Collins, WILLIAM WILKIE

Collins, WILLIAM WILKIE, novelist, elder son of William Collins, R.A., was born in London, 8th January 1824. He was educated partly at Highbury, but during 1836-39 was with his parents in Italy. After his return he spent four years in business, and then entered Lincoln's Inn; but gradually took to literature, the Life of his father (1848) being his earliest production. To it succeeded Antonina, or the Fall of Rome (1850); Basil (1852); Hide and Seek (1854); The Dead Secret (1857); The Woman in White (1860); No Name (1862); Armadale (1866); The Moonstone (1868); The New Magdalen (1873), &c.—in all, fully a score of novels and collections of novelettes. Several of them originally appeared in Household Words, All the Year Round, the Cornhill, and other periodicals. The best is The Woman in White, whose 'Count Fosco' is really a creation, and in which the author's almost inevitable method of unfolding an intricate plot by narratives of the chief dramatis personae had not grown hackneyed. The Moonstone also is a strong story. He died 23d September 1889.