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    Armadale
    Armadale
    Armadale
    Ebook1,082 pages

    Armadale

    By Wilkie Collins

    4/5

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    The novel follows two distant cousins both named Allan Armadale. The father of one had murdered the father of the other. The story starts with a deathbed confession by the murderer in the form of a letter to be given to his baby son when he grows up. Many years pass. The son, mistreated at home, runs away from his mother and stepfather, and takes up a wandering life under the assumed name of Ozias Midwinter. He becomes a companion to his distant cousin, the other Allan Armadale, who throughout the novel never discovers the relationship.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInteractive Media
    Release dateOct 15, 2013
    ISBN9781909904347
    Author

    Wilkie Collins

    William Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and more than 100 essays. His best-known works are The Woman in White and The Moonstone.

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    Reviews for Armadale

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    • 4/5
      The first Wilkie Collins novel I read was The Moonstone, and I loved it so much that I devoured it practically in one sitting, while at home nursing a cold. Then I picked up The Woman in White, and, to my surprise, found it almost unbearably slow and tedious. Suddenly uncertain about a writer I'd thought I loved, I figured I'd let Armadale be my tie-breaker.... and I'm very pleased to report that the results were entirely in Mr. Collins' favor.The plot of this one is almost impossible to describe in any concise or reasonable-sounding way. Suffice it to say that it involves secrets, murders, assumed identities, an inheritance, a scheming gold digger, a prophetic dream, and no fewer than four different people named "Allan Armadale." Among other things. It's all pretty entertaining, with moments of humor and moments of tragedy and moments of suspense. One thing I find interesting about it is how, like most novels of this sort, it's full of a million ridiculously implausible coincidences, but it actually manages to turn that from a bug into a feature, creating an ominous sense of inescapable fate closing in. The characters, for the most part, are well-rendered and interesting -- especially the main villain, a manipulative, spiteful woman whom one might almost expect to be cartoony, but who instead feels extremely human, even sympathetic. All of which isn't to say that it's flawless. It is somewhat slow-paced and rambly, although, really, if you sit down to a 650-page Victorian novel expecting something zippy, you're probably asking for disappointment. And there were a few places where I found myself kind of wanting to grab some of the characters and shake them until they talked to each other, or where they seemed not to react quite the way I would expect based on things that had been previously established, leading me to wonder if maybe Collins' convoluted plot might just be getting away with him a bit.But mostly it was really enjoyable. Which leaves me wondering just what, exactly, my problem was with The Woman in White, since it's basically the same type of story as Armadale and The Moonstone, and did feature some good characters. Maybe I was just not in the right mood, or went into it with my expectations set too high. In any case, I'm glad I didn't let it put me off.
    • 5/5
      Allan Wrentmore takes his wealthy cousin's name (Allan Armadale) as a condition of inheriting his wealth. Armadale has a son of his own, but the son is in disgrace and Armadale thus decides not to leave his money and property to him. From the introduction: "In Armadale it is for once the men, rather than the women, who struggle to identify themselves - to themselves as well as to others - in relation to the name." Additionally, "The idea of property, of possession and dispossession, is intimately connected with this theme of identity." Traditionally women found status through marriage and the assumption of someone else's name. However, in this novel it is a woman - Lydia Gwilt - who defiantly keeps her original name. She "stands out as the character with a steady identity" (from the Introduction). She is also "connected with every aspect of the Armadale fortunes". Her rival for Allan, Eleanor Milroy, is known by a nickname, Neelie. She explains to Allan that, 'There are some unfortunate people in this world, whose names are...Misfits. Mine is a Misfit.' She thinks Lydia's surname 'dreadfully unpoetical'.The son of the original Allan Armadale returns under the assumed name of Fergus Ingleby. He ingratiates himself with the man who has taken his name (and his father's fortune), tries to poison him, and marries the woman Allan wanted. He is facilitated in his short reign of evil by a maid, who forges a letter from Allan's mother - 'Woe betide the people who trust her!' Ingleby tries to escape, but the ship he's on founders. Allan boards the ship and murders Ingleby. In a letter to his infant son (also an Allan Armadale), Allan tells him that he must avoid, all his life, the other Allan Armadale - the posthumous child of Fergus Ingleby and his wife.A man with the 'ugly' name of Ozias Midwinter turns up in Allan's village. Allan's mother dies shortly after a visit from her former maid. Both of Allan's cousins, and his uncle, die (the deaths precipitated by a woman's attempted suicide leap), leaving Allan heir to the estate of Thorpe-Ambrose. It becomes clear that Ozias Midwinter is really the son of Fergus