Wilkie Collins

(1824—1889)

United Kingdom

Biography

William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was hugely popular in his time and wrote 27 novels, more than 50 short stories, at least 15 plays, and over 100 pieces of non-fiction work. Collins was born in London, the son of a well-known Royal Academician landscape artist, William Collins. Named after his father, he swiftly became known by his second name (which honoured his godfather, David Wilkie). From the ages of 12-15 he lived with his parents in Italy, which made a great impression on him. At the age of 17 he left school and was apprenticed as a clerk to a firm of tea merchants, but after five unhappy years he entered Lincoln's Inn to study law. After his father's death in 1847, Collins produced his first published book, Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A. (1848), and also considered a career in painting, exhibiting a picture at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1849, but it was with the release of his first published novel, Antonina, in 1850 that his career as a writer began in earnest. (source: Wikipedia)

ePub Books Available by Wilkie Collins

6 Titles Online

Armadale [en] (1864)

Can a dream foretell the future? That is one of the central questions of Armadale, one of Wilkie Collins’ lesser-known novels. But even though it is not as famous as The Woman in White or The Moonstone, it is still written with the psychological awareness and piercing character studies of the...

Genre: Mystery

The Black Robe [en] (1881)

It may be that women have no positive appreciation of what is beautiful in form and colour--or it may be that they have no opinions of their own when the laws of fashion have spoken. This at least is certain, that not one of them in a thousand sees anything objectionable in the gloomy and...

Genre: Mystery

The Law and the Lady [en] (1875)

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...

Genre: Mystery

The Moonstone [en] (1868)

First published in 1868, Moonstone is considered the first modern English detective novel. Stolen from the forehead of a Hindu idol, the dazzling gem known as "The Moonstone" resurfaces at a birthday party in an English country home--with an enigmatic trio of watchful Brahmins hot on its...

Genres: Crime/Detective, Mystery

No Name [en] (1862)

Condemned by Victorian critics as immoral, but regarded today as a novel of outstanding social insight, No Name shows William Wilkie Collins at the height of his literary powers. It is the story of two sisters, Magdalen and Norah, who discover after the deaths of their dearly beloved parents...

Genre: Mystery

The Woman in White [en] (1860)

The woman in white first appears at night on a lonely heath near London and is next seen at a grave-side in Cumberland. Who is she? Where has she come from, and what is her history? She seems alone and friendless, frightened and confused. And it seems she knows a secret - a secret that could...

Genres: Crime/Detective, Mystery, Thriller / Suspense