Armadale - Wilkie Collins

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Résumé :
Armadale (1866) is an imaginative novel of 19th century by Wilkie Collins, dedicated to John Forster. This novel featuring a stunningly wicked female villain was regarded by T.S.Eliot as 'the best of his romances'. It consists of an introduction and notes by John Sutherland. This is the story of Alan Armadale. 'Armadale' is a long Victorian classic from the golden age of exciting fiction. It denotes a detailed interest in human psychology with dreams arising at many points in the book. The story comprises two generations of the Armadale families and the complicated plot combines several themes, including the supernatural, identity, murder and detection. The villain of this novel is Lydia Gwylt, a beautiful wicked governess, who is a adulterer, murderer, and drug addict, who creates a web of fraud in order to execute Allan's death. Character of Lydia makes this book so valuable. Armadale from beginning to end is a sensational labyrinth of uncertainties. As an appendix to this story Collins shares an anecdote with reference to The Dream that figures generally in the novel.

Biographie:
William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright best known for The Woman in White (1859), a mystery and early sensation novel, and The Moonstone (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and may be the first clear example of the police procedural genre. Born to London painter William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved to Italy with them when he was twelve years old, spending two years there and in France learning both Italian and French. Collins was born at 11 New Cavendish Street in London, the son of William Collins, a well-known Royal Academician landscape painter, and his wife, Harriet Geddes. Named after his father, he quickly became recognized by his second name, which honors his godfather, painter David Wilkie. The family relocated to Pond Street, Hampstead, around 1826. In 1828, Collins' brother Charles Allston Collins was born. Between 1829 and 1830, the Collins family relocated twice: first to Hampstead Square and subsequently to Porchester Terrace in Bayswater. Wilkie and Charles received an early education from their mother at home. The Collins family was very religious, and Collins' mother insisted on strict church attendance for her boys, which Wilkie detested....

Sommaire:
Armadale (1866) is an imaginative novel of 19th century by Wilkie Collins, dedicated to John Forster. This novel featuring a stunningly wicked female villain was regarded by T.S.Eliot as 'the best of his romances'. It consists of an introduction and notes by John Sutherland. This is the story of Alan Armadale. 'Armadale' is a long Victorian classic from the golden age of exciting fiction. It denotes a detailed interest in human psychology with dreams arising at many points in the book. The story comprises two generations of the Armadale families and the complicated plot combines several themes, including the supernatural, identity, murder and detection. The villain of this novel is Lydia Gwylt, a beautiful wicked governess, who is a adulterer, murderer, and drug addict, who creates a web of fraud in order to execute Allan's death. Character of Lydia makes this book so valuable. Armadale from beginning to end is a sensational labyrinth of uncertainties. As an appendix to this story Collins shares an anecdote with reference to The Dream that figures generally in the novel....