Editing Wilkie Collins

{{Short description|English novelist and playwright (1824–1889)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
|name = Wilkie Collins
|image = File:Wilkie Collins by Cundall, Downes & Co (cropped).jpg
|image_size = 200px
|birth_name=William Wilkie Collins
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1824|1|8}}
|birth_place = [[Marylebone]], London, England
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1889|9|23|1824|1|8}}
|death_place = London, England
|period = 1840s–1880s
|genre = Fiction, drama
|partners = Caroline Graves (1858–1895)<br>Martha Rudd (1868–1919)
|children = 3
|signature = Wilkie Collins Signature.jpg
}}
'''William Wilkie Collins''' (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English [[novelist]] and [[playwright]] known especially for ''[[The Woman in White (novel)|The Woman in White]]'' (1860), a [[mystery novel]] and early [[sensation novel]], and for ''[[The Moonstone]]'' (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern [[detective novel]] and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the [[police procedural]] genre.<ref>{{cite news |title=Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/wilkie-collins-the-moonstone |access-date=13 April 2023 |work=British Library |archive-date=13 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230413135233/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/wilkie-collins-the-moonstone |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Noir in the North Genre, Politics and Place |date=2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |page=247}}</ref>

Born to the London painter [[William Collins (painter)|William Collins]] and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to [[Italy]] when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[French language|French]]. He worked initially as a [[tea]] [[merchant]]. After ''[[Antonina (Collins novel)|Antonina]]'', his first novel, was published in 1850, Collins met [[Charles Dickens]], who became his friend and mentor. Some of Collins' work appeared in Dickens' journals ''[[Household Words]]'' and ''[[All the Year Round]]''. They also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins gained financial stability and an international following by the 1860s. In the 1870s and 1880s, after becoming addicted to the [[opium]] which he took for his [[gout]], the quality of his health declined and, in turn, the reception of his artistic output.

Collins criticised the institution of [[marriage]]. He had relationships with two women: widow Caroline Graves – living with her for most of his life, treating her daughter as his – and the younger Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.

==Early life==
[[File:Millais Wilkie Collins.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Collins by [[John Everett Millais]], 1850]]
Collins was born at 11 [[New Cavendish Street]], [[London]], the son of [[William Collins (painter)|William Collins]], a well-known [[Royal Academy|Royal Academician]] landscape painter, and his wife, Harriet Geddes. Named after his father, he soon became known by his middle name, which honoured his godfather, the painter [[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]]. The family moved to [[Pond Street, Hampstead|Pond Street]], [[Hampstead]], in 1826. In 1828 Collins's brother [[Charles Allston Collins]] was born. Between 1829 and 1830, the Collins family moved twice, first to [[Hampstead Square]] and then to [[Porchester Terrace]], [[Bayswater]].<ref name="Chronology">{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to Wilkie Collins; Chronology |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-84038-4 |pages=xiii-xix }}</ref> Wilkie and Charles received their early education from their mother at home. The Collins family were deeply religious, and Collins's mother enforced strict [[church attendance]] on her sons, which Wilkie disliked.{{sfn|Klimaszewski|2011|p=15}}

In 1835, Collins began attending school at the [[Maida Vale]] academy. From 1836 to 1838, he lived with his parents in Italy and France, which made a great impression on him. He learned Italian while in Italy and began learning French, in which he would eventually become fluent.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=17–18}} From 1838 to 1840, he attended the Reverend Cole's private boarding school in [[Highbury]], where he was bullied. One boy forced Collins to tell him a story every night before allowing him to go to sleep. "It was this brute who first awakened in me, his poor little victim, a power of which but for him I might never have been aware.... When I left school I continued story telling for my own pleasure," Collins later said.<ref name="Cain"/>

In 1840 the family moved to 85 Oxford Terrace, [[Bayswater]]. In late 1840, Collins left school at the age of nearly 17 and was apprenticed as a [[clerk (position)|clerk]] to the firm of tea merchants Antrobus & Co, owned by a friend of Wilkie's father. He disliked clerical work, but worked for the company for more than five years. 

