Wilkie Collins

[BookStop]

Anyone read any Wilkie Collins? I think he was Dickens era or so. Anyway, a customer is bringing me one of her early/1st ed books to read. I'm kind of nervous about reading it as it's worth a penny or two, and I'm not even sure I'll like that kind of thing. Thoughts?

 

[Happy Joe]

I sometime like to read the older literature. Haven't read any Collins; however, Gutenberg Project has a good (free) selection;
Browse By Author: C - Project Gutenberg
I would try reading a download text file or ebook to see if the author has appeal (much better than reading an original ed. while wearing cotton gloves to protect the pages, IMO). The illustrations in the older books can add substantially to the stories, so the original is often worth reading, if you like the author's style.
Enjoy!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Yes, he was a contemporary of Dickens. They were friends and collaborators, and very closely associated creatively speaking.

If it's The Woman in White or The Moonstone I think you should go for it. They're both classics, with wonderful plots and characters. His other works I would hestitate to recommend to anyone who doesn't have a passion for 19th century literature.

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, I'd second that for those two, or for some of the collections of his shorter works. No Name, while good, is quite long, however... so I'd try others of his work out first.

If you like good atmospheric mystery with a touch of the Gothic trappings, then Collins should be right down your alley.

 

[BookStop]

I do love a good mystery and am always looking to expand my current reading list, although I do have to admit, I find classic works are sometimes a challenge - not a bad thing, just not necessarily an easy way to go. Heck, if I can read it without a dictionary, I'm willing to give it a try.

 

[aarti]

I read Armadale late last year and thought that it had some brilliant parts (a particularly humorous picnic scene). But it soon became bogged down, IMO, into a diary format told from the point of view of the villainess, and I lost interest, though I did finish it.

I have The Moonstone on my shelf- don't know when I'll read it!

 

[ravenus]

I'll second Woman in White. It's a gripping Gothic suspense with lots of (entertaining) melodrama. Yes, there are some similarities between Collins' and Dickens' writing; for instance the eccentric hypochondriac old man in WiW could have well been from a Dickens book. The villain is one of the best I've come across.

 

[j d worthington]

I read Armadale late last year and thought that it had some brilliant parts (a particularly humorous picnic scene). But it soon became bogged down, IMO, into a diary format told from the point of view of the villainess, and I lost interest, though I did finish it.

I have The Moonstone on my shelf- don't know when I'll read it!

Aarti: Yes, though I've not yet read it myself, from my understanding, Armadale is one of his less successful works artistically (and, I think, financially, too); one of the reasons it has remained so little known. But The Moonstone and The Woman in White are among the best novels of their kind, and I think you'd find either of those vastly more enjoyable....

 

[aarti]

Aarti: Yes, though I've not yet read it myself, from my understanding, Armadale is one of his less successful works artistically (and, I think, financially, too); one of the reasons it has remained so little known. But The Moonstone and The Woman in White are among the best novels of their kind, and I think you'd find either of those vastly more enjoyable....

Yes, just reading the back cover of The Moonstone had me pretty intrigued, so I'm sure I'l lget down to it sooner or later (probably later, though). I don't yet have the Woman in White, but now I'll keep an eye out at the bookstores. Thanks for the input, J.D.

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, just reading the back cover of The Moonstone had me pretty intrigued, so I'm sure I'l lget down to it sooner or later (probably later, though). I don't yet have the Woman in White, but now I'll keep an eye out at the bookstores. Thanks for the input, J.D.

Of course, if you find out you don't like them, you can always send me a poison pen letter....

 

[aarti]

Of course, if you find out you don't like them, you can always send me a poison pen letter....

Haha- I could do that. Or I could slowly ruin your reading enjoyment by highly recommending books I think you'll hate!

 

[BAYLOR]

The Woman in White and The Moonstone are the only two novel I've rad by him. I picked them both up on whim and read the both back to back , excellent stuff. Interesting to find out that both He and Charles Dickens had been friends and later had a falling out.

 

[galanx]

Read "The Woman in White" a year or so ago- good, for that type (but then I don't like Dickens, either). "The Moonstone" was required reading in high school.

 

[The Judge]

I enjoyed both TWiW and TM, and would recommend them, but they are very much of their time. If anyone is in two minds about whether to tackle Collins, then The Haunted Hotel is perhaps a good place to start, as it's very much smaller in size, but has the same odd mix of realism and way over the top (way, way over...) melodrama.

