Collins, Wilkie: On Writing and Reading, v1, 29 April 2014
 

Wilkie Collins lived in London from 1824 to 1889, a period in which 'the inevitable self-assertion of wealth, so amiably deplored by the prosperous and the rich; [was] so bitterly familiar to the unfortunate and the poor.'

He was short, plump, and short sighted; despite his severe suffering from gout he was a traveller, bon vivant, journalist, satirist, essayist, novelist, dramatist and social activist; and friend, collaborator, and rival of Charles Dickens. He became addicted to laudanum, and several of his characters praise it.

One of his characters says '... isn't it the original intention or purpose... of a work of fiction, to set out distinctly by telling a story? ... What I want is something that seizes hold of my interest... something that keeps me reading, reading, reading, in a breathless state to find out the end...'

This ebook contains four of Wilkie Collins' short non-fiction articles dealing with writing and reading. They were never collected together during his life, but I hope that they will give modern readers as much pleasure as they have given me.

The source texts for On Writing and Reading were taken from
www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/wilkie/wilkie.htm. I have silently corrected typos, curled quotes, and made minor changes to spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com.