Where to start with: Wilkie Collins
Born on 8 January 200 years ago, the Victorian writer is best known for his mystery novels The Woman in White and The Moonstone. But with more than 30 books to choose from, here are some good places to begin
The entry point
The Moonstone has all the ingredients we have come to expect from a cosy crime novel: a country house, a deadly crime, a brilliant detective. This recipe is now so well known that it’s almost a cliche but, in fact, this is thought to have been the first time these particular ingredients were mixed together.
Sergeant Cuff is the first incarnation of the enigmatic sleuth, arriving at the scene after the bungling attempts of local officers, seemingly more interested in his unusual hobbies (in this case, rose-growing) than in the crime. The story is told by several narrators, not all of whom are trustworthy, and the solution, though definitely surprising, makes perfect retrospective sense.
TS Eliot described The Moonstone as “the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels”, making it the perfect place to start for those new to the writer. It is long but you won’t notice because the story bowls along and you will be captivated by the characters.
The one to drop into dinner party conversation
Collins is probably best known for two novels: The Moonstone and The Woman in White. But Collins published more than 30 books, so why not impress your friends by bringing up one of his many lesser-known works? Try Poor Miss Finch, which is about a blind woman who falls in love with a man who is completely blue.
If you’re in a rush
Collins wrote some great short stories. My favourite is The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed, which will put you off four-poster beds for life. There is also a terrific collection called The Haunted House, featuring ghost stories by many well-known Victorian writers, including Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens.
Collins’ offering is The Ghost in the Cupboard Room, a strange tale of Spanish pirates and a candle which, as it burns, leads you ever closer to death.
The one that deserves more attention
No Name deserves to be up there with The Woman in White as one of the great “sensation novels” – a genre that was the precursor to what we now know as detective and suspense fiction. Sisters Norah and Magdalen Vanstone live an idyllic life in the countryside with their loving parents. Their main occupation is amateur dramatics (one of Wilkie Collins’ favourite pastimes too) and Magdalen, especially, is a talented actress.
Then the girls’ parents die suddenly and they discover that the couple weren’t legally married. The sisters are robbed of their rightful inheritance, cast out with no money and “no name”, forced to rely on Magdalen’s acting talents to survive. Magdalen is another of Collins’ wonderful female protagonists but the book abounds with colourful characters, including the disreputable Captain Wragge and the noble Captain Kirke (a protype of the Star Trek hero?). No Name also contains my favourite Wilkie Collins quotation: “Nothing in the world is hidden forever … sand turns traitor and betrays the footstep that walked upon it.”
