Wichita eagle., 1889-10-20

wILKIE COLLINS AT his DESK.
By view of the life and writings CT Willlie
Collins one can easily see that his method aud
that OF his school was a natural evolution
from that of those Immediately preceding
them. Beginning with the accession OF
Charles III we have the wildly extrsvagant
and hcentious school in which Claude Duval
was a popular hero and all the fine gentle
men were hbertines. After this came that
era Of intense sentimentality, Of ardent
''gush," :" swearing eternal friendship" and
all that sort Of thing, which lasted three
quarters of century, and was sstirized near
ly as much longer. In the early days Of John
Wesley all the reading young people were
saturated with this sort Of thing, and CORE
spcnded with each other under the names of
"Sylvander" and "Par,nelia," "Clovis," /"
"Clarissa" and "Alonzo."
Every person Of sentiment had an extra
name, and of course many without senti-
ment adopted the fashion. Queen Anne was
Mrs Freeman to her correspondent, and
her intimate friends were Mrs. Morley" and
"Mrs. Masham" John Wesley was "Clean-
der" and wrote gushing letters to a "Me-
hssa" About the time Of the American
Revolution this style Of novel had reached
the last phase Of floridness and corruption and
was satirized on the stage and in the comics"
till even kitchen girls were ashamed of IL
Then sentiment ran TO the exaltation OF the
domestic affections for q long period-the
period of Children Of the Abbey" etc. The
fathers were fonder than all fathers before
them, the daughters ''called heaven TO wit
ness" on the slightest provocation, husbands
sank insensible on the graves Of their wives
and wives fell and expired on the collins of
their husbands. And this style still ruled
when Wilkie Collins made his advent In
literature.
He was the son of the eminent rustic
painter, William Collins, and, another paint
er's name being added, his full name was
William Wilkie Collins Born in London in
January, 1924, and taken from school at an
early age to be put in the tea trade, he
changed his whole plan of life on coming OF
age and began 10 study law In Is4s he
wrote an affectionate biography Of his father,
which was so well received that be changed
his plan again, and thenceforth was devoted
entirely to literature. The lawyer reading
some Of his productions can easily perceive
the effect Of law studies on the writer's mind
and perceive ct the same time that tha study
was not thorough enough 20 save him from
some serious blunders. In Man and Wife" ;"
for instance, the plot is most ingeniously
built up on legal technicalities, vet the points
he makes are certainly bad law" England
and Scotland were at that time pretty hard
on wives, it must be confessed, but nothing
like so hard as the novelist makes out
That school of fiction in which plot out
ranks all else in Importance was already de-
veloping rapidly when Wilkie Collins began
TO write: he soon brought it TO something
near perfection. The Dead Secret was In
the highest style of the new school, and the
publication in $3.50 Of THE Woman in
White" actually seemed to mark a new era
in fiction As il came out serially the sue
cessive numbers were eagerly looked for by
all readng England, and in America a mill
ion young hearts were as profoundly moved
as most people were the previous year by the
successive dispatches OF the Franco-Austrian
war. Thereafter there appeared TO lie no
Improvement III construction OF plot, though,
as matter OF course, there viii long be a
question as 70 the comparative merits Of his
early and later novels, as 1t IL matter OF
taste. II is interesting therefore 20 discover
how he built up such a complicated scheme,
and he once explained /: fully IN letter 20
an American lady.
His general plan was to get the central idea
first. In The Woman in White this plan
was criminal conspiracy by people In good
society. and not ether wise criminal, and
the keynote Was the robbing OF woman Of
her right TO a name and title. This done
be wrote the climax first Similarly Mra
Stowe wrote the dying scene Of Uncle Tom
k.,-sf S<,S Il
lins got most Of Ills characters In mind,
thought long and hard 70 find the ''o.bsr
woman" thsn gave IL up and was contem-
plating another plan when, as be says. 'Anns
Ca.herick comes In and says, Try me-"
This illustrates a trick q the mind with
which all writer's and Dschinists indeed all
men who think hard, are familiar. Ths
thinker strives long and earnestly 20 fornu-
late an idea. fails and abandon, the quest,
then suddenly from an unexpected source a
totally different and unsouyh. idea CONES
rushing Into the mind, and very often IL
proves Tar more s1itAbls than the one fra
iiraly conceived TIE mental sxertion brings.
Dot what /. was t-ying 20 bring. but some
thing different and far better. The Wo-
tzlarl IN White is his most popular novel,
And, AZ usual IN such cases, quite al army II
critics have scored the pab.lc fer iss taste.
bu. the sutnor himself ant Charles Dsckeos
thought the public perfectly rigEt. ]. 10 now
4 Ic:eT~: 70 find that the no~elts. HE other
rsen. often failed on his arss plan ard bad to
.ry again Thus, IN this cass be b~ean with
! striking incident and lss the etarScssrs
themselves s-4te tie fac.s rklch I'D zp &c IL,
'oacd this 70 Be a niztAks. ,crsv al thai
was toas a-ay ard naades nsv frsEssvo<f
Then for tie development;
Tho sosns Of ny op>ning chapters - 10
,urnssrlsnd 2iz Fairiie Afterwards Lazy /
siydes: Mr.. Fairlie, With hs irritable nerves 1
nd his a.. Treasures. Mo Ealcornh~ Eas-
ors-ed ssadeniy. ike Anns Cs.ssrseka. are
Il waiting the arrival q ;Ss yozsIs ers"iaS 1
aaster. Walter HArty1gh;s No; 'sas VOC
.o Th4 p<sr-oz 20 n< frs- in.-otissoes > AfL'se
-athsrick See nzs. he already isfa1iA0
.~u-e q, me reader. wien tie res5eT acoorn-
ausss n. - CaraherEsnS- Tnssss Wal zssszs
!. done h.s. 1ont 80 hs- 70 % ~ g Dew
,.as co-ses 20 ne. ard sny EaraSasrr15s Save
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,r.rs,.x hasz~n 70 rad os Innate $50
"a, e~-ar>a fro-s al asvsun--s psr.xrsph Il i
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