Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) was the author of thirty major books, as well as essays, criticism, and plays. Like his mentor and friend Charles Dickens, Collins serialized his novels, which were hugely popular. He wrote about social issues, including the plight of women during the Victorian era, but it was The Woman in White and The Moonstone that T. S. Eliot called “the best of modern English detective novels.” Collins was famously addicted to opium, which he used to treat his severe arthritis, and died after a long decline.
Portrait by Rudolph Lehmann.
WORKS THAT HAVE APPEARED IN NARRATIVE:
- The Traveler’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed, a short story, in Stories of the Week: 2010–2011