Collins, Wilkie: No Name, v.1, IMP, 18 Dec 2007.
 

A long novel from 1862.


Magdalen Vanstone and her sister are very unfortunate. Their parents only married very late in life. And she only discovers her illegitimacy after her father’s death, when his fortune passes to a bitter enemy.Will she succeed in scheming to recover her inheritance?


From Andrew Gasson’s commentary at www.wilkie-collins.info/
“An early didactic novel, it addresses the theme of illegitimacy. In spite of its popular success many of the critics were scathing about the topic and disapproved of the heroine’s near-criminal career. H. L. Mansel of The Quarterly Review wrote, ‘We have often heard an illegal connexion and its result euphemistically designated a ‘misfortune;’ but this is the first time as far as we are aware in which a lawful marriage has been denominated an “accident.”’ The novel features one of Collins’s most dynamic heroines, and