# Armadale

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Armadale (1866) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century semi epistolary novel. Parts of the novel consists of letters between the various characters, other chapters record the events as the characters perceive them. The novel has a very convoluted plot about two distant cousins both named Allan Armadale. The father of one had murdered the father of the other (also both called Allan Armadale).
TO
JOHN FORSTER.
In acknowledgment of the services which he has rendered to the cause of literature by his "Life of Goldsmith;" and in affectionate remembrance of a friendship which is associated with some of the happiest years of my life.
Readers in general—on whose friendly reception experience has given me some reason to rely—will, I venture to hope, appreciate whatever merit there may be in this story without any prefatory pleading for it on my part. They will, I think, see that it has not been hastily meditated or idly wrought out. They will judge it accordingly, and I ask no more.
Readers in particular will, I have some reason to suppose, be here and there disturbed, perhaps even offended, by finding that "Armadale" oversteps, in more than one direction, the narrow limits within which they are disposed to restrict the development of modern fiction—if they can.
Nothing that I could say to these persons here would help me with them as Time will help me if my work lasts. I am not afraid of my design being permanently misunderstood, provided the execution has done it any sort of justice. Estimated by the clap-trap morality of the present day, this may be a very daring book. Judged by the Christian morality which is of all time, it is only a book that is daring enough to speak the truth.
LONDON, April, 1866.

## Contents

Prologue:
* Chapter I: The Travelers
* Chapter II: The Solid Side of the Scotch Character
* Chapter III: The Wreck of the Timber Ship
Book the First:
* Chapter I: The Mystery of Ozias Midwinter
* Chapter II: The Man Revealed
* Chapter III: Day and Night
* Chapter IV: The Shadow of the Past
* Chapter V: The Shadow of the Future
Book the Second:
* Chapter I: Lurking Mischief
* Chapter II: Allan as a Landed Gentleman
* Chapter III: The Claims of Society
* Chapter IV: The March of Events
* Chapter V: Mother Oldershaw on her Guard
* Chapter IV: Midwinter in Disguise
* Chapter VII: The Plot Thickens
* Chapter VIII: The Norfolk Broads
* Chapter IX: Fate or Chance?
* Chapter X: The House-Maid's Face
* Chapter XI: Miss Gwilt Among the Quicksands
* Chapter XII: The Clouding of the Sky
* Chapter XIII: Exit
Book the Third:
* Chapter I: Mrs. Milroy
* Chapter II: The Man is Found
* Chapter III: The Brink of Discovery
* Chapter IV: Allan at Bay
* Chapter V: Pedgift's Remedy
* Chapter VI: Pedgift's Postscript
* Chapter VII: The Martyrdom of Miss Gwilt
* Chapter VIII: She Comes Between Them
* Chapter IX: She Knows the Truth
* Chapter X: Miss Gwilt's Diary
* Chapter XI: Love and Law
* Chapter XII: A Scandal at the Station
* Chapter XIII: An Old Man's Heart
* Chapter XIV: Miss Gwilt's Diary
* Chapter XV: The Wedding-Day
Book the Fourth:
* Chapter I: Miss Gwilt's Diary
* Chapter II: The Diary Continued
* Chapter III: The Diary Broken Off
Book the Last:
* Chapter I: At the Terminus
* Chapter II: In the House
* Chapter III: The Purple Flask
Epilogue:
* Chapter I: News from Norfolk
* Chapter II: Midwinter
Appendix
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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