Collins started writing and published his first story, "The Last Stage Coachman", in the ''Illuminated Magazine'' in August 1843.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=19–21}} In 1844 he travelled to Paris with Charles Ward. That same year he wrote his first novel, ''Iolani, or Tahiti as It Was; a Romance'', which was submitted to [[Chapman and Hall]] but rejected in 1845. The novel remained unpublished during his lifetime.<ref name="Chronology"/> Collins said of it: "My youthful imagination ran riot among the noble savages, in scenes which caused the respectable British publisher to declare that it was impossible to put his name on the title page of such a novel." While Collins was writing this novel, his father first learned that his son would not follow him in becoming a painter.<ref name="Cain">{{Cite book |title=Introduction to The Legacy of Cain |last=Clarke |first=William M. |year=2003 |publisher=Alan Sutton |location=UK |isbn=0-7509-0453-4 |pages=v–x }}</ref>

William Collins had intended his first son to become a clergyman and was disappointed in Wilkie's lack of interest in the profession. At his father's insistence, Collins instead entered [[Lincoln's Inn]] in 1846, to study law; his father wanted him to have a steady income. Collins showed only a slight interest in law and spent most of his time with friends and on working on a second novel, ''Antonina, or the Fall of Rome''.{{sfn|Klimaszewski|2011|p=28}} After his father's death in 1847, Collins produced his first published book, ''Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R. A.'', published in 1848. 

The family moved to 38 Blandford Square soon afterwards, where they used their drawing room for amateur theatricals. In 1849, Collins exhibited a painting, ''The Smugglers' Retreat'', at the [[Royal Academy summer exhibition]]. ''Antonina'' was published by [[Richard Bentley (publisher)|Richard Bentley]] in February 1850. Collins went on a walking tour of [[Cornwall]] with artist Henry Brandling in July and August 1850.<ref name="Chronology"/> He managed to complete his legal studies and was called to the bar in 1851. Though he never formally practised, he used his legal knowledge in many of his novels.<ref name="Cain"/>

==Early writing career==
[[File:Wilkie Collins 1853.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait by [[Charles Allston Collins]], 1853]]

An instrumental event in his career was an introduction in March 1851 to [[Charles Dickens]] by their friend in common, the painter [[Augustus Egg]]. They became lifelong friends and collaborators. In May of that year, Collins acted with Dickens in [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton|Edward Bulwer-Lytton's]] play ''[[Not So Bad as We Seem, Or, Many Sides to a Character: A Comedy in Five Acts|Not So Bad As We Seem]]''. Among the audience were [[Queen Victoria]] and [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]].{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=33–34}} Collins's story "[[A Terribly Strange Bed]]", his first contribution to Dickens's journal ''[[Household Words]]'', was published in April 1852. In May 1852 he went on tour with Dickens's company of amateur actors, again performing ''Not So Bad As We Seem'', but with a more substantial role.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |p=37}} 

Collins's novel ''[[Basil (novel)|Basil]]'' was published by Bentley in November. During the writing of ''[[Hide and Seek (Collins novel)|Hide and Seek]]'', in early 1853, Collins suffered what was probably his first attack of [[gout]], a condition from which he would suffer for the rest of his life. He was ill from April to early July. After that he stayed with Dickens in [[Boulogne]] from July to September 1853, then toured Switzerland and Italy with Dickens and Egg from October to December. Collins published ''Hide and Seek'' in June 1854.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=40–45}}

