Wilkie Collins, página 10 de 33

NO NAME

BASIL

Valeria Woodville's first act as a married woman is to sign her name in the marriage register incorrectly, and this slip is followed by the gradual disclosure of a series of secrets about her husband's earlier life, each of which leads on to another set of questions and enigmas. Her discoveries prompt her to defy her husband's authority, to take the law into into a labyrinthine maze of false clues and deceptive identities, in which the exploration of the tangled workings of the mind becomes linked to an investigation into the masquerades of femininity. Probably the first full-length novel with a woman detective as its heroine, The Law and the Lady is a fascinating example of Collins's later fiction. First published in 1875, it employs many of the techniques used in The Moonstone, developing them in bizarre and unexpected ways, and in its Gothic and fantastic elements The Law and the Lady adds a significant dimension to the history of detective fiction.

En 1857, Charles Dickens y Wilkie Collins se pusieron a escribir una historia a cuatro manos. El resultado fue esta divertida novela protagonizada por dos profesionales del ocio, dos amigos cuya holgazaneria constituye un paradojico acto de rebeldia en una Inglaterra victoriana que ensalzaba la diligencia y la productividad como virtudes rectoras.Como el Bartleby de Herman Melville, el duo comico formado por Thomas Idle y Francis Goodchild preferiria no hacer nada, o al menos nada que comporte un esfuerzo demasiado oneroso. Aun asi, hilarantes aunque modestas aventuras les salen al paso en sus viajes por los pueblos de Inglaterra. La ascension de una montaña, un dia en las carreras de caballos, un partido de criquet, un trayecto en ferrocarril o la visita a un balneario; hasta la actividad mas anodina puede propiciar el encuentro con personajes pintorescos y situaciones disparatadas que acabaran por reafirmar a Thomas Idle en su resolucion de no volver a ser activo nunca mas, bajo ningun pretexto y por todo el tiempo que le quedara de vida.Esta deliciosa novela de espiritu cervantino da rienda suelta, a traves de digresiones e historias intercaladas, a lo mejor de cada autor: el realismo lirico y la satira social de Dickens, el misterio y el suspense que con tanto exito cultivo Collins.

Monkton el loco, una obra del escritor inglés Wilkie Collins con ilustraciones del dibujante sevilllano Fidel Martínez, abre ?junto con El mundo perdido, de Arthur Conan Doyle, revisitado por Sagar Fornies? la coleccion Clasicos Ilustrados de Astiberri, donde una novela completa o una recopilacion de relatos de un autor de referencia de la literatura es interpretada graficamente a lo largo del libro con una serie de ilustraciones principalmente a toda pagina por un dibujante de comics.Encabezada por Monkton el loco, los cuentos reunidos en esta antologia de Wilkie Collins, autor coetaneo y amigo personal de Charles Dickens ?no en vano, fue al autor de Oliver Twist a quien le debe haberse dado a conocer popularmente?, tienen en comun un tono socarron, que en ocasiones tiende incluso a lo parodico, y un marcado acento cotidiano.En sus paginas se puede apreciar el instinto de Collins para el suspense y su habilidad para alargar, retorcer, hilvanar y reinventar sus enrevesadas tramas, que le hicieron merecedor de elogio y admiracion por parte de autores tan dispares como T. S. Eliot o Jorge Luis Borges, quien le tenia por el ?maestro de la intriga?.Unos relatos a los que Fidel Martinez se ha acercado con respeto y pasion a partes iguales para regalarnos unas ilustraciones con evocadores trazos negros y grises sobre blanco que, aunque remiten a maestros del dibujo como Alberto Breccia o Jose Muñoz, demuestran una manifiesta personalidad propia.Con esta propuesta, Astiberri pretende dar un paso para estrechar vinculos entre clasicos literarios y autores de comic, aportando una vision iconografica inedita hasta la fecha, en la que el ilustrador es tambien un narrador de oficio que busca ser respetuoso con la tradicion y a la vez contemporaneo.La coleccion de Clasicos Ilustrados de Astiberri tendra continuidad los proximos meses con titulos como Solomon Kane, de Robert E. Howard, con ilustraciones de David Rubin, o El Golem, de Gustav Meyrink, que contara con el trabajo grafico de Santiago Valenzuela.

Classic / British English (Available May 2008) Only the Woman in White knows the truth of Laura Fairlies cruel husband. Can Walter Hartwright discover the terrible secret? From the moment Walter meets this mysterious woman, his future and that of Laura are linked forever.

WILKIE COLLINS, autor de novelas memorables como LA PIEDRA LUNAR o LA DAMA DE BLANCO, escribió numerosas historias breves en las que abunda el terror y lo sobrenatural. En el inolvidable relato de LA DAMA DEL SUEÑO, Isaac Scatchard la noche anterior a sus 40 cumpleños sueña con una mujer de gran belleza intentando matarle con un cuchillo. Siete años despues conoce a Rebecca y se casa con ella sin el consentimiento de su anciana madre quien sabe que Rebecca es la dama del sueño. Algunos meses despues, Rebecca compra un enorme cuchillo y se convierte en la realidad en el mortal peligro anunciado en el sueño. El suspense constituye la mayor originalidad de estos relatos que enganchan al lector de la primera a la ultima pagina.

Wilkie Collins Adapted by Christopher Hall Activities by Frederick Garland Mystery & horror Late one night, on a lonely road near London, Walter Hartright, a young drawing teacher, meets a solitary woman dressed in white. This is the opening scene of The Woman in White, a great Victorian sensation novel, full of mystery, excitement, and suspense. Who is the mysterious woman in white, and why is she alone on the road to London at midnight? Dossier: Victorian Asylums Exit test

When Rachel Verinder receives a gift of an astonishing yellow diamond from her bitter old uncle for her eighteenth birthday, she has no idea that the stone brings great danger with it. When the diamond goes missing during the night the ensuing investigations gradually bring to light the sinister history of the jewel and the passions and plots of those close to Rachel.

THE main purpose of this story is to appeal to the readers interest in a subject which has been the theme of some of the greatest writers, living and deadbut which has never been, and can never be, exhausted, because it is a subject eternally interesting to all mankind. Here is one more book that depicts the struggle of a human creature, under those opposing influences of Good and Evil, which we have all felt, which we have all known. It has been my aim to make the character of "Magdalen," which personifies this struggle, a pathetic character even in its perversity and its error; and I have tried hard to attain this result by the least obtrusive and the least artificial of all meansby a resolute adherence throughout to the truth as it is in Nature. This design was no easy one to accomplish; and it has been a great encouragement to me (during the publication of my story in its periodical form) to know, on the authority of many readers, that the object which I had proposed to myself, I might, in some degree, consider as an object achieved.Round the central figure in the narrative other characters will be found grouped, in sharp contrastcontrast, for the most part, in which I have endeavored to make the element of humor mainly predominant. I have sought to impart this relief to the more serious passages in the book, not only because I believe myself to be justified in doing so by the laws of Artbut because experience has taught me (what the experience of my readers will doubtless confirm) that there is no such moral phenomenon as unmixed tragedy to be found in the world around us. Look where we may, the dark threads and the light cross each other perpetually in the texture of human life.To pass from the Characters to the Story, it will be seen that the narrative related in these pages has been constructed on a plan which differs from the plan followed in my last novel, and in some other of my works published at an earlier date.

Completed by Walter Besant

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.