Wilkie Collins, página 6 de 32

In Antonina, or The Fall of Rome, Mr. Collins reproduces in very vivid and gorgeous colors the striking and important events that marked the first steps in the decline of the Roman power. The period affords ample scope to a fertile imagination and a brilliant fancy. We have before us Rome in all its luxury, refinement, and depravity, we watch the spread of the moral gangrene that has eaten into its hearts core. We would direct the attention of our readers particularly to the description and details of the famine while making its grand strides through the devoted city as one of the most powerful and masterly chapters of the book. The story abounds with passages of surpassing beauty and striking eloquence, and we are presented with a succession of artistically arranged scenes, portrayed with all the exuberant fancy of a poet and all the brilliant prismatic coloring of a painter. This book has a powerful attraction to the lovers of imaginative literature and there is a charm about the story which has ensured its popularity and success.

There is much in this book that will interest the English artist. The story of the painters life is plainly told with just enough, scattered here and there, of filial affection and partiality to take it out of the level of ordinary biographies. The journals are rather short, and the correspondence is somewhat scanty, but the matter is generally good, and some of the criticisms will be found both original and suggestive. William Collins, the father of well-known author Wilkie Collins, was born in Great Titchfield Street, London, on the 18th of September 1788. His father was a native of Wicklow his mother was a Scottish lady, born in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. "It was a favourite tradition in the family of the painter," writes his son, "that they were descended from the same stock as the great poet whose name they bore;"a pleasing belief rendered additionally interesting by some anecdotes.

This volume contains an account of a pedestrian tour by Mr. Collins in Cornwall, a county to which railways had not yet penetrated at his time. Leaving Plymouth behind him, the author, and his artist friend, Mr. Brandling, threaded the county from St. Germains to the Lizard and the Lands-End; visiting the most remarkable places, whether of art or nature, and whether the natural attractions were of the quietly beautiful, the desolate, or the magnificent kind. Mr. Collins, as a pedestrian, was of necessity thrown much among the people; and he has picked up many traits of their character, as well as some curious traditions. There are also matters of a more utilitarian cast, but popularly treatedas a mine, the pilchard fishery, an economical survey of the condition of the poor.

The setting for the six stories in this book is an episode in the life of a travelling portrait-painter, which we are made to learn through the charmingly simple narrative of his wifes diary. Disabled for a time by weakness of the eyes from working at his profession, his wife suggests that he should fill up the consequent deficit in their purse by dictating to her "after dark," when her household work is done, some of the good stories he has gathered in the course of his wanderings. The well-known necessity for getting a "sitter" to talk of something that will interest him and make him forget that he has to look dignified, renders the portrait-painter ingenious in extracting personal anecdotes and bits of striking experience, so that he has two sources of unusual knowledge about men and their fortunesobservation of his sitters themselves, and a peculiar opportunity of learning what they have to tell about others. In the prologue to each of his stories our painter, in After Dark, gives us something of what he has gathered from the former source; he describes one of his sitters or the persons with whom a certain commission brought him into contact, and tells us the conversation that led to his eliciting the succeeding story. These prologues are carefully and agreeably written, and have the negative charm, in these days of spasmodic writing fast rising into the importance of a positive meritof being free from all affectation. Of the tales themselves, the main element is the excitement either of curiosity or of terror; their great merit consists either in the effective presentation of a mystery or the effective working up of striking situations. Yet the writer does not care to interest us in his personages, but only in what happens to them. Mr. Wilkie Collins seems to be without a rival in the skillful movement of a ghost or murder story, and he knows how to give the thrill of terror, without mingling that sort of offence to refined sensibilities which causes terror to pass into horror and disgust. Three admirable stories of this class are "The terribly strange Bed,""Gabriels Wedding," and "The Yellow Mask." The author of After Dark seeks his moving incidents in modern life, and he usually, in the end, interprets the supernatural into the natural.

Wilkie Collins possesses the art of writing plays and stories so as to awaken and sustain the interest of the reader. He can create and work out a plot. It is true that the subject-matter of the plot is generally rather trivial, the characters commonplace, the whole tone and cast of the work conventional and insignificant. But the story, such as it is, has the merit of being neatly and pleasantly told. The author has set himself assiduously to inquire how the materials which he has been able to collect should be strung together, what proportion the several parts should bear to each other, and how the end of the story may be constantly anticipated by introductory hints without its precise character divulged. The result of this painstaking industry is that the reader is carried gently on, and is forced to take an interest in the web of circumstance which is spun for his benefit. Few writers give themselves so much trouble. If they have anything to say, they are ordinarily wrapped up in saying it, and trust to the guidance of their own genius to give it expression. If they have nothing to say, they are so happily constituted as not to perceive their own defects. It is, rare to find an author who, without originality, or great powers of any sort, has the gift of seeing how much arrangement and contrivance may do to enhance the value of the little he has to offer. This gift has been sufficient to ensure Mr. Collins a very considerable success, and his novels have been welcomed by the public, which always relishes the treat of small ingenuities, and likes any species of unambitious, intelligible entertainment. Besides, to have the art of narration implies the possession of many good literary qualities. It indicates that sort of good sense and good taste which rejects the superfluous, the incongruous, and the extravagant. It involves the power of putting a mass of detached minute facts into a decisive and appreciable shape. It makes us sure that the writer will keep clear of all that could annoy, weary, or offend us. The Dead Secret is no secret to a numerous class of readers, nor will it long remain a mystery to those who set out in search of it for the rst time. Perhaps it is doubtful how far the intentions of a novelist should be impenetrable,what light should glimmer at the end of his shadowy vistas,-what clues should be afforded to the pilgrims of romance. Of course no one is tempted on by utter darkness, yet in a tale which appeals simply to one element in the imaginationcuriosity; it is a proof of defective development if we at once anticipate the catastrophe. The secret is buried (not dead), but its cofin is of crystal.