During this period Collins extended the variety of his writing, publishing articles in [[George Henry Lewes]]'s paper ''[[The Leader (English newspaper)|The Leader]],'' short stories and essays for ''[[Bentley's Miscellany]],'' as well as dramatic criticism and the travel book ''Rambles Beyond Railways.'' (1851)<ref name="Cain"/> His first play, ''The Lighthouse'', was performed by Dickens's theatrical company at [[Tavistock House]], in 1855. His first collection of short stories, ''[[After Dark (short story collection)|After Dark]]'', was published by [[Smith, Elder & Co.|Smith, Elder]] in February 1856. His novel ''A Rogue's Life'' was [[Serial (literature)|serialised]] in ''Household Words'' in March 1856. Around then, Collins began using [[laudanum]] regularly to treat his gout. He became addicted and struggled with that problem later in life.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |p=52}}

Collins joined the staff of ''Household Words'' in October 1856. In 1856–57 he collaborated closely with Dickens on a play, ''[[The Frozen Deep]]'', first performed in [[Tavistock]]. Collins's novel ''[[The Dead Secret]]'' was serialised in ''Household Words'' from January to June 1857, before being published in volume form by [[Bradbury and Evans]]. Collins's play ''The Lighthouse'' was performed at the [[Olympic Theatre (London)|Olympic Theatre]] in August. His account, ''The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices,'' based on Dickens's and Collins's walking tour in the north of England, was serialised in ''Household Words'' in October 1857. In 1858 Collins collaborated with Dickens and other writers on the story "[[A House to Let]]".{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=53–63}}

==1860s==
According to Collins's biographer Melisa Klimaszewski, 
<blockquote>The novels Collins published in the 1860s are the best and most enduring of his career. ''[[The Woman in White (novel)|The Woman in White]]'', ''[[No Name (novel)|No Name]]'', ''[[Armadale (novel)|Armadale]]'', and ''[[The Moonstone]]'', written in less than a decade, show Collins not just as a master of his craft, but as an innovater and provocateur. These four works, which secured him an international reputation, and sold in large numbers, ensured his financial stability, and allowed him to support many others.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |p=67}}</blockquote>

''The Woman in White'' was serialised in ''[[All the Year Round]]'' from November 1859 to August 1860 to great success. The novel was published in book form soon after and reached an eighth edition by November 1860. His rising success as a writer allowed Collins to resign his post with ''All the Year Round'' in 1862 and focus on his novels. While planning his next novel, ''No Name'', he continued to suffer from gout, which began to affect his eyes. Serial publication of ''No Name'' began in early 1862 and finished in 1863. By that time Collins was having difficulty controlling the amount of laudanum he was taking for his continual gout and became addicted.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=70–77}}

At the beginning of 1863, he travelled with Caroline Graves to German spas and Italy for his health. In 1864, he began work on his novel ''Armadale'', travelling in August to the [[The Broads|Norfolk Broads]] and the village of [[Winterton-on-Sea]] to do research for it. It was published serially in ''[[The Cornhill Magazine]]'' in 1864–1866.

His play ''[[No Thoroughfare]]'', co-written with Dickens, was published as the 1867 Christmas number of ''All the Year Round'' and dramatised at the [[Adelphi Theatre]] in the [[West End theatre|West End]] on 26 December. It enjoyed a run of 200 nights before being taken on tour.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=77–84}} ''The Moonstone'' was serialised in ''All the Year Round'' from January to August 1868. His mother, Harriet Collins, died in that year.<ref name="Cain"/>

==Later years==
[[File:Sarony, Napoleon (1821-1896) - Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) in 1874 2.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Photograph of Collins by [[Napoleon Sarony]], 1874]]
In 1870, Collins' novel ''[[Man and Wife (novel)|Man and Wife]]'' was published. That year [[Charles Dickens]] died, which caused him great sadness. He said of the friends' early days together, "We saw each other every day, and were as fond of each other as men could be."{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |p=97}}

