Teresa: I read The Moonstone and The Woman in White well over 10 years ago, and I enjoyed them (particularly The Woman in White), but it didn’t occur to me to read more Collins until I started to see other bloggers mention his less well-known works. Her malicious plots, revealed in letters and diary entries, center on acquiring the Armadale fortune for herself. Ozias, however, sees doom around every corner-both because of his father’s deathbed plea and because of a possibly prophetic dream that Allan has when the two are left overnight on a wrecked ship.ĭoom eventually comes in the form of Lydia Gwilt, one of the most villainous villainesses in literature. One of the men, the poorer one and the recipient of the letter quoted above, is going by the assumed name of Ozias Midwinter, and he quickly discovers that it’s difficult to disentangle himself from the amiable Allan Armadale who, unaware of their connection, has decided that he and Ozias are meant to be great friends. Never let the two Allan Armadales meet in this world: never, never, never! Put the mountains and the seas between you be ungrateful, be unforgiving be all that is most repellant to your own gentler nature, rather than live under the same roof, and breathe air with that same man. Hide yourself from him under an assumed name. Desert the woman who loves you, if that woman is a link between you and him.

Offend your best benefactor, if that benefactor’s influence has connected you one with the other. On his deathbed, the worried father writes,Īvoid the man who bears the same name as your own. We learn how these two young men came to share the same name, Allan Armadale, and why the father of one of the young men is convinced they must never meet. There’s a stolen identity, a shipwreck, a deathbed confession-and that’s all in the first three chapters, where we get the origin story of the two men who will be the focus of the action in the book. ( See the schedule here.) Jenny and I have both been wanting to read more Collins, so we were delighted to join the tour by reviewing Armadale. Published in 1866, Armadale features lots of the sensational elements one would expect of a Wilkie Collins novel. Every weekday from November 2 to December 11, a different book blog is featuring Wilkie Collins. Have you been noticing a lot of chatter about Wilkie Collins around the blogosphere lately? If so, you’ve probably stumbled across the Classics Circuit, a blog tour program that seeks to encourage the reading of classic literature.

Armadale collins