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Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation
The definitive biography of Wilkie the Victorian novelist, playwright, author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White, who lived a life of sensation.Wilkie Collins, author of The Moonstone and The Woman in White, was the master of the Victorian sensation novel, but he also had a complex private life that could have come straight out of one of his bestselling novels. While his books focused on uncovering family secrets, Wilkie was determined to keep his own unconventional domestic arrangements – living with two women, neither of them his wife – hidden from the outside world. In this colourful investigative biography, set against the backdrop of Victorian London, Andrew Lycett brings to life one of England’s greatest writers and reveals a brilliant, contrary and sensual man, deeply committed to his work.
546 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 5, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 5, 2017
In disagreement with another review, I did not find this a particularly 'academic' biography of the writer Wilkie Collins. That is, for me, more of a criticism than a compliment, however. Lycett's book is instead a quite general, and quite long, survey of Collins's unconventional life and the extensive fiction he wrote during it. Its virtue is that it makes this story eminently comprehensible (it was already engaging) to even readers who are unversed with the period or the writer. Its flaw is that it doesn't tease apart his many contradictory aspects either.
Contrary to the claims of a Guardian review, Lycett does not unearth a 'new source' for Collins's The Woman in White in the real-life case of Louisa Nottidge; the resemblance of her experiences is of rather common and longstanding knowledge in Collins studies (as 'Nottidge v. Ripley' was a well-publicized trial). This is exemplary of my feelings towards the book's originality (and, actually, those of Matthew Sweet, of the aforementioned review). Lycett's discoveries are of a more modest variety; his observations of various financial records, for instance, enable a more truthful plotting of the movements of Caroline Graves, et al., than was previously known.
Lycett's treatment of Collins's oeuvre is also rather superficial, and, on one occasion, this desire to make readers familiar with these (admittedly dense) books leads him into something of an error: I am unsure whether he is misinterpreting or misrepresenting the ending of Armadale by his description of Lydia Gwilt as 'muddled' over her the identities of Allan and Ozias (the first of whom she has sought to poison); either way, this portrait of farce is remarkably untrue to the sophistication of the book's ending, including as it was thought of by his contemporaries. The same tendency to broad strokes has an equally polarizing effect on the historical contexts: Lycett does admirably in covering the lunacy panics of the mid-century, but his claim, for instance, that 'the thorny issue of race [began] to be discussed in the wake of [Charles] Darwin' (298) continues to baffle me. It's in these moments that Lycett betrays the fact that he is more of a general biographer and historian than a specialist of the period; I wondered whilst reading what insights might have been made in a biography of Collins by someone who is.
Contrary to the claims of a Guardian review, Lycett does not unearth a 'new source' for Collins's The Woman in White in the real-life case of Louisa Nottidge; the resemblance of her experiences is of rather common and longstanding knowledge in Collins studies (as 'Nottidge v. Ripley' was a well-publicized trial). This is exemplary of my feelings towards the book's originality (and, actually, those of Matthew Sweet, of the aforementioned review). Lycett's discoveries are of a more modest variety; his observations of various financial records, for instance, enable a more truthful plotting of the movements of Caroline Graves, et al., than was previously known.
Lycett's treatment of Collins's oeuvre is also rather superficial, and, on one occasion, this desire to make readers familiar with these (admittedly dense) books leads him into something of an error: I am unsure whether he is misinterpreting or misrepresenting the ending of Armadale by his description of Lydia Gwilt as 'muddled' over her the identities of Allan and Ozias (the first of whom she has sought to poison); either way, this portrait of farce is remarkably untrue to the sophistication of the book's ending, including as it was thought of by his contemporaries. The same tendency to broad strokes has an equally polarizing effect on the historical contexts: Lycett does admirably in covering the lunacy panics of the mid-century, but his claim, for instance, that 'the thorny issue of race [began] to be discussed in the wake of [Charles] Darwin' (298) continues to baffle me. It's in these moments that Lycett betrays the fact that he is more of a general biographer and historian than a specialist of the period; I wondered whilst reading what insights might have been made in a biography of Collins by someone who is.
May 22, 2014
I absolutely LOVED this book!
