Knowra Wilkie Collins Wilkie Collins Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) was an English novelist and playwright whose sensation fiction and mystery novels include The Woman in White and The Moonstone .
The Woman in White : An 1859–1860 novel by Wilkie Collins about mistaken identity, confinement, and a conspiracy against Laura Fairlie. Its serialized success established Collins as a major writer of sensation fiction.
Epistolary novel : A novel told through documents such as letters, diaries, or reports. Collins uses assembled documents to make evidence and narration drive the plot.
Charles Dickens : An English novelist and editor whose works include Bleak House and Great Expectations . Dickens became Collins's close collaborator and published several of his works.
Augustus Egg : An English painter and actor associated with the Pre-Raphaelite circle and Victorian theater. Egg was a close friend who shared Collins's interest in theatrical performance.
Golden Age of Detective Fiction : A period, chiefly between the world wars, when puzzle-centered detective novels flourished in Britain. Writers of this period inherited the evidence-driven mystery associated with Collins.
The Moonstone : An 1868 novel by Wilkie Collins in which multiple narrators recount the theft of a valuable diamond. Its investigation and shifting testimony helped shape the English detective novel.
Unreliable narrator : A narrator whose account is compromised by limited knowledge, bias, deception, or mistaken belief. Contradictory narrators make Collins's mysteries depend on judging testimony.
Lincoln's Inn : One of London's Inns of Court, institutions that train barristers and support the legal profession. Collins studied law there, an experience reflected in his plots about evidence and inheritance.
Ellen Terry : An English stage actor celebrated for her Shakespearean roles and long career at the Lyceum Theatre. Terry performed in Collins's plays, including The New Magdalen .
Narrative perspective : The position and viewpoint from which a story's events are presented. Collins's multiple accounts made perspective itself a source of suspense and uncertainty.
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