After Dark - Collins, Wilkie

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Résumé :
After Dark is Wilkie Collins's first collection of six short stories previously published in Household Words, a magazine edited by Charles Dickens. Collins provides a narrative framework, 'Leaves from Leah's Diary'. William Kerby, a portrait-painter, is in danger of losing his sight, and is required by his doctor to cease painting for a while. His wife Leah realizes that destitution threatens. But William is a good story-teller, and Leah has the idea of writing down his stories and publishing them.Wilkie Collins, a remarkable observer of his time, knows how to portray these tortured souls. This book is a classic that has kept all its charm and definitely is a brilliantly written Masterpiece

Biographie:
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright and short story writer best known for The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). Born to the family of a painter, William Collins, in London, he grew up in Italy and France, learning French and Italian. He began work as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, appeared in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend and mentor. Some of Collins's works appeared first in Dickens's journals All the Year Round and Household Words and they collaborated on drama and fiction. In May of 1851 Collins acted with Dickens in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's play Not So Bad As We Seem. Among the audience were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Collins's story A Terribly Strange Bed, his first contribution to Household Words, appeared in April, 1852. In May 1852 he went on tour with Dickens's company of amateur actors, again performing Not So Bad As We Seem, but with a more substantial role. Collins achieved financial stability and an international following with his best known works in the 1860s, but began suffering from gout. Taking opium for the pain grew into an addiction. In the 1870s and 1880s his writing quality declined with his health. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage: he split his time between Caroline Graves and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.