Here is the thing... if you are looking for a light, general public biography of Wilkie Collins, THIS ISN'T IT! This book is written at the academic level. In fact, my library had to order it from University of Chicago. No public library had the book. There are aspects to this book that are incredibly dry, as there is a lot of analysis of the author's personal writing into his craft.
Unfortunately for me, UoC wanted the book back earlier than my allotted time so I had to skim through the last two hundred pages. As a result, I have decided to purchase this book for further dissection.
Here is the thing... if you are looking for a light, general public biography of Wilkie Collins, THIS ISN'T IT! This book is written at the academic level. In fact, my library had to order it from University of Chicago. No public library had the book. There are aspects to this book that are incredibly dry, as there is a lot of analysis of the author's personal writing into his craft.
Unfortunately for me, UoC wanted the book back earlier than my allotted time so I had to skim through the last two hundred pages. As a result, I have decided to purchase this book for further dissection.
April 6, 2016
Wilkie Collins was at the centre of artistic and intellectual Victorian life so this biography gives a detailed account of all the major characters of the time, most notably Collins' closest friend, Charles Dickens. While he was not as great a writer as Dickens, his life was every bit as interesting and even more unconventional. Most famously, he maintained nearby households in London with two different women neither of whom he married. Wilkie Collins was a free thinker - a strong supporter of women's rights, anti-organised religion, anti-royalist
and also a pacifist.
One of the aspects of Victorian life that comes out is the frequent poor health and early death, even of the upper and middle classes. Wilkie Collins suffered from a range of ailments for most of his life, especially gout and syphilis. All the illnesses led to a colossal intake of drugs, mostly laudanum and opium.
This biography is mostly fascinating - the subtitle, A Life of Sensation, referring both to the sub-genre of Victorian novels in which Wilkie Collins was a leader - the 'sensation' novels - and to the sensationalism of his own lifestyle. The most tedious part is all the detail of the numerous publishing deals and copyright arguments that he was engaged in. I would also warn any reader coming to this biography before reading the novels that the plots of most of them are given away and, if you haven't yet read his most famous novel, 'The Moonstone', then the various twists and the denouement are given revealed.
and also a pacifist.
One of the aspects of Victorian life that comes out is the frequent poor health and early death, even of the upper and middle classes. Wilkie Collins suffered from a range of ailments for most of his life, especially gout and syphilis. All the illnesses led to a colossal intake of drugs, mostly laudanum and opium.
This biography is mostly fascinating - the subtitle, A Life of Sensation, referring both to the sub-genre of Victorian novels in which Wilkie Collins was a leader - the 'sensation' novels - and to the sensationalism of his own lifestyle. The most tedious part is all the detail of the numerous publishing deals and copyright arguments that he was engaged in. I would also warn any reader coming to this biography before reading the novels that the plots of most of them are given away and, if you haven't yet read his most famous novel, 'The Moonstone', then the various twists and the denouement are given revealed.
June 29, 2020
I'm a huge Wilkie Collins fan, so perhaps I'd prefer a hagiography. I felt like this work was rather colorless, given the humor and talent possessed by its subject. I got the feeling the writer did not appreciate Collins position as an innovator in mystery and thought of him as more of a second fiddle to Dickens. He gave pages to his later works and their shortcomings, but really failed to communicate just what a ruckus woman in white and moonstone caused when they came out. He was pleased to have some detail about the two household Collins maintained, but really just engaged in a lot of speculation about them. That may be all that is possible, but it failed to satisfy me
October 16, 2013
A good read about n author who feel out of fashion. For Victorian times his complex domestic situation of two mistresses and illegitimate children was scandalous and his views about the poor treatment of women in marriage and his liking for religion away from the mainstream probably gave him a poor character although friends seem to have thought well of him. His family were provided for in his will but a family member entrusted with the investment embezzled the money. His opium habit and effect on his health was played down a little in my view.
January 6, 2018
A bit uneven; the title and the opening promise "a life of sensation" but very little space is given to anything in Collin's life that is actually outside of the normal--his relationship with his two mistresses and their families are basically dropped from the second half of the book, and the final chapters skim over the last years of Collin's life as if the author (Lycett) had decided he wanted to be done with the book, so why bother?
