice about her position, and later tries to explain the situation to Mrs Glenarm, who rebuffs her. Arnold seeks the advice of Lady Lundie's brother-in-law Sir Patrick Lundie, a retired lawyer. Sir Patrick approaches the problem with energy, but owing to various mishaps, Geoffrey's determination that his scheme shall succeed, and the unsatisfactory state of the law, is not immediately successful. However he ascertains that the correspondence linking Geoffrey and Anne exists and was stolen at the inn by Bishopriggs, who tries to extort money for it. Anne, who strongly wishes to remove any impediment to Blanche and Arnold's marriage, comes to the same conclusion and forces Bishopriggs to give her the letter by threatening to reveal its contents, which would make it worthless for blackmail. Eventually Anne offers to reveal her relations with Geoffrey, even at the cost of her reputation - impressing Sir Patrick with her courageous and honourable behaviour. At a meeting of all the parties and their lawyers, she makes her revelations. Geoffrey can no longer avoid honouring his promise to her and acknowledges her as his wife. A sub-plot concerns Geoffrey's athleticism. While training for an important race, Geoffrey is discovered to have a serious physical ailment rendering him liable to a paralytic stroke. In the race itself, in which Geoffrey represents the South of England against the North, he collapses near the end, leaving his opponent the victor. His "friends" desert him, having lost their bets placed on him.

After Dark is a collection of six short stories by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1856. It was the author's first collection of short stories. Five of the stories were previously published in Household Words, a magazine edited by Charles Dickens.... William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868). The last is considered the first modern English detective novel. Born into the family of painter William Collins in London, he lived with his family in Italy and France as a child and learned French and Italian. He worked as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, was published in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend, mentor and collaborator. Some of Collins's works were first published in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words and the two collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins published his best known works in the 1860s, achieved financial stability and an international reputation. During that time he began suffering from gout. After taking opium for the pain, he developed an addiction. During the 1870s and 1880s the quality of his writing declined along with his health. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage and never married; he split his time between Caroline Graves, except for a two-year separation, and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children. Collins was born at 11 New Cavendish Street, Marylebone, London, the son of a well-known Royal Academician landscape painter, William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes. Named after his father, he swiftly became known by his middle name, which honoured his godfather, David Wilkie. The family moved to Pond Street, Hampstead, in 1826. In 1828 Collins's brother Charles Allston Collins was born. Between 1829 and 1830, the Collins family moved twice, first to Hampstead Square and then to Porchester Terrace, Bayswater.Wilkie and Charles received their early education from their mother at home. The Collins family were deeply religious, and Collins's mother enforced strict church attendance on her sons, which Wilkie disliked. In 1835, Collins began attending school at the Maida Vale academy. From 1836 to 1838, he lived with his parents in Italy and France, which made a great impression on him. He learned Italian while the family was in Italy and began learning French, in which he would eventually become fluent.From 1838 to 1840, he attended the Reverend Cole's private boarding school in Highbury, where he was bullied by a boy who would force Collins to tell him a story before allowing him to go to sleep. "It was this brute who first awakened in me, his poor little victim, a power of which but for him I might never have been aware...When I left school I continued story telling for my own pleasure", Collins later said. In 1840 the family moved to 85 Oxford Terrace, Bayswater. In late 1840, he left school and was apprenticed as a clerk to the firm of tea merchants Antrobus & Co, owned by a friend of Wilkie's father. He disliked his clerical work but remained employed by the company for more than five years. Collins's first story The Last Stage Coachman, was published in the Illuminated Magazine in August 1843. In 1844 he travelled to Paris with Charles Ward. That same year he wrote his first novel, Iolani, or Tahiti as It Was; a Romance, which was submitted to Chapman and Hall but rejected in 1845. The novel remained unpublished during his lifetime.Collins said of it: "My youthful imagination ran riot among the noble savages, in scenes which caused the respectable British publisher to declare that it was impossible to put his name on the title page of such a novel."

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A rich widow...A disappearance....and Mr. Dark, a detective lawyer's clerk.