On the basis of those three books I very much prefer him to Dickens, since he doesn't have the same gallery of grotesques, his characters are more real, and his women more capable and interesting to my mind. (Not that I've read a lot of Dickens I have to confess.)

I can't actually recommend it, since I thought it was interminable, but for anyone interested in the relationship between Collins and Dickens, there's Drood by Dan Simmons. I was warned that it was long and boring, and my thoughts when I read it:

An opium-studded tour of Dickens's last years of life, as related by his best friend and apparent worst enemy, Wilkie Collins, it's most definitely long, being just shy of 800 pages, and tedium is not helped by Collins-Simmons' fixation with telling us the minutiae of Dickens' (and his family's, friends', acquaintances', enemies') life, work, parties, interests, health, hates etc etc. I can't help thinking that inside this grossly bloated book there's a slim intelligent, interesting novel desperately trying to get out.

and

I'm still plodding through Drood, the opium-induced nightmare visions of an ancient Egyptian cult and its underworld city beneath London only marginally more interesting than the immensely – and frequently bone-crushingly boringly – detailed biographies and activities of Dickens and Collins

and when I'd eventually finished, my conclusion:

An interesting and inventive book, but even as a reflection of Wilkie Collins's verbosity and hubris as narrator and Simmons's homage to Victorian-length writing, to my mind it was far too long to sustain the conceit, with its detailed itineraries and extracts from letters adding nothing useful to characterisation, background or plot. Sometimes more is too much.

 

[Randy M.]

I enjoyed both TWiW and TM, and would recommend them, but they are very much of their time. If anyone is in two minds about whether to tackle Collins, then The Haunted Hotel is perhaps a good place to start, as it's very much smaller in size, but has the same odd mix of realism and way over the top (way, way over...) melodrama.[...]

Oddly, that's exactly what I did in January. Still haven't gotten to The Moonstone as I'd planned, but I did enjoy The Haunted Hotel even as I recognize it in your description. I do think you go way, way over with "way, way over...", though; the melodrama is situated pretty squarely in one particular character and I believe that was done purposely, that it the character's actions and reactions thus chime interestingly off the more realistic actions and reactions of the other characters. And like you, I prefer the female characters in THH to those I've encountered in Dickens, though Dickens grotesques I find entertaining.

For anyone with a liking for 19th century British fiction, and especially for its commercial entertainment, I'd recommend The Haunted Hotel.

Randy M.

 

[The Judge]

I do think you go way, way over with "way, way over...", though.

I have to admit to a very low tolerance for melodrama, though, so I was getting itchy after her first appearance!

 

[Randy M.]

I have to admit to a very low tolerance for melodrama, though, so I was getting itchy after her first appearance!

I can understand that. She was disconcerting but the copy of the book I read had a T.S. Eliot quote on it that made the point about melodrama I echoed above because I thought he was absolutely right. Her melodramatic attitude indicates an extreme state of mind and it's interesting to me how Collins, at the time he was writing, confined the melodrama to her.

Actually, I thought how he underplayed his deployment of the Gothic paraphernalia in general pretty impressive; for instance, I found his rationale for getting his main character into the old ornate room with the decorative fireplace rather witty, placing the blame on an American and his desire for a gas line. Anyway, I felt that character ties into his use of the Gothic, like having a Poe character jump the pages in an anthology and land in a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story.


Randy M.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I like Collins. Just read "No Name". Maybe read about four so far. Plan to read more.
Enjoyed "The Woman in White" and "Moonstone"

 

[Brian G Turner]

The Woman in White

Argh! I can only hope the novel is much better than the dramatisation for stage. I once played the male lead in the play, and it was hugely frustrating because he doesn't actually do anything. He walks around, talks, and emotes. But everything happens - and is resolved - off-stage.

 

[BAYLOR]

Argh! I can only hope the novel is much better than the dramatisation for stage. I once played the male lead in the play, and it was hugely frustrating because he doesn't actually do anything. He walks around, talks, and emotes. But everything happens - and is resolved - off-stage.

It's a very suspenseful book and interesting , I think this one foreshadows alot modern thriller that we have now . My favorite character Ms Haversham , found her quite remarkable.