''[[The Woman in White (novel)|The Woman in White]]'' was dramatised and produced at the Olympic Theatre in October 1871. Collins's novel ''Poor Miss Finch'' was serialised in ''Cassell's Magazine'' from October to March 1872. His short novel ''Miss or Mrs.?'' was published in the 1871 Christmas number of the ''Graphic''. His novel ''The New Magdalen'' was serialised from October 1872 to July 1873. His younger brother, Charles Allston Collins, died later in 1873 at the age of 45. Charles had married Dickens's younger daughter, [[Kate Perugini|Kate]].<ref name="Chronology"/>

[[File:(William) Wilkie Collins by Rudolph Lehmann.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait by [[Rudolf Lehmann (artist)|Rudolph Lehmann]], 1880]]
In 1873–74, Collins toured the United States and Canada, giving readings of his work. The American writers he met included [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.]], and [[Mark Twain]]. He began a friendship with photographer [[Napoleon Sarony]], who took several portraits of him.{{sfn|Klimaszewski|2011|pp=104–105}}

His novel ''The Law and the Lady'', serialised in the ''Graphic'' from September to March 1875, was followed by a short novel, ''The Haunted Hotel'', which was serialised from June to November 1878. His later novels include ''Jezebel's Daughter'' (1880), ''The Black Robe'' (1881), ''Heart and Science'' (1883), and ''The Evil Genius'' (1886). In 1884, Collins was elected vice-president of the Society of Authors, which had been founded by his friend and fellow novelist [[Walter Besant]].<ref name="Chronology"/>

The inconsistent quality of Collins's dramatic and fictional works in the last decade of his life was accompanied by a general decline in his health, including diminished eyesight. He was often unable to leave home and had difficulty writing. During these last years, he focused on mentoring younger writers, including the novelist [[Hall Caine]]. He also used his legal background to help protect other writers from copyright infringement of their works. His writing became a way for him to fight his illness without allowing it to keep him bedridden. His step-daughter Harriet also served as an [[amanuensis]] for several years. His last novel, ''Blind Love'', was finished posthumously by Walter Besant.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=113–131}}

==Death==
[[File:Wilkie Collins, Kensal Green Cemetery 01.JPG|thumb|Monument, Kensal Green Cemetery]]
[[File:Wilkie Collins, Kensal Green Cemetery 02.JPG|thumb|Monument detail, Kensal Green Cemetery]]

Collins died on 23 September 1889, at 65&nbsp;[[Wimpole Street]], following a paralytic stroke. He is buried in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], [[West London (sub region)|West London]]. His headstone describes him as the author of ''[[The Woman in White (novel)|The Woman in White]]''.<ref>Kensal Green Cemetery, Grave Number 31754, Square 141, Row 1.</ref> Caroline Graves died in 1895 and was buried with Collins. Martha Rudd died in 1919.<ref name="Chronology"/>

==Personal life==
In 1858 Collins began living with Caroline Graves and her daughter Harriet. Caroline came from a humble family, having married young, had a child, and been widowed. Collins lived close to the small shop kept by Caroline, and the two may have met in the neighbourhood in the mid–1850s. He treated Harriet, whom he called Carrie, as his own daughter, and helped to provide for her education. Excepting one short separation, they lived together for the rest of Collins's life. Collins disliked the institution of marriage, but remained dedicated to Caroline and Harriet, considering them to be his family.{{sfn |Klimaszewski |2011 |pp=64–66}} 

Caroline had wanted to marry Collins. She left him while he wrote ''The Moonstone'' when he was suffering an attack of acute gout. She married a younger man named Joseph Clow, but after two years, she returned to Collins.<ref name="Cain"/>

In 1868, Collins met Martha Rudd in [[Winterton-on-Sea]] in Norfolk, and the two began a liaison. She was 19 years old and from a large, poor family. A few years later, she moved to London to be closer to him. Their daughter Marian was born in 1869; their second daughter, Harriet Constance, in 1871; and their son, William Charles, in 1874. When he was with Martha, Collins assumed the name William Dawson, and she and their children used the last name of Dawson themselves.