Ingleby. A key event in the book is Allan's dream, featuring the 'Shadow of a Woman' and the 'Shadow of a Man'. Ozias is convinced that the shadow of a man is himself, and the shadow of a woman the former maid who forged the letter to Allan Snr's mother. The dream is interpreted rationally by the doctor, Mr Hawbury, in a manner that makes "narrative patterns from events encountered in the waking world", but it convinces neither Midwinter nor the reader. "In Armadale the 'shadow of a man' is interpreted by Ozias as himself; the 'other' dark-skinned, alient, 'primitive' Armadale". Lydia, the 'shadow of a woman', "prefigures certain of the less benign aspects of Jung's 'anima', or soul-image". "Collins's terms embody a startling anticipation of Jung's theories of 'the shadow', the dark part of a personality that is repressed from consciousness, but which must be recognised if self-knowledge is to be acquired."Lydia Gwilt is first mentioned by name on page 189, in a letter to her from a Mrs Maria Oldershaw, who is based upon a real-life person, Rachel Leverson, whose cosmetics and beauty treatments shop provided a cover for her criminal activities. Oldershaw is yet another character who uses a pseudonym - she does so in order to provide a fraudulent reference for Lydia. In her real name she shares her premises with those of Dr Downward, a 'ladies' medical man' (an abortionist, presumably). We learn that Lydia is thirty-five and 'hates women'. Maria encourages Lydia to marry Allan, and suggests a plan whereby Lydia could become governess to the 16-year-old daughter of Allan's new tenants, Major and Mrs Milroy. ["The figure of the governess, in fiction and in the popular imagination, was changing from that of the downtrodden victim to a more ambiguous, attractive, and dangerous image." - from the Introduction. As Allan puts it, "A governess is a lady who is not rich...and a duchess is a lady who is not poor"]. There is no doubt but that Lydia is pure poison - "I want a husband to vex, or a child to beat, or something of that sort. Do you ever like to see the summer insects kill themselves in the candle? I do, sometimes."Allan and Lydia finally come face to face on page 322. We learn that Lydia is a redhead (she refers to her 'horrid red hair'). Ozias is lulled into a false sense of security because Mr Brock, who had been spying on Lydia, has been tricked into believing that Maria's maid is the 'real' Miss Gwilt. Brock isn't the only spy in the novel - in fact they are everywhere, professionally employed or otherwise. "Spying is an attempt to usurp another person's freedom of action and autonomy, literally his or her self-possession" (from the introduction). Lydia spies on Allan and Neelie, and employs poor besotted Bashwood to spy on things at Thorpe-Ambrose. Pedgift Snr sets a spy on Lydia, but again Lydia is canny enough to see through it.Allan thinks he's in love with Lydia, but Ozias really is. Although Ozias had tried to convince himself that he was being superstitious in setting so much store by Allan's dream, his illusion is shattered when he and Allan argue about Lydia (who has easily persuaded Ozias to believe in her innocence): "The rain drove slanting over flower-bed and lawn, and pattered heavily against the glass; and the two Armadales stood by the window, as the two Shadows had stood in the second Vision of the Dream, with the wreck of the image [the Statuette] between them." Ozias is fascinated by Lydia, who has beguiled him absolutely. He realises the danger he is in: "I believe that if the fascination you have for me draws me back to you, fatal consequences will come of it to the man whose life has been so strangely mingled with mine..." He cannot fight her. Not only does he propose to her, he also tells her who he really is. We have a hint, from Lydia's diary, of the reasons why she is the way she is, when she reads some old "letters of the man for whom I once sacrificed and suffered everything; the man who has made me what I am." The truth of her past comes out via Bashwood's son, who works at a Private Inquiry Office. Lydia had been tried for the murder of her first husband, but the guilty verdict was overturned by the Home Secretary. She did, however, serve two years for robbery. Captain Manuel was the man with whom she was in love, and who fleeced her of all her money, married her bigamously, then disappeared from her life.Lydia's attempts to murder Allan are compromised by her love for Ozias. The scene of the final confrontation is a Sanatorium, presided over by the former Dr Downward, now calling himself Dr Le Doux. The madhouse is of course "the Victorian equivalent of the gothic castle, or convent, a place of terrifying incarceration from which there seems to be no escape" (from the Introduction). Lydia's error is in putting poison gas into the room in which Ozias sleeps rather than into Allan's room. She realises her error, makes sure Ozias lives, then decides her only course ("Even my wickedness has one merit...I have never been a happy woman") is to kill herself. All ends well: Lydia is dead, Armadale and Neelie marry, and Ozias preserves the secret of the two Allans. However, "though the active female principle may once again have been subjugated and destroyed, Armadale is Lydia Gwilt's book, and it is she who dominates the story to the end" (from the Introduction) [August 2004]
    • 2/5
      Armadale strikes me as the kind of book that you have to get interested in during the first fifty to a hundred pages to fully enjoy all the way through. For me, I did not find much interest in it. There was nothing overall wrong with it; I just found it boring.