November 16, 2013
I was fortunate to win this book through Goodreads. The book was well written and it was obvious that a large amount of research had gone into it. However, I found that there was too much detail which meant I lost interest in some parts. If gave a lot of insight into Victorian life.
May 29, 2018
I predominantly read this book due to my interest in Wilkie's friendship and working relationship with Dickens, particularly in the years immediately prior to and after Dickens's separation from his wife, but was intrigued to get such a striking portrait of the novelist's approach to his own unconventional relationships and his dislike of the very idea of marriage. The book provides context for anyone interested in Dickens, the lunacy crisis of the nineteenth century, marriage and the divorce law reforms. Informative and thorough, looking at both his life as well as his work, the book also looks at some of the more obscure aspects of Wilkie's life. All in all, an insightful well researched biography of the life of Wilkie Collins.
May 15, 2018
After reading The Woman In White, late in 2017 and The Moonstone last month, Wilkie Collins has quickly become one of my favorite authors. After reading this biography, I saw that his real life made its way into his fictions. Wilkie did not live by the Victorian ethics, he was his own man, in an age when society frowned on people that didn't buckle under its extreme prejudices.
This was a good primer into the life of Wilkie Collins, my only slight pique on this book is the abundance of "name dropping". This author brought most everyone that appeared in Wilkie's life no matter how peripheral. It began to look like an alphabet soup, after a while.
This was a good primer into the life of Wilkie Collins, my only slight pique on this book is the abundance of "name dropping". This author brought most everyone that appeared in Wilkie's life no matter how peripheral. It began to look like an alphabet soup, after a while.
December 24, 2019
Collins was a wonderful writer and a dreadful albeit interesting man. After reading Drood, I wanted to see how accurate that fictional portrait of him was and it was mostly accurate, at least if this biography is accurate. An opium addict who kept two separate households and was married to neither of his mistresses, he somehow managed to write spectacular novels and be close friends with Dickens. A Life of Sensation indeed.
July 13, 2017
SO WANDERING. SO INCOHESIVE. The cover is so excellent, but truly, look for another biography of him.
June 30, 2014
Andrew Lycett's attempt to frame his biography of Victorian novelist Wilkie Collins as 'a life of sensation' is a bit misleading. As scandalous as Collins' life could be—the dude simultaneously maintained two entirely different households with women, to neither of whom he was married, complete with children—Lycett very much fails to draw the parallels between that life and the novels of sensation for which Collins gained a moderate amount of fame and notoriety. Working with seemingly less personal material, Claire Tomalin managed to elicit more juicy tidbits for two whole biographies of Collins' sometimes friend and consistent better, Charles Dickens, and of Dickens' mistress, Nelly Ternan.
Instead, Lycett commences with a chapter that promises immediately to plunge the reader into a wild and ribald tale of Collins' thoroughly unconventional sex life . . . and then follows through with a standard academic treatise of the life and works of a lesser-known novelist who never fully escaped the shadow cast by Dickens. It's tough to whip up interest in Collins when his biographer can't even invest much enthusiasm in recounting the sensational plots of his novels, much less adequately recount Collins' motivations for his unconventional love life. To be honest, I learned more about Wilkie Collins, the man, from Dan Simmons' fictional Drood.
I suggest that Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation be best read as an invitation to a drinking game. Take a shot every time Collins churns out yet another novel of which you've never heard! Take another every time he crabs in his correspondence about a novel's reception! Chug one down every time he and Dickens privately badmouth each other! Take more shots whenever he trots off for a cure for one of his several venereal diseases! You'll be plastered enough in no time to get through the plot descriptions of Collins' endless procession of dreary books.
(Though to be fair, I now do want to read the one with the decapitated floating head.)
Instead, Lycett commences with a chapter that promises immediately to plunge the reader into a wild and ribald tale of Collins' thoroughly unconventional sex life . . . and then follows through with a standard academic treatise of the life and works of a lesser-known novelist who never fully escaped the shadow cast by Dickens. It's tough to whip up interest in Collins when his biographer can't even invest much enthusiasm in recounting the sensational plots of his novels, much less adequately recount Collins' motivations for his unconventional love life. To be honest, I learned more about Wilkie Collins, the man, from Dan Simmons' fictional Drood.
