Wilkie Collins, página 10 de 33

Tr.: Henry Dallemagne

In the year 1860, the reputation of Doctor Wybrow as a London physician reached its highest point. It was reported on good authority that he was in receipt of one of the largest incomes derived from the practice of medicine in modern times.One afternoon, towards the close of the London season, the Doctor had just taken his luncheon after a specially hard mornings work in his consulting-room, and with a formidable list of visits to patients at their own houses to fill up the rest of his daywhen the servant announced that a lady wished to speak to him.Who is she? the Doctor asked. A stranger?Yes, sir.I see no strangers out of consulting-hours. Tell her what the hours are, and send her away.I have told her, sir.Well?And she wont go.Wont go? The Doctor smiled as he repeated the words. He was a humourist in his way; and there was an absurd side to the situation which rather amused him. Has this obstinate lady given you her name? he inquired.No, sir. She refused to give any nameshe said she wouldnt keep you five minutes, and the matter was too important to wait till tomorrow. There she is in the consulting-room; and how to get her out again is more than I know.

Before I begin, by the aid of my wifes patient attention and ready pen, to relate any of the stories which I have heard at various times from persons whose likenesses I have been employed to take, it will not be amiss if I try to secure the readers interest in the following pages, by briefly explaining how I became possessed of the narrative matter which they contain.Of myself I have nothing to say, but that I have followed the profession of a traveling portrait-painter for the last fifteen years. The pursuit of my calling has not only led me all through England, but has taken me twice to Scotland, and once to Ireland. In moving from district to district, I am never guided beforehand by any settled plan. Sometimes the letters of recommendation which I get from persons who are satisfied with the work I have done for them determine the direction in which I travel. Sometimes I hear of a new neighborhood in which there is no resident artist of ability, and remove thither on speculation. Sometimes my friends among the picture-dealers say a good word on my behalf to their rich customers, and so pave the way for me in the large towns. Sometimes my prosperous and famous brother-artists, hearing of small commissions which it is not worth their while to accept, mention my name, and procure me introductions to pleasant country houses. Thus I get on, now in one way and now in another, not winning a reputation or making a fortune, but happier, perhaps, on the whole, than many men who have got both the one and the other. So, at least, I try to think now, though I started in my youth with as high an ambition as the best of them. Thank God, it is not my business here to speak of past times and their disappointments. A twinge of the old hopeless heartache comes over me sometimes still, when I think of my student days.

Imagine as a woman losing all your property to your husband. Sadly, such was the law for much of the Victorian times. Wilkie Collinss novel "The Woman in White" (starring Charles Dance in a recent BBC adaptation) first explored this absurdity. Now expanding on marriage law, Collins writes a protest for womens rights in "Man and Wife". Two young women, Anne and Blanche, live together in Scotland after Annes father abandoned her due to a legal loophole. Both women are engaged but Annes fiance, Geoffrey, is getting cold feet. Yet Anne knows a trick from the Scottish law books: if a man is witnessed to verbally declare a woman his wife, they are legally married.Meanwhile, Blanches fiance, Arnold, is sent on Geoffreys behalf to meet Anne. Under guise, Arnold publicly asks for his "wife", and accidentally potentially marries Anne. A fascinating tale of a wifes rights, this thriller will make you question the true impact of a marriage proposal.

Written in 1856, "The Dead Secret" was Wilkie Collins fourth published novel.The Secret of the title is the parentage of the heroine, Rosamond Treverton, who has been passed off as the daughter of the wealthy former actress Mrs Treverton of Porthgenna Tower, but is in fact the illegitimate child of her servant Sarah Leeson by a local miner (Mrs Trevertons motive was to provide her husband with a child, being apparently unable to bear children herself). Sarah writes down the details of the Secret from the words of the dying Mrs Treverton, and hides the paper bearing the message in an unused room at Porthgenna.The novel then jumps forward some twenty years. Rosamond has married the blind Leonard Frankland, who now owns Porthgenna Tower. Sarah, now living under her married name, acts as a nurse after Rosamond-s childbirth, and gives Rosamund a cryptic warning to avoid the room in which the Secret is hidden. On a visit to Porthgenna, Rosamond finds the paper detailing the Secret and reveals it to Leonard. Leonard, who originally believed that Rosamond was a wealthy heiress, accepts that his wife is illegitimate, but refuses to accept her inheritance as the presumed daughter of the Trevertons. In the course of things, this would now pass to Mrs Trevertons miserly brother-in-law Andrew (whose introduction, together with his villainous servant, provides some comic relief in the novel). But Andrew Treverton...(Source: wikipedia.org)

When Francis Raven is roused from his sleep on the eve of his birthday and confronted by the sight of a woman trying to stab him, he is unsure whether she is real or an apparition. Years later, against the wishes of his mother, he marries Alicia, a woman with a strange resemblance to the mysterious visitor, who ends up attacking him on his birthday, before vanishing from his life. Is Francis's wife a ghost, a demon or a living human being? And will the prophecy of the night-time visitation be fulfilled one day?

With an Introduction and Notes by Scott Brewster, University of Central Lancashire. Wilkie Collins is a master of mystery, and The Woman in White is his first excursion into the genre. When the hero, Walter Hartright, on a moonlit night in north London, encounters a solitary, terrified and beautiful woman dressed in white, he feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress. The intricate plot is peopled with a finely characterised cast, from the peevish invalid Mr Fairlie to the corpulent villain Count Fosco and the enigmatic woman herself.

Il fiume al centro del romanzo e il Locke che, fangoso e indolente, costeggia il bosco e alimenta il mulino abitato dal vecchio mugnaio Toller e dalla figlia Cristel. Il giovane possidente Gerard Roylake, tornato qui alla morte del padre, ritrova la piccola Cristel trasformata in una donna, intelligente e volitiva, e ne e affascinato. Ma un personaggio enigmatico e arrivato ad agitare le acque della loro monotona esistenza. LInquilino, il Sordo, il Bastardo, il Pentito... Questuomo bellissimo, del quale ne Gerard ne il lettore conosceranno la vera identita, piomba nella vita dei Toller e soprattutto in quella della bella Cristel, per la quale luomo nutre una vera ossessione... Romanzo breve e serrato in cui si riconoscono molti dei temi cari al padre del mistery, tenuti insieme dalla sensazione di tragedia imminente che coinvolge paesaggio, ambiente sociale e personaggi, in unatmosfera disseminata di tracce inquietanti, Il fiume della colpa cattura lattenzione del lettore dalla prima allultima pagina.