    • 3/5
      Probably deserves a better rating but my mom had heart surgery whilst I was reading this & it couldn't hold my attention.
    • 1/5
      I suspect Collins was high when he wrote this. Four characters, one name. Long, convoluted, dragging, and in the end, a fairly pointless story.
    • 5/5
      Extremely convoluted plot. Two men with the same name who become friends despite the fact that one of their fathers murdered the other; an amoral femme fatale who entrances literally every man she comes across; villainous villains and a gullible hero. Very enjoyable, although very long and requiring lots of suspension of disbelief. I couldn't quite work out why Midwinter lost interest in Lydia only two weeks after marrying her and I found the narrative of the Dream so boring that I skipped over it, which was perhaps not the best thing to have done.Definitely "Victorian" in its emotions and attitudes and interesting in its depiction of Victorian laws surrounding marriage.Fun.
    • 3/5
      I love Collins character development,writing style and storylines. That said,this book had sections that were so long and dragged out that it made the climatic parts anti-climatic...for me.You cannot skim thru parts of Collins books,you will lose important details for the story. I liked the story,I just felt this could have been a bit shorter in length.Not as good as The Woman in White,but a good mystery.
    • 4/5
      My favourite Victorian sensationalist novel - full of melodramatic twists but also a thoughtful exporation of the nature of heredity and destiny. Very much a book for lovers of the genre - it can be a bit slow at times.
    • 5/5
      This is book is amazing. Its faced paced almost supernatural action is spellbinding. Wilkie colins solidified his place as one of the best riters ever with his consistent smooth plots and engaging characters.Perfection.
    • 5/5
      In the characteristic Collins style fate and the hint of the supernatural bring the two heroes together in this story. Ozias Midwinter is a rambling gypsy. Allen Armadale is a good natured man raised by his mother in a small fishing village. When the two meet Aramadale is quite taken with Ozias and insists on cultivating a friendship. Midwinter has a secret identity that he feels should prevent them from being friends, but his own devotion to Aramadale makes it difficult for him to resist. Ozias knows that at some point they will need to part to prevent the ruin of Aramadale that would come at the revelation of Ozias' secret. Collins also highlights the inequality of men and women's places in the Victorian era. The main female figure is a widow tainted by her past and no proper way of supporting herself. Like Becky Sharpe of Vanity Fair, she wishes to have a better life and must sacrifice her morals in order to do so. Her plan is thrown for a loop when she falls in love with Midwinter and calls into question her own behavior. Unfortunately, old habits die hard and the scars from her earlier life prove too deep to allow for a complete transformation. Unlike Becky, however, she finally comes to the realization that her love for Midwinter is far more important than her own life however worthless it may feel and dies in his place. This is quite the piece of fiction and Collins proves to be very forward thinking when thrusting the spotlight onto the problems Victorian society created for many of its women.
    • 3/5
      Those Victorian serialists were sure good at plotting (drawing things out)! I wasn't thrilled with the ending, but the characters held my intertest - esp the co-villainess "Mother" Oldershawe.