For the last 20 years of his life Collins divided his time between Caroline, who lived with him at his home in [[Gloucester Place]], and Martha, who was nearby.<ref name="Cain"/> 

Collins was a professing Christian.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://wilkiecollinssociety.org/wilkie-collins-an-interpretation-of-christian-belief/ |title=Wilkie Collins – An Interpretation of Christian Belief |publisher= Wilkie Collins Society }}</ref>

==Works==
[[File:Wilkie Collins Vanity Fair 3 February 1872.jpg|thumb|160px|left|Captioned "The Novelist who invented Sensation", caricature of Wilkie Collins in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 3 February 1872]]
Collins's works were classified at the time as [[sensation novel]]s, a genre that became the precursor to [[detective fiction|detective]] and suspense fiction. He also wrote penetratingly on the plight of women and on the social and domestic issues of his time. For example, his 1854 ''Hide and Seek'' contained one of the first portrayals of a [[Deafness|deaf]] character in English literature. As did many writers of his time, Collins first published most of his novels as [[Serial (literature)|serial]]s in magazines such as Dickens's ''[[All the Year Round]]'', and was known as a master of the form, creating just the right degree of suspense to keep his audience reading from week to week.

''The Lighthouse'' was a [[melodrama]] loosely based on Collins's 1853 short story, "Gabriel's Marriage", but set in [[Eddystone Lighthouse]] in December 1748. In May 1855, Collins sent the finished play to Dickens, who enthusiastically took over the production. Dickens played Aaron Gurnock, the head lightkeeper, and arranged for [[Clarkson Stanfield]] to paint the backdrop. Other parts were taken by Collins, [[Augustus Egg]], [[Mark Lemon]], [[Mary Dickens]] and [[Georgina Hogarth]]. The production ran for four nights at Tavistock House, from 16 June 1855, followed by a single performance on 10 July at Campden House, Kensington. It was staged at the Royal Olympic Theatre from 10 August to 17 October 1857, as Collins's first professional production. Robson played Aaron Gurnock and [[George Vining]] read the Prologue. An American version opened at the New Theatre, New York, on 21 January 1858. There was an amateur production with [[Palgrave Simpson]] on 3 May 1865 at the [[Royal Bijou Theatre]] (Lambeth School of Art) and further revivals at Shelley's Boscombe Theatre in the 1870s and 1880s. ''The Lighthouse'' was translated into French by Emile Forgues.

Collins enjoyed ten years of success after publishing ''The Woman in White'' in 1859. His next novel, ''[[No Name (novel)|No Name]]'' combined social commentary – the absurdity of the law as applied to children of unmarried parents (see [[Illegitimacy in fiction]]) – with a densely plotted revenge [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]]. ''[[Armadale (novel)|Armadale]],'' the first and only one of Collins's major novels of the 1860s to be serialised in a magazine other than ''All the Year Round,'' provoked strong criticism. Reviewers found its villainess Lydia Gwilt to be doubtful, and were further provoked by Collins's typically confrontational preface. The novel was simultaneously a financial coup for its author and a comparative commercial failure: the sum paid by ''[[Cornhill Magazine|Cornhill]]'' for the serialisation rights was exceptional, eclipsing by a substantial margin the prices paid for the vast majority of similar novels, yet the novel failed to recoup its publisher's investment. 

''[[The Moonstone]],'' published in 1868, and the last novel of what is generally regarded as the most successful decade of Collins' author's career, was, despite a somewhat cool reception from both Dickens and the critics, a significant return to form. It re-established the market value of an author whose success on the competitive Victorian literary market had been waning in the wake of his first perceived masterpiece. Viewed by many as the advent of the [[detective story]] within the tradition of the English novel, ''The Moonstone'' remains one of Collins's most acclaimed works. It was described later by [[T. S. Eliot]] as "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels... in a genre invented by Collins and not by [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]]."<ref>Deirdre David, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=VXQXzUbCSygC&dq=the+first%2C+the+longest%2C+and+the+best+of+modern+English+detective+novels&pg=PA179 The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel],'' Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 179.</ref> The noted mystery writer [[Dorothy L. Sayers]] later referred to it as "probably the very finest detective story ever written".<ref>Sharon K. Hall, ''Twentieth Century Literary Criticism'', University of Michigan Press, 1979, p. 531.</ref>

