Wilkie Collins
By: Peter Ackroyd
Edition: First United States edition.
Series: Ackroyd's brief lives
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 252
ISBN-13: 9780385537391
Copyright date: 2012
Subjects: English Novelists; Biography
Description: Presents a short biography of the author of "The Moonstone" and "The Woman in White," two early masterpieces of mystery and detection.

Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely nearsighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colorful clothes, Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was nonetheless a charmer, befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to women--and avidly read by generations of readers. Biographer Peter Ackroyd follows his hero, "the sweetest-tempered of all the Victorian novelists," from his childhood as the son of a well-known artist to his struggling beginnings as a writer, his years of fame and his lifelong friendship with the other great London chronicler, Charles Dickens. As well as his enduring masterpieces, including The Moonstone, often called the first true detective novel, he produced an intriguing array of lesser known works. This is an entertaining life of a great storyteller, full of surprises, rich in humor and sympathetic understanding.--Adapted from book jacket.
Notes: "Originally published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Penguin Random House Ltd., London, in 2012"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-238) and index.
Table of contents: title: The omni; title: The family; title: The pilgrimage; title: First light; title: Triumph; title: Modern times; title: On the road; title: The secret life; title: On the staff; title: The woman; title: Hot brandy and water; title: The chain; title: The stone; title: A change of heart; title: Bags of blood; title: Another country; title: Clap-trap; title: Breast pangs; title: That's me; title: A postscript.