    • 4/5
      No, this is not as good as 'The Woman In White' or 'The Moonstone'. The pace and the style of writing is really quite different (Collins was immensely ill whilst writing this book). There is something lacking in this novel that the other three big novels of Collins had plenty of. Armadale is not as mysterious as the other novels. The only real secret kept from the reader until the end is the truth of Lydia Gwilt's past. This secret of her past is not something that I craved or cared that much about, all I cared about is what she was going to do next which she always clearly spells out what she is going to do, pages or chapters before she does it. All this said, it is still a fantastic read. It took me a long time to get through because this novel seems to be split in two, and the first part is quite tedious. Midwinter is an admirable character, but Mr Armadale is extremely annoying, and Midwinter, in turn, for caring so much for him is quite annoying. As a reader I was really willing Miss Gwilt on, and agreed with her on every count of Allan Armadale's character. The pair that consists of Armadale and Midwinter somewhat mirrors the pair of Marian Halcombe and Laura Fairlie from 'The Woman In White' where one is incredibly strong and the other is weak, needing constant care and attention from the stronger of the pair. The first part of the novel focuses on their relationship and foreshadowing dreams. Even Midwinter's character becomes a bore when he obsesses over fate and destiny. The second half the novel consists mainly of Lydia Gwilt's point of view whilst being introduced to new characters way of thinking, such as Mr Bashwood and Mrs Milroy. The novel picks up here and becomes a lot more interesting. There are a few instances when we think we know where the story is going, but then takes a different way completely. She gains our sympathy as she tries as hard as she can to be moral and honest, only to find her efforts useless and forced back into her old ways. This is worth a read, and some think this book is better than the more popular TWIW and TM, but I don't think so. The pacing is uneven, and some things are just too overly detailed and obvious. I was oddly dissatisfied when I had finished reading it though the character of Lydia Gwilt is a genius one. I'd advise to give this book a go, and to hold out until Lydia arrives on to the scene. On a more thematic note, there is a lot in this novel (as with his other novels) about identity, the role of women, technology, geography, money and alienation. And where would a classic Collins novel be without opium?!
    • 5/5
      Wikie Collin's "Armadale" is a story of fate, folly, and le femme fatale. This Victorian sensation novel follows the lives of distant cousins Allan Armadale and Allan Armadale (alias Ozias Midwinter) the sons of two other Allan Armadales, one the victim of the other's murderous rage over the love of a woman. When Allan Armadale Sr. (the murderer) dies he writes, on his deathbed, a confession to his son (Midwinter) about the terrible crime he visited on his namesake and the horrible fate that he fears will befall his son should he and the son of the other Armadale ever meet.21 years after this terrible confession was put to paper Midwinter and Armadale the younger meet and become best friends only for Midwinter to then receive his father's letter and learn the horrible truth of their families' pasts. Frightened that the sins of the father should be visited on the son and that he, Midwinter, should be the unwitting driving force behind the demise of the second Armadale Midwinter enters on a path of tortured self-denial, unaware that the very fear of fulfilling this prophecy is driving him closer and closer to its culmination.Meanwhile the flame-haired temptress Lydia Gwilt arrives on the scene. Complicit in the scandal that robbed Midwinter's father of his betrothed and ended in the death of Armadale's father Miss Gwilt feels that the Armadale family owes her a debt for the years she suffered in privation and disgrace. But Miss Gwilt's past dishonour is nobody's fault but her own, and her own evil nature, driven to murder once before, is now bent on murder again in order to gain the Armadale fortune. Oblivious to Miss Gwilt's murderous designs on his friend Midwinter falls hopelessly in love with her. Will this love for the very woman who is plotting to kill his friend ultimately result in the fulfillment of the prophecy and leave Midwinter responsbile for Armadale's death? Or will his love for Miss Gwilt somehow save his best friend from her terrible claws?This novel is, perhaps, Collins's best. Though not as well known as "The Woman in White" and lacking a terrific Fosco-like villain, the intricate plot, and the tragic heroine/villainess make it more believable and more moving. This is a deeply saddening book, but also a triumph in literary style. For fans of Collins or Victorian literatuer in general I could not recommend this book more highly.
    • 5/5
      Wilkie Collins is probably my favourite writer and this is the best one I've read so far, better in my opinion than the Moonstone or Woman in White which get more attention. Lydia Gwilt is a marvellous anti-heroine. Villified when the book was published, to my modern eyes she is more sympathetic. She is conniving and selfish, certainly, but also seems quite sad and lost. Collins encourages this sympathy by writing a section of it in her voice, so you get into her head and understand her motivations and mixed-up emotions. I could not put this down, read the whole thing in a day and suffered severe eye-strain as a result!