I suggest that Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation be best read as an invitation to a drinking game. Take a shot every time Collins churns out yet another novel of which you've never heard! Take another every time he crabs in his correspondence about a novel's reception! Chug one down every time he and Dickens privately badmouth each other! Take more shots whenever he trots off for a cure for one of his several venereal diseases! You'll be plastered enough in no time to get through the plot descriptions of Collins' endless procession of dreary books.
(Though to be fair, I now do want to read the one with the decapitated floating head.)
August 12, 2016
Andrew Lycett has written a chronological retelling of the life of The Father of the Sensation Novel, Wilkie Collins including his friendships with various painters and authors of the nineteenth-century including Charles Dickens. I learned so much about various aspects of his personal life attempting to gain an understanding of his life choices when it came to not marrying and keeping two mistresses instead!
I loved how Wilkie Collins used his life experiences, travels, friendships, when gaining inspiration and writing his 'sensation' novels, 'The Woman in White' and 'The Moonstone.' All his novels and plays came from his life and what a life he led. Not a well man but certainly one of the most important authors who used elements of The Gothic to create a 'sensation!' Thank you Mr. Collins and Mr. Lycett for such an enlightening biography.
I loved how Wilkie Collins used his life experiences, travels, friendships, when gaining inspiration and writing his 'sensation' novels, 'The Woman in White' and 'The Moonstone.' All his novels and plays came from his life and what a life he led. Not a well man but certainly one of the most important authors who used elements of The Gothic to create a 'sensation!' Thank you Mr. Collins and Mr. Lycett for such an enlightening biography.
June 23, 2014
This was a good companion biography to read alongside Claire Tomalin's excellent biography of Dickens. Collins was clearly a man of many contradictions (as was his good friend Dickens) intent on being subversive of social conventions, recognised the inequitable role of women in society yet he went to great lengths to shield his unorthodox private life from his public one, keeping two mistresses and two households, denying his partners their full role in the eyes of society. Much like Dickens, he had his cake and ate it, pretty much when he wanted it. This gap between reality and appearance in Victorian men seems rife. But Collins had much to admire, his prescient comments on the role of women, class and Victorian life, his delightful, warm and eccentric personality and most of all those wonderful books.
November 8, 2013
Having read a number of Wilkie Collins books I knew next to nothing about him as a person. It was interesting to go through his career and personal circumstances in context and to discover that he was just as interesting as the characters in his stories.
Having had a kindle for three years now I found it really cumbersome reading the hard cover version of the book. I suspect that I'd have got through it a lot quicker and more enjoyably if it had been an e-book!
Having had a kindle for three years now I found it really cumbersome reading the hard cover version of the book. I suspect that I'd have got through it a lot quicker and more enjoyably if it had been an e-book!
August 18, 2015
Fiddle-di-di-di-dee: two ladies!
A beautifully written life. Particularly illuminating on Wilkie's relationship with Dickens and his management of two mistresses. Superb summaries of the books and incisive readings of the stories. As reviewer Stuart Kelly notes, it does what any good biography ought to: "sends us back to the work." Bravo. I'm off to buy No Name, Armadale and Heart and Science.
A beautifully written life. Particularly illuminating on Wilkie's relationship with Dickens and his management of two mistresses. Superb summaries of the books and incisive readings of the stories. As reviewer Stuart Kelly notes, it does what any good biography ought to: "sends us back to the work." Bravo. I'm off to buy No Name, Armadale and Heart and Science.
September 7, 2016
Pretty good. I'd give it 3&1/2 stars. Not as engaging as Claire Tomalin by any means. Basically Wilkie had several STDs, two separate households, gout, an appetite for plain unhealthy food and dry champagne, and a tricky little laudanum addiction. He could drink a wine glass full and not drop dead.
February 22, 2015
A life of the doyen of Sensation novelists. Lots of interesting anecdotes and excellent illustrations.
May 13, 2015
Solid biography... Made me want to read more Wilkie!!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews