On January 8, 1824, William Wilkie Collins was born in London. After graduating from private school, he traveled extensively in Europe and also lived in Italy. Wilkie worked for a company that imported tea. And in 1847 Collins decided to become a lawyer and entered the “Lincols Inn”, which he graduated in 1851, becoming a barrister. Collins' first book was published in 1848. These were his memories of his father, who was a famous artist. And it was he who instilled in his son a love of art, although
more
On January 8, 1824, William Wilkie Collins was born in London. After graduating from private school, he traveled extensively in Europe and also lived in Italy. Wilkie worked for a company that imported tea. And in 1847 Collins decided to become a lawyer and entered the “Lincols Inn”, which he graduated in 1851, becoming a barrister.
Collins' first book was published in 1848. These were his memories of his father, who was a famous artist. And it was he who instilled in his son a love of art, although he was a harsh moralist. In 1850, Wilkie’s first novel, Antonina, was published. But today, a book published in 1851, “Walks away from the railway”, is in great demand among readers. These were notes on a trip to Cornwall.
In 1851 Collins met Charles Dickens. This meeting turned into a strong long-term friendship. Also in the fifties, the author became more intimate with Caroline Elizabeth Graves, who had a strong influence on him. According to some of Collins’ contemporaries, it was the meeting with this woman that became the prototype of the scene in the book The Woman in White, which was published in 1860. The book "Moonstone" - 1868 is equally successful. This work is one of the first in a series of detective adventure novels. The reader is most impressed by the mystery that permeates the entire work.
Books written in the late period have a rather critical focus. For example, Husband and Wife opposes imperfect marriage law, and Law and Woman protests the verdict of “guilt not proven” that was passed in Scotland. In contrast to the deification of science, the book “Soul and Science” was written. And fallen women became the heroines of the novels “New Magdalene” and “Falled Leaves”.
Wilkie Collins died on September 23, 1889.