    • 5/5
      A great winter read. Full of unbelievable co-incidences (although the Appendix puts those into a new light) and Miss Gwilt is just unbelievably irredeemable, but if you can suspend disbelief and worries about Collins's misogyny, this is a good, thick book to take you through the long, dark evenings. Now looking forward to reading the introduction!
    • 4/5
      Armadale, Wilkie Collins’s longest novel and like another of his popular novels, The Moonstone, the narrative comprises a series of testimonies and accounts (such as from characters’ diaries and letters) which gradually shed light on the mystery. One interesting note: the heading of Chapter VII is "The Plot Thickens". I do not know if that was the first use of that phrase (I doubt it) but it is striking that Collins would use it for a chapter heading.In 1832, Allan Armadale confesses on his deathbed to murder: his clerk, Fergus Ingleby, stole his name and married Jane Blanchard, the woman Allan loved. Pursuing the couple on board a ship, Allan locked Fergus in a cabin and left him to drown when the ship was wrecked. Allan later travelled to the West Indies where he married a creole woman and had a son.After this opening the story moves to 1851, and the murderer’s son has adopted the name Ozias Midwinter, while the drowned Fergus Ingleby’s has been brought up under the name Allan Armadale – and with it, has inherited Fergus’ property, the estate of Thorpe Ambrose. Ozias learns the truth about his father’s crime – that he murdered his friend’s father – while on a sailing trip with Fergus and Jane’s son, Allan Armadale. He destroys the letter containing Allan Armadale Senior’s confession, and vows to keep the secret from his friend.Lydia Gwilt, the former maid to Jane Blanchard (Allan’s father), sets her sights on marrying Allan for his money. Both Ozias Midwinter and Allan Armadale end up falling for Lydia, but her plan to marry Armadale is scuppered when her cynical motives are uncovered. However the resourceful Lydia, having learned the secret that Midwinter’s real name is also Allan Armadale, plans to marry him under his real name, get the other Allan Armadale out of the way, and then use the marriage certificate as legal proof of her entitlement to the Armadale estate. This complex plot continues as Lydia marries Midwinter, concealing her checkered past from him but the denouement will have to await your reading pleasure for this reader must vow not to spoil that delight.Armadale is unusual among Wilkie Collins’s sensation novels because it demonstrates a detailed interest in human psychology, with dreams cropping up at numerous points in the novel, and Collins taking time to explore what John Sutherland, in The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction, calls ‘the psychology of crime’. Granted, the dreams are used as plot devices rather than as a sort of proto-stream-of-consciousness designed to shed light on Allan Armadale’s character; but Collins’s use of the dreams, and Midwinter’s analysis of their significance as premonitions, adds another psychological layer to this complex novel. The real triumph of Armadale is Collins’s portrayal of Lydia Gwilt, whose surname suggests ‘guilt’ (and ‘gilt’, evoking her gold-digging ambitions), but also, through a twist, ‘will’, foregrounding her own independent agency and, it must be said, her perseverance and cunning. This is a great read which I would recommend to lovers of Dickens or Thackeray.
