Wilkie Collins: The Complete Fiction

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the complete works of Wilkie Collins’s. Examining his vast array of novels and short stories, this volume includes analysis of the social, historical, and political commentary Collins offered within his works, illuminating Collins as more than a successful crime and sensation author, or the fortunate recipient of Dicken’s grand patronage, but as a hard-thinking and lively-writing part of the rich mid-Victorian literary scene. Overall, Collins is seen as a master of narratives which deal with social and personal issues that were much debated in his fifty-year authorial period. Close attention is paid to the events, themes, and characterization in his fiction, revealing his analytic vigor and the literary power of that period and context. Delivering fresh insight into the variety and richness of Collins’ themes and arguments, this volume provides a key source of information and analysis on all Collins’ fiction.

Stephen Knight studied at Oxford, then at the University of Sydney, where he completed a PhD on Langland’s Piers Plowman. He taught there for two decades and then worked at Melbourne, De Montfort and Cardiff. He has published widely on medieval and modern literature, with a special interest in widely-known modes such as crime fiction, Robin Hood studies and mid-nineteenth century popular fiction.