This was too late to exploit the Christmas market, but an astonishingly rapid turn around given today’s enormously lengthy publication cycles. As a result of the antiquated English law, the marriage of their parents did not make the children legitimate and “the sins of the parents was visited upon their children,” they could not inherit. In his own preface to NO NAME, Wilkie Collins acknowledged that while he wanted to use the success he had achieved with his first ground-breaking "sensation novel", THE WOMAN IN WHITE, he also wanted to push his story-telling into new divergent directions. In his introduction Mark Ford examines themes of identity and illegitimacy within Victorian society and compares No Name to Collins's more 'sensational' fiction.

She then falls into a state of destitution and dangerous illness, living alone in the poor streets of London – only to be rescued by Robert Kirke. Their father has made a rash clandestine marriage in America in his youth, and is only able to marry their mother when the father's first wife dies. They became a bit tedious and I lost interest from time to time, which is why I'm only giving the novel 3 stars. The dubious choices she made were certainly a substantial part of what made NO NAME such a scandalous book in its time and, equally certainly, are part of what makes NO NAME an enduring classic that allows readers to judge for themselves the virtues of what she does in the name of justice.

Some of Collins' works were first published in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words and the two collaborated on dramatic and fictional works. Norah's and Magdalen's illegitimacy in law and their loss of social status and inheritance rights are all entirely believable.

Wragge becomes her theatrical promoter (for 50% of her earnings) and organises their escape from York – at her expense.A thrilling classic with a strong female character, a plot full of twists and turns, but too many details.

He’s given little quirks like recording all his swindles as carefully as if they were legitimate business deals, or having certain mannerisms in the way he talks. Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins.

The modern society though cannot condone her conduct, for no decent society can sanction deception, would understand Magdalen better; would appreciate the circumstances that drove her to act as she did. Given the highly over-wrought state of Magdalen’s sensibility regarding her plan to regain the inheritance, it is also surprising that Collins makes absolutely no mention of the sexual consequences of her marrying Noel Vanstone. V. Magdalen and Wragge visit Vanstone, but during the night Mrs Lacount guesses Magdalen’s true identity.

Next day the governess Miss Garth is accosted by the dubious Captain Wragge who is making enquiries about Mrs Vanstone. Todo el mundo ama esta novela, y es una pena que yo no haya logrado disfrutar de esta historia tanto como esperaba, logró entretenerme, pero creo que no permanezca mucho tiempo en mi memoria. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.