Wilkie Collins

Stephen Knight studied at Oxford, then at the University of Sydney, where he completed a PhD on Langland’s Piers Plowman. He taught there for two decades and then worked at Melbourne, De Montfort and Cardiff. He has published widely on medieval and modern literature, with a special interest in widely-known modes such as crime fiction, Robin Hood studies and mid-nineteenth century popular fiction.

Preface

Introduction

1.Short Stories 1843-61

1. Towards the Contemporary Short Story

2. Tales of Troubled Women

3. Problems for Families, Gentry, and Professionals

4. Crime and Detection

2. The Engagement with Novels – Ioláni to The Woman in White

1. First Moves in Long Fiction

2. Novels of Family and Mystery

3. Extending the Range: Women, France, and Italy

4. Crime and Mystery Fiction at Home

5. Sensational Success: The Woman in White

3. The Confident Novelist

1. A Woman in Darkness: No Name

2. `… if there is such a thing as chance?’: Armadale

3. Into Mystery: The Moonstone

4. Marriage and Its Obstacles: Man and Wife, Poor Miss Finch, Miss or Mrs?

5. Return to Troubled Heroines: The New Magdalen, The Law and The Lady, The Two

Destinies

4. The Later Short Stories

1. Introduction

2. Beyond Crime Fiction

3. Love, Loss, and Emotional Outcomes, from the Male Viewpoint

4. Pressures and Claims Towards Marriage, from the Female Viewpoint.

5.The Final Novels: Crime, Social Politics, Romance and Melodrama

1. Melodrama and Mystery

2. Melodrama and Politics

3. Romance and the Difficulties It Faces

4. Family and Politics: Final Statements

5. Conclusion