
Collected Memoirs, Letters and Literary Writings of Wilkie Collins (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Memoirs, letters, and literary essays from a Victorian master of mystery and social critiqueBy Wilkie CollinsLength39h 58m
About this audiobook
Collected Memoirs, Letters and Literary Writings of Wilkie Collins gathers the private and professional prose of one of Victorian fiction's most inventive practitioners. Through reminiscence, correspondence, essays, and occasional literary pieces, the volume illuminates Collins's artistic methods, his views on narrative sensation, theatricality, collaboration, and the commercial realities of nineteenth-century authorship. Read beside The Woman in White and The Moonstone, these writings form an indispensable context for understanding his fascination with secrecy, law, medicine, gender, and the machinery of suspense. Wilkie Collins, born in 1824, was the son of the painter William Collins and came of age within the artistic and publishing circles of mid-Victorian London. His friendship with Charles Dickens, his experience as a dramatist and journalist, his legal training, and his chronic ill health all shaped his fiction and his reflections on literary labor. These documents reveal a writer both practical and radical: alert to audience expectation, yet persistently testing social and narrative conventions. This collection is highly recommended for readers of Victorian literature, scholars of authorship, and admirers of Collins's novels who wish to encounter the intelligence behind the plots. It offers not merely biographical supplement, but a vivid record of a major novelist thinking aloud about art, society, and the profession of writing.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics
Length39 hrs 58 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateMay 21, 2015
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
2Introduction
3Author Biography
4Historical Context
5Synopsis (Selection)
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6Biographies:
7Memoirs of the Life of William Collins (With Selections From His Journals and Correspondence) (pt. 1)
8Memoirs of the Life of William Collins (With Selections From His Journals and Correspondence) (pt. 2)
9Memoirs of the Life of William Collins (With Selections From His Journals and Correspondence) (pt. 3)
10Memoirs of the Life of William Collins (With Selections From His Journals and Correspondence) (pt. 4)
11Memoirs of the Life of William Collins (With Selections From His Journals and Correspondence) (pt. 5)
12Memoirs of the Life of William Collins (With Selections From His Journals and Correspondence) (pt. 6)
13Memoirs of the Life of William Collins (With Selections From His Journals and Correspondence) (pt. 7)
14Memoirs of the Life of William Collins (With Selections From His Journals and Correspondence) (pt. 8)
15Letters and Literary Writings:
16A Clause for the New Reform Bill
17A Column to Burns
18A Dramatic Author
19A Fair Penitent
20A Pictorial Tour to St George Bosherville
21A Shy Scheme
22Address from the Queen to Certain of Her Subjects in Office
23Awful Warning to Bachelors
24Books Necessary for a Liberal Education
25Burns Viewed As a Hat-Peg
26Considerations on The Copyright Question
27Deep Design on Society
28Doctor Dulcamara, MP.
29Dramatic Grub Street
30How I Write My Books
31Magnetic Evenings at Home
32Pity a Poor Prince
33Rambles Beyond Railways (pt. 1)
34Rambles Beyond Railways (pt. 2)
35Rambles Beyond Railways (pt. 3)
36Reminiscences of a Storyteller
37Sermon for Sepoys
38Thanks to Doctor Livingstone
39The Cruise of the Tomtit
40The Debtor’s Best Friend
41The Exhibition of the Royal Academy
42The Little Huguenot
43The National Gallery and the Old Masters
44Analysis
45Reflection
46Memorable Quotes