Lo que empieza como una cáustica, y a menudo hilarante comedia de equívocos, se transforma paulatinamente en un horrible cuadro conyugal de traición, venganza, malos tratos, locura y asesinato. Marido y mujer, inmediatamente posterior a La piedra lunar, pertenece al período de mayor creatividad de Wilkie Collins.

En esta inolvidable historia, un sueño premonitorio le salva la vida al protagonista, aunque le condena a vivir en el infernal mundo de las pesadillas, y al terror de la espera, de La dama del sueño.

Armadale is a novel by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1864-66.Armadale is the third of the four great novels produced by Collins during the 1860s: after The Woman in White (1859-60) and No Name (1862), and before The Moonstone (1868). In the German spa town of Wildbad, the 'Scotchman' Mr. Neal is asked to transcribe the deathbed confession of Allan Armadale; his story concerns his murder of the man he had disinherited (also called Allan Armadale), who had subsequently married the woman he was betrothed to under false pretensions. Under Allan's instructions, the confession is left to be opened by his son once he comes of age. Nineteen years later, the son of the murdered man, also Allan Armadale, rescues a man of his own age-Ozias Midwinter. The stranger reveals himself to Reverend Decimus Brock, a friend of Allan through his late mother, as another Allan Armadale (the son of the man who committed the murder). Ozias tells Brock of his desperate upbringing, having run away from his mother and stepfather (Mr. Neal). The Reverend promises not to disclose their relation to one another, and the young men become close companions. Ozias remains haunted by a fear that he will harm Allan as a result of their proximity, a fate warned of in his father's letter; this feeling intensifies when the pair spend a night on a shipwreck off the Isle of Man-as it turns out, the very ship on which the murder was committed. Also on the vessel, Allan has a mysterious dream involving three characters; Ozias believes that the events are prophesy of the future. Three members of Allan's family die in mysterious circumstances, one of which was instigated in the rescue of a woman who attempted to commit suicide by drowning. As a result, Allan inherits the estate of Thorpe-Ambrose in Norfolk and relocates there with Ozias, intending to make him steward. Once there he falls in love with Eleanor (Neelie) Milroy, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Major Milroy, to whom he has rented a cottage. During this time, correspondence takes place between Maria Oldershaw and Lydia Gwilt concerning the latter's ambitions to marry Allan as a means of achieving retribution for his family's apparent wrongdoings (she was originally a maid in the service of his mother)........ William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868). The last is considered the first modern English detective novel. Born into the family of painter William Collins in London, he lived with his family in Italy and France as a child and learned French and Italian. He worked as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, was published in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend, mentor and collaborator. Some of Collins's works were first published in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words and the two collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins published his best known works in the 1860s, achieved financial stability and an international reputation. During that time he began suffering from gout. After taking opium for the pain, he developed an addiction. During the 1870s and 1880s the quality of his writing declined along with his health. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage and never married; he split his time between Caroline Graves, except for a two-year separation, and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.......

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Memoirs Of The Life Of Williams Collins, 2: With Selections From His Journals And Correspondence Wilkie Collins s.n., 1848

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale and No Name. Collins was a lifelong friend of Charles Dickens. A number of Collins's works were first published in Dickens's journals All the Year Round and Household Words. The two collaborated on several dramatic and fictional works, and some of Collins's plays were performed by Dickens's acting company. -wikipedia

Valeria 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 tangled workings 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,

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"When I die to-morrow," she said, "I leave my child helpless and friendless-disgraced by her mother's shameful death. The workhouse may take her-or a charitable asylum may take her." She paused; a first tinge of color rose on her pale face; she broke into an outburst of rage. "Think of my daughter being brought up by charity! She may suffer poverty, she may be treated with contempt, she may be employed by brutal people in menial work. I can't endure it; it maddens me. If she is not saved from that wretched fate, I shall die despairing, I shall die cursing-" The Minister sternly stopped her before she could say the next word. To my astonishment she appeared to be humbled, to be even ashamed: she asked his pardon: "Forgive me; I won't forget myself again. They tell me you have no children of your own. Is that a sorrow to you and your wife?"