After ''The Moonstone,'' Collins's novels contained fewer thriller elements and more social commentary. The subject matter continued to be sensational, but his popularity declined. The poet [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]] commented: "What brought good Wilkie's genius nigh perdition? / Some demon whispered—'Wilkie! have a mission.{{'-}}"<ref>Algernon Charles Swinburne, ''Studies in Prose and Poetry,'' Chatto & Windus, 1915, p. 127.</ref> Factors most often cited in Collins's decline have been the death of Dickens in 1870 and with it the loss of his literary mentoring, Collins's increased dependence upon laudanum, and his penchant for using his fiction to rail against [[social injustice]]s. 

''The Woman in White'' and ''The Moonstone'' share an unusual narrative structure, somewhat resembling an [[epistolary novel]], in which different portions of the book have different narrators, each with a distinct narrative voice. ''Armadale'' has this to a lesser extent through the correspondence between some characters.

==Notable works==
{{Main article|Wilkie Collins bibliography}}
[[File:The Haunted Hotel 1st ed cover.jpg|thumb|Cover of the first edition of ''The Haunted Hotel'' by Wilkie Collins, 1879]]
*''[[Antonina (Collins novel)|Antonina, or The Fall of Rome]]'' (1850)
*''[[Basil (novel)|Basil]]'' (1852)
*''Gabriel's Marriage'' (1853), short story
*''[[Hide And Seek (1854 novel)|Hide and Seek]]'' (1854)
*''[[The Dead Secret (novel)|The Dead Secret]]'' (1856)
*''[[After Dark (short story collection)|After Dark]]'' (1856), short story collection
*''[[The Frozen Deep]]'' (1857), play co-written with Charles Dickens
*''[[A House to Let]]'' (1858), short story co-written with Charles Dickens, [[Elizabeth Gaskell]] and [[Adelaide Anne Procter]]
*''[[The Haunted House (story)|The Haunted House]]'', short story co-written with Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Adelaide Anne Proctor, [[George Sala]] and [[Hesba Stretton]]
*''[[The Woman in White (novel)|The Woman in White]]'' (1860)
*''[[No Name (novel)|No Name]]'' (1862)
*''[[Armadale (novel)|Armadale]]'' (1866)
*''[[No Thoroughfare]]'' (1867), story and play co-written with Charles Dickens
*''[[The Moonstone]]'' (1868)
*''[[Man and Wife (novel)|Man and Wife]]'' (1870)
*''[[Poor Miss Finch]]'' (1872), dedicated to [[Frances Minto Elliot]]
*''[[The Law and the Lady (novel)|The Law and the Lady]]'' (1875)
*''The Two Destinies'' (1876)
*''The Haunted Hotel'' (1878)
*''[[The Fallen Leaves (novel)|The Fallen Leaves]]'' (1879)
*''Jezebel's Daughter'' (1880)
*''[[The Black Robe]]'' (1881)
*''Heart and Science'' (1882–1883)
*''The Evil Genius'' (1885)

===Screen adaptations===
*''[[The Woman in White (1929 film)|The Woman in White]]'' (silent, UK, 1929)
*''[[The Moonstone (1934 film)|The Moonstone]]'' (1934)
*''[[The Woman in White (1948 film)|The Woman in White]]'' (US, 1948)
*''[[The Moonstone (1959 TV series)|The Moonstone]]'' (UK, seven episodes, 1959)
*''The Woman in White'' (West Germany, miniseries, three episodes, 1971, under the German title ''Die Frau in Weiß'')
*''The Woman in White'' (USSR, two episodes, 1981, under the Russian title '''Zhenshchina v belom')''
*''The Woman In White'' (1982 TV series, UK, five episodes, 1982)
*''The Woman in White'' (1997 TV series, The Woman in White, UK, 1997)
*''Basil'' (1998)
*''[[The Moonstone (2016 TV series)|The Moonstone]]'' (UK, five episodes, 2016)
*''[[The Woman in White (2018 TV series)|The Woman in White]]'' (UK, five episodes, 2018)

