This early work by Wilkie Collins was originally published in 1886. Born
in Marylebone, London in 1824, Collins' family enrolled him at the Maida
Hill Academy in 1835, but then took him to France and Italy with them
between 1836 and 1838. Returning to England, Collins attended Cole's
boarding school, and completed his education in 1841, after which he was
apprenticed to the tea merchants Antrobus & Co. in the Strand. In 1846,
Collins became a law student at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar
in 1851, although he never practiced. It was in 1848, a year after the
death of his father, that he published his first book, The Memoirs of
the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A., to good reviews. The 1860s saw
Collins' creative high-point, and it was during this decade that he
achieved fame and critical acclaim, with his four major novels, The
Woman in White (1860), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone
(1868). The Moonstone, meanwhile is seen by many as the first true
detective novel - T. S. Eliot called it "the first, the longest, and the
best of modern English detective novels...in a genre invented by Collins
and not by Poe." Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating
back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly
expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high
quality, modern editions.