One of the principal characters in Mr. Collinss "Hide and Seek" is an artist; but the writer has not sketched him as labouring in his vocation amid alternations of despair and hope. "The painter in this story," he says, "only assumes to be a homely study from nature, done by a student who has had more opportunities than most men, out of the profession, of observing what the novelties of artist-life, and the eccentricities of artist-character, are really like, when they are looked at close. It may be necessary to mention this, by way of warning, as I have ventured on the startling novelty, in fiction, of trying to make an artist interesting, without representing him as friendless, consumptive, and penniless, to say nothing of the more daring innovation of attempting to extract some amusement from his character, and yet not exhibiting him as . a speaker of bad English, a reckless contractor of debts, and an utterly irreclaimable sot." Mr. Collins, has perfectly succeeded in his attempt. Valentine Blyth, the painter, is an enthusiast in his art, but an amiable, rational, sensible, though not strong-minded, man; in fact, a "naturalist," in his art and out of it; a painter who loves his profession so dearly, and fancies himself so well able to grapple with it at all points, that he hesitates at nothing, whether it be the portrait of a horse, or of a baby in swaddling clothes, a "grand classical landscape with Bacchanalian nymphs," or "Columbus in sight of the New World."Antonina and Basil have placed Mr. Collins among the most popular novelists, and "Hide and Seek" will not lessen his reputation, but the contrary. The heroine of the story is a deaf and dumb orphan girl, of great beauty, picked up by Mr. Blyth, from a company of strolling players, taken home by him, and "hidden," lest she should be found by any chance relatives, as a companion to his invalid wife; in time, however, there comes one to "seek" her; hence the title of the story. The "Madonna" of Mr. Collins is a pure and lovely creation, reminding us of the "Nina" in Bulwers "Last Days of Pompeii." The idea of making a young girl, bereft of the powers of speech and hearing, but exquisitely sensitive to that of sight, and able to appreciate all the sources of enjoyment which a true painter feelsto make such an one a helpmate in the studio, as well as the friend and companion of another woman, delicate in mind as feeble in body, was a new and most happy thought; these two characters are touchingly and charmingly described. There are others of a different description; Mr. Zachary Thorpe, who endeavours to force his son to "take kindly to religious teaching" by rendering it irksome and distastefulhow many Mr. Thorpes are there in the world!and, in consequence, he breaks through all restraint and runs riot. Then there is a strange wild fellow, called Mat, who has travelled into savage regions, lost his scalp in a foray with wild Indians, and comes home from the diggings with his tomahawk, his tobacco-pouch, some bear skins, and his pockets lined with bank-notes. These are the chief personages of Mr. Collinss tale, we shall leave our readers to find out for themselves what they do, and what becomes of them all. The writers observation of nature, animate and inanimate, and his powers of description, are clear and vigorous; he can be humorous or pathetic, gentle or boisterous; can paint the tastefully ornamented chamber of the bed-ridden invalid and its inmates, or the noisy revelries of the dissipated frequenters of the "Temple of Harmony," or the peculiarities of a painters studio, with the hand of a master.