    • 4/5
      In Armadale, considered one of Wilkie Collins's four greatest novels, he explores his favorite themes of the supernatural, destiny, murder, tortured love, revenge, deceit, and addiction. It's a complicated tale that relies heavily on coincidence, as is usual in sensational novels of the period. By an extraordinary set of circumstances too convoluted to detail here, there are two young men with the same name of "Allan Armadale," and their lives are linked (unbeknown to them) by murder and revenge in their parents' generation. One Allan Armadale is fortune's favorite, rich and handsome, while the other has had a life of unusual privation and suffering. Who can explain why their destinies are so inextricably entwined? And who casts the shadow of the Woman over them both?Usually I love Wilkie and find his Victorian thrillers still wonderfully thrilling today. His writing is fairly good (I loved a phrase he uses in this novel, "the sexual sorcery of her smile"), and his melodrama, punctuated by moments of both humor and pathos, is of the entertaining variety. And he has a real gift for carrying his stories along with different narrative voices. Some of this novel is narrated by Lydia Gwilt in letters and diary entries; some is told in the omniscient third-person narrative style; and other tidbits of letters and notes from other characters give us insight into their motives and goals. But this time I found the supernatural elements and the characters' overwrought responses to those elements—dare I say it?—the slightest bit tiresome. I wanted to tell the characters that it wasn't inevitable, they didn't have to live out the fearsome warnings of the Dream, that they should rebel against their own genre and be sensible, stolid Victorians. I suppose this still means that Collins has triumphed, as I was engaged with the characters and cared about what happened to them. But I wonder if his use of ominous supernatural signs is overdone, or if I am simply losing interest in it. His characters, however, are memorable. Lydia Gwilt reminds me of Austen's Lady Susan and Collins's own Count Fosco. Lydia loves music and plays the piano beautifully, often losing herself in Mozart... but she is harshly practical at her core. The reader senses he cannot trust her, but she fluctuates throughout the novel, believing herself to be entirely without a heart and then weakening, weakening under the affection of a singular man. We hope she will reform (and stay reformed), but we know that this is a Wilkie Collins novel, after all, and he has to get in his share of angst before a few of the characters are permitted to enjoy happy endings. Armadale is one of Collins's least humorous novels and there is a sense of oppression—suppression?—pervading its atmosphere. There is a sort of black humor in Mr. Bashwood's elderly vanity (that Collins says is really despair) and Mother Oldershaw's canting conversion to Christianity, but it isn't the sort to make you laugh. No indeed. I suppose Pedgift (and Pedgift;s Postscript) is funny, as is the description of the disastrous picnic. But these little moments are overshadowed by the larger themes. But despite the lack of light comedic moments, I agree with T. S. Eliot, quoted on the back of my copy, who wrote that this novel is never dull. For all its length (and it's over 650 pages of small type), it never bored me and I was always eager to pick it up again. And that's why I keep reading Wilkie Collins, melodrama and all. Master storytellers have that effect.
    • 4/5
      A dying man's warning creates the tension in this Victorian sensation novel. Allan Armadale has taken the name as a condition of inheritance of the Armadale estate in the West Indies because the natural heir of that name was considered unfit by his father. The two Allan Armadales of that generation eventually confront each other, with fatal consequences for one. Both leave sons and namesakes at their death. The son of the Allan Armadale of the West Indies is of mixed race since his mother was of African descent. With his last breath, the West Indian Allan Armadale leaves a warning for his son to avoid the other Allan Armadale and the woman who, as a 12-year-old girl, aided in a cruel deception. Before receiving his father's warning at his coming of age, the son, under an assumed name, meets the other Allan Armadale and they become the best of friends. He spends the rest of the novel wrestling with his conscience and his fear as his father's warnings and his premonitions of danger come true.Parts of this novel are suspenseful and parts are even humorous. However, some of the devices Collins uses don't work well. Large sections of the novel use the diary of one of the characters to reveal her thoughts, background, and intentions. It's basically an information dump. If Collins had figured out any other way to convey that information to readers, the book would have been better. Collin's treatment of race is a mixed bag. Race wasn't an impediment to friendship or marriage for the mixed race Allan Armadale. However, he is superstitious regarding dreams and premonitions, and he has difficulty controlling his emotions. Collins uses words like “savage” and “violent” to describe his emotional state. (Although to be fair, other characters also have their emotional state described as “violent” within the novel.) While I enjoyed this book, it will never be one of my favorites among Collins' novels, and I doubt I'll ever read it again.
    • 5/5
      Tracing how real-life Victorian murders were reimagined for entertainment purposes—detective fiction, theater, even puppet shows—gave me the enjoyable task of reading hundreds of novels, some classics, some good, some terrible. I had always skipped “Armadale.” It is the story of two cousins, both named Allan Armadale and both in love with the evil Miss Gwilt. She marries the poor Allan, planning to murder the rich one so that, as the legal Mrs. Allan Armadale, she can inherit his money. The book is much better than this summary makes it sound, once you get past the trauma of all the Allan Armadales running about. Collins used the 1857 case of Madeleine Smith, who was tried for poisoning her lover in Glasgow, as a jumping-off point. Today, however, it is Collins’s fiendishly clever plotting that keeps us turning the pages, as does his then-novel combination of crime and domesticity. Today the “body in the library” is shorthand for murders in domestic settings, but Collins was among the first (and best) at making the familiar seem strange, the suburban sinister.

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    Armadale - Wilkie Collins

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