Wilkie Collins: A Brief Life

Ackroyd, a prolific writer acclaimed for his histories of London (London) and the Thames (Thames), adds a new author to his oeuvre of great lives concisely chronicled. Here he synthesizes the high points of two dozen longer Wilkie Collins (1824–89) biographies in a conversational style. Collins is mostly known today only to Victorian literature aficionados and students, yet he was among the best-regarded writers of his time and an intimate of such luminaries as Charles Dickens and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. While beloved by his peers for his sensational story lines, as exemplified by The Moonstone and The Woman in White, Collins pushed both literary and societal boundaries. He is credited with penning the first English detective story, the first female detective in English literature, and the first detective novel. And while he never married, he supported two mistresses concurrently.