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Den Nye Magdalene Wilkie Collins E. Ferslew & komp., 1873 Literary Criticism; European; English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Fiction / Classics; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh

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Thank you for checking out this book by Theophania Publishing. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you soon. We have thousands of titles available, and we invite you to search for us by name, contact us via our website, or download our most recent catalogues. A prolific playwright and novelist, William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) created his masterpiece, The Moonstone, at the age of 44. Even though it was not too enthusiastically received by such classics of his time as Dickens, the novel introduced a new genre of a detective story and is remarkable for its excellent plot-development as well as its finely moulded characters. It did and still does leave the reader breathless and puzzled to the very end. Some of the themes exploited in the novel - for example, the British in India - added to the success of the book. An important and not so frequent element of the story is the use of opium. This theme is particularly well developed since Collins (suffering from gout all his life) experienced the action of the substance (in the form of laudanum) on himself and went through a series of delusional episodes, firmly believing he was followed by his imaginary alter ego, "Ghost Wilkie".

Armadale is the third of the four great novels produced by Collins during the 1860s: after The Woman in White (1859-60) and No Name (1862), and before The Moonstone (1868). PLOT: In the German spa town of Wildbad, the 'Scotchman' Mr. Neal is asked to transcribe the deathbed confession of Allan Armadale; his story concerns his murder of the man he had disinherited (also called Allan Armadale), who had subsequently married the woman he was betrothed to under false pretensions. Under Allan's instructions, the confession is left to be opened by his son once he comes of age. Nineteen years later, the son of the murdered man, also Allan Armadale, rescues a man of his own age-Ozias Midwinter. The stranger reveals himself to Reverend Decimus Brock, a friend of Allan through his late mother, as another Allan Armadale (the son of the man who committed the murder). Ozias tells Brock of his desperate upbringing, having run away from his mother and stepfather (Mr. Neal). The Reverend promises not to disclose their relation to one another, and the young men become close companions. Ozias remains haunted by a fear that he will harm Allan as a result of their proximity, a fate warned of in his father's letter; this feeling intensifies when the pair spend a night on a shipwreck off the Isle of Man-as it turns out, the very ship on which the murder was committed. Also on the vessel, Allan has a mysterious dream involving three characters; Ozias believes that the events are prophesy of the future. Three members of Allan's family die in mysterious circumstances, one of which was instigated in the rescue of a woman who attempted to commit suicide by drowning. As a result, Allan inherits the estate of Thorpe-Ambrose in Norfolk and relocates there with Ozias, intending to make him steward. Once there he falls in love with Eleanor (Neelie) Milroy, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Major Milroy, to whom he has rented a cottage. During this time, correspondence takes place between Maria Oldershaw and Lydia Gwilt concerning the latter's ambitions to marry Allan as a means of achieving retribution for his family's apparent wrongdoings (she was originally a maid in the service of his mother). Lydia, who is thirty-five but looks twenty-something, is the villain of the novel and her colourful portrayal takes up much of the rest of the story. Originally Allan's mother's maid, and a contributor to the conflict between Allan's and Ozias's fathers, she is a fortune-hunter and, it turns out, a murderess. Unable to alienate Allan's affections from Miss Milroy, she settles for marrying Midwinter, having discovered his name is the same. She plots to murder Allan-or to have him killed by her ex-husband, a Cuban desperado-and, since she is now "Mrs. Armadale," to impersonate his widow. Allan escapes the desperado's attempt on his life-he is supposed to have drowned in a shipwreck-and returns to England. Lydia's plans are thus foiled. Her last shot is to murder Allan herself-the weapon being poison gas, the scene being a sanatorium run by a quack called Doctor Downward-but she is thwarted by her own conscience. Midwinter and Allan have switched rooms, and she can't bring herself to murder her true husband, for whom she does have genuine feelings of love. After rescuing Midwinter and writing him a farewell note, she goes into the air-poisoned room and kills herself. Allan marries Miss Milroy; Midwinter, still his best friend, becomes a writer.... William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer.

El hotel encantado (The haunted hotel) nos relata los extra

Ancient Rome, AD 408: Young Antonia had the misfortune to live in interesting times, the days when mighty Rome was brought low by the terror of the Goths.