Other Fiction Collins, Wilkie: The Dead Secret (Illustrated). v1 7 August 2014

[AlexBell]

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.

The Dead Secret was published in 1857, three years before The Woman in White, and was the author's first full length novel written specifically for serialisation. It is a complex melodrama about young love and old deceit, set against the background of 'those distinctions in rank on which the whole well-being of society depends.'

The source text was Project Gutenberg 43092-h.htm, checked against the Harper & Brothers 1874 edition. I have included the author's Preface from earlier editions, silently corrected typos, curled quotes, used British English, made changes to spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com, and set letters and documents off as blockquotes.

As always please let me know of any mistakes so I can correct them.

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