==See also==
*[[Illegitimacy in fiction#Victorian|Illegitimacy in fiction]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{Wikiquote}}

*{{Cite book |last=Ackroyd |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Ackroyd |title=Wilkie Collins |location=London |publisher=Chatto & Windus |year=2012}}
*{{Cite book |last=Bleiler |first=Everett |author-link=Everett F. Bleiler |title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature |location=Chicago |publisher=Shasta Publishers |pages=81 |year=1948}}
*Elwin, Malcolm. ''Victorian Wallflowers'', Jonathan Cape, 1934. (chapter 6)
*[[Robert Gottlieb]], "'Make 'Em Cry, Make 'Em Laugh, Make 'Em Wait'", ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXIV, no. 10 (8 June 2017), pp. 25–28. 
*{{Cite book |last=Klimaszewski |first=Melisa |title=Brief Lives: Wilkie Collins |year=2011 |publisher=[[Hesperus Press]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-84391-915-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/briefliveswilkie0000klim}}
*[[Olive Logan]], "[http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/wilkie/biography/Logan1889.htm Wilkie Collins's Charms"]
*[[Andrew Lycett|Lycett, Andrew]]. ''Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation'', Hutchinson, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-09193-709-6}}

==External links==
{{sister project links|author=yes|b=no|n=no|v=no|wikt=no|d=Q210740}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/wilkie-collins}}
*{{Gutenberg author |id=98}}
*{{FadedPage|id=Collins, Wilkie|name=Wilkie Collins|author=yes}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Wilkie Collins}}
*{{Librivox author |id=326}}
*[http://www.wilkiecollins.com/ The Wilkie Collins Website]
*[http://www.wilkie-collins.info/ Wilkie Collins Information Pages]
*[http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00768 Wilkie Collins Collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]]
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
*{{Cite book |last=Anonymous |others=Illustrated by [[s:Author:Frederick Waddy|Frederick Waddy]] |title=Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day
|chapter=Wilkie Collins |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cartoon_portraits_and_biographical_sketches_of_men_of_the_day/Wilkie_Collins
|access-date=6 January 2011|year=1873|publisher=Tinsley Brothers|location=London|pages=76–77}}
*[http://www.ramsgate-society.org.uk/ The Ramsgate Society Website]
*{{NPG name}}
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cjm4f Book of the Week] from BBC Radio 4.
* Petri Liukkonen: [http://authorscalendar.info/collins.htm (William) Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)] at Books and Writers. Authors' Calendar

{{Wilkie Collins|state=expanded}}
{{The Moonstone}}
{{The Woman in White}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:English expatriates in France]]
[[Category:English expatriates in Italy]]
[[Category:English historical novelists]]
[[Category:English horror writers]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male journalists]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:English male short story writers]]
[[Category:English mystery writers]]
[[Category:English non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:English romantic fiction writers]]
[[Category:People from Bayswater]]
[[Category:People from Hampstead]]
[[Category:People from Marylebone]]
[[Category:Writers from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:British psychological fiction writers]]
[[Category:Victorian novelists]]
[[Category:Writers about activism and social change]]
[[Category:Writers of Gothic fiction]]
[[Category:Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity]]
[[Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period]]
[[Category:Writers of historical romances]]
[[Category:Collins family (England)]]
[[category:Mythopoeic writers]]
[[Category:Victorian short story writers]]
[[Category:Sensation novelists]]