First published in 1850, "Antonina" (or, The Fall of Rome) was Wilkie Collinss first published novel, dedicated to Lady Chantrey, wife of William Collinss friend, the sculptor Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey."Antonina" is written in a laborious, deliberately florid style using detail from Gibbons "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" and modelled on Bulwer-Lyttons "The Last Days of Pompeii". The plot is challenging, with many passages reading like a cross between a guide book to ancient Rome (based on Collinss visit in 1837) and a description of his fathers paintings. Other sections, particularly the more horrific and violent, are vividly written and there are already indications of Collinss interest in physical handicap and abnormal states of mind, and his dislike of all forms of extremism. The conflict between the imaginative and artistic Antonina and her stern father is reworked to better effect in Collinss next novel, "Basil". "Antonina" received good reviews, sold consistently and was reprinted throughout Collinss lifetime and well into the twentieth century.The plot revolves around two separate but related struggles. That of the old pagan and new Christian religions, seen as equally destructive, embodied in the opposing characters of Ulpius and Numerian; and that of the strong figure of the Goth, Goisvintha, (modelled on Norna in Scotts The Pirate) seeking revenge against the weak heroine, Antonina.In the Rome of 408 AD, the young Antonina lives with her father Numerian, zealous in his aims to restore the Christian faith to its former ideals. Numerians steward, Ulpius, brought up in the old religion, secretly lives only to restore the forbidden gods of pagan sacrifice. Vetranio, their wealthy neighbour, has designs on the innocent Antonina. When they are surprised by Numerian in an apparently compromising situation, Antonina flees outside the city walls just before Rome is blockaded by the encircling army of the Goths.Antonina is captured by the chieftain, Hermanric, who falls in love with her. His sister, Goisvintha, was the sole survivor of a Roman massacre in which her children perished and has vowed revenge on Rome and its people. She attempts to kill Antonina but is prevented by Hermanric who allows Antonina to escape. During the weeks of the siege, she lives in a deserted farmhouse, visited nightly by Hermanric. Goisvintha betrays her brother to the Huns who kill him, while Antonina escapes for a second time.Ulpius, meanwhile, has discovered a breach in the city wall and attempts to betray Rome to Alaric in exchange for his destruction of the Christian religion. Alaric is interested only in humbling his enemies into surrender and seizing a large tribute of gold. Returning towards the city, Ulpius discovers Antonina and accompanies her to Rome where she finds her overjoyed but starving father. Antonina begs the last morsels of food from Vetranio at a macabre and suicidal Banquet of Famine, preventing him from making a funeral pyre of his palace. (Source: wilkie-collins.info)

"Allí, en medio de la calzada ancha y bien iluminada por la luna, como si súbitamente hubiera brotado de la tierra o hubiera caído del cielo, me encontré la figura de una solitaria mujer ataviada de pies a cabeza con prendas de un blanco inmaculado." Tras su inquietante encuentro con la mujer de blanco, el joven profesor de dibujo Walter Hartright viaja a Cumberland para dar clases a dos hermanas, Laura y Marian. Pero los agradables dias en Limmeridge House acaban con la llegada del prometido de Laura y con la sorprendente reaparicion de la misteriosa mujer de blanco y su turbadora advertencia. En La mujer de blanco -un autentico best seller desde su primera publicacion-, el lector se ve arrastrado por un suspense continuo gracias a la destreza narrativa de Wilkie Collins y a los portentosos retratos de sus personajes. A traves de una trama prodigiosa que se desarrolla paulatinamente mediante los relatos de sus principales testigos, los oscuros secretos se iran desvelando.

Amelius Goldenheart, tras haberse criado en una comunidad socialista cristiana en Estados Unidos, regresa a su Inglaterra natal para conocer mundo y alejarse del amor de una mujer con una misteriosa tragedia en su pasado. Con veintiun años, Amelius llega a Londres con una carta de presentacion dirigida a John Farnaby y se enamora de su sobrina Regina. A pesar de los recelos de Farnaby, su esposa ve con muy buenos ojos al joven y le confia un secreto y una mision: encontrar a la hija recien nacida que le robaron hace dieciseis años.Paulatinamente, el joven Amelius se va implicando mas en las desdichas de unas mujeres unidas por su relacion con el joven y por los secretos del pasado; unas mujeres a las que, pese a sus intentos por encontrar la felicidad, la vida solo les devuelve desgracias y decepciones; unas hojas caidas.En la Inglaterra victoriana, los ideales y principios de Amelius chocaran de frente con las estrictas normas de la sociedad en su intento por ayudar a esas hojas caidas. ¿Conseguira superar los prejuicios y alcanzar la felicidad?"En Las hojas caidas, Collins expresa de modo especialmente descarnado tanto ciertos hechos esenciales de su propia vida (y es, por tanto, una novela de alto contenido autobiografico, siempre que se sepa leer a una luz apropiada) como sus propias convicciones y creencias: Amelius es, en cierto modo, un Candido que proviene de la inocencia del Nuevo Mundo y se encuentra con la corrupcion del Viejo Continente."

Through carefully constructed characterization, intricate plotting and masterly skill in concealing and revealing secrets, wilkie collins has created one of the greatest mystery thrillers in the engl

“En algunas de mis novelas anteriores me propuse establecer la influencia ejercida por las circunstancias sobre el carácter. En la presente historia he invertido el proceso. Mi meta ha sido señalar a

Cuando el anciano Allan Armadale escribe su terrible confesión en el lecho de muerte, no puede ni imaginarse las repercusiones que tendrá esa carta cuando su hijo recién nacido la lea años después. Por segunda vez, dos hombres con el mismo nombre y el mismo apellido se vera n implicados en la prosecucion de una herencia que parece maldita. Mientras tanto, se suceden las sigilosas intrigas de Lydia Gwilt, un personaje misterioso y perve rso que horrorizo a los lectores victorianos y que todavia hoy sobrecoge. Una mujer que llego a ser definida por la critica como una de las villanas mas curtidas. Con estos hilos y la complicidad del lector, el maestro Wilkie Collins teje una trama envolvente y seductora que brega entre identidades confusas, maldiciones heredadas, rivalidades amorosas, espionaje y asesinatos.