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Introduction

(Full name William Wilkie Collins) English novelist, short story writer, travel writer, and playwright.

Considered a skillful manipulator of intricate plots, Collins is remembered as a principal founder of English detective fiction. His novels of intrigue and suspense, although as popular in Collins's day as the works of such Victorian luminaries as Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and William Thackeray, were frequently dismissed by critics as sensationalist fiction. By the twentieth century, Collins began to receive recognition for his innovations in the detective genre, for his unconventional representation of female characters, and for his emphasis on careful plotting and revision, a practice that foreshadowed modern methods.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Collins was named for his father, William, a landscape painter, and his godfather, the artist Sir David Wilkie. Raised among artists and writers in England, Collins rebelled against the routine at the tea-broker's firm where, at the age of seventeen, he'd been placed by his father. He subsequently studied at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the Bar in 1851, but was to use his legal expertise

only when writing fiction. After his father's death in 1847, Collins wrote Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R. A. (1848) and two years later a lengthy novel, Antonina; or, The Fall of Rome (1850). Soon after the publication of his first novel, Collins made the acquaintance of Charles Dickens, and the two became close friends, working together on Dickens's magazines, traveling together, and occasionally collaborating on stories. He achieved immense popularity after the publication of his sensation novel The Woman in White in 1860, which spawned a literary vogue for such fiction that peaked in 1868 with the appearance of his highly successful The Moonstone. Always a frustrated playwright, Collins made dramatic adaptations of these and several of his other works of fiction, which were produced in England and the United States with fair success. After rising to fame, Collins became the subject of considerable scrutiny due to his unconventional personal life. Collins lived with his mistress—said to have been the model for the "woman in white"—and supported, in addition, another woman by whom he had three illegitimate children. Although Collins was accepted by literary friends, he was often ostracized by society at large for his unorthodox way of life. His rage at hypocritical morals and perhaps his desire to emulate Dickens inspired Collins to compose the didactic novels of his later years. He died in London in September of 1889.

MAJOR WORKS

Collins's first novel, Antonina was an imitative, historical romance in the style of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii. It focuses on the siege of patriarchal Rome by a Gothic army. At the center of the tale is Antonina, a young girl who, after being wrongly cast out of her home by her father, falls in love with a Gothic soldier. Featuring an intricate plot and told through a series of monologues, The Woman in White is framed as a Gothic romance and offers two very different heroines: the strong and passionate Marian Holcombe and her half-sister, the beautiful and passive Laura Fairlie. The latter is manipulated by the novel's villain, Count Fosco, agrees to marry Fosco's henchman, and is subsequently robbed of her identity and forced into an asylum. Aided by her half-sister. she escapes and, along the way, uncovers numerous family secrets, including the story of the ghostly "woman in white" whom she has encountered in the past. Mysterious characters and vestiges like those used in The Woman in White also appear in "The Yellow Mask" (1856) and The Black Robe (1881).

CRITICAL RECEPTION

Although Collins has been called "the father of the English detective novel," critics have begun to give his Gothic tales increased attention. In Antonina, several critics note that he provides a strong portrayal of the "female Gothic" through the title character and her nemesis (and, some commentators argue, double), Goisvintha. Critics have also noted Collins's use of the Gothic to recast history in this tale. Collins turned to social criticsm in The Woman in White, again utilizing the Gothic to frame his commentary on certain behaviors. Although this tale also introduced a less traditional, soon-to-be much-emulated character, the amateur detective, Fred Botting has noted that Collins cast this personage against a classicly passive Gothic heroine who represents loss and suffering. In addition, Botting notes Collins's introduction of the spectral title character as well as his employment of doubling and family secrets. Susan M. Griffin has posited that the Gothic elements of The Woman in White, as well as those in "The Yellow Mask" and The Black Robe, convey a particularly anti-Catholic sentiment. Critics have also noted in Collins's Gothic works a departure from the traditions of popular fiction to create an insightful and subtly critical portrait of Victorian society.

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. Wilkie Collins (Story Date August-September 1875)
4. General Commentary
   1. Tamar Heller (Essay Date 1992)
5. Title Commentary
   1. The Woman in White
   2. Fred Botting (Essay Date 1